Mothers' Day Flowers and my 'Magic Board'

This Sunday is Mothers' Day here in the UK and although my Mum and I are doing something nice next weekend (Ideal Home Show- hurrah!) I won't be seeing her this Sunday. In a moment of domestic bliss, we made our Mums (or Mom in his case) a card each. Here is my effort:

The card in itself is not that exciting (cut out flowers with a blob of glitter glue on a used yellow wrapping paper background), although it is quite pretty. What is exciting, however, is what is behind it- my new 'magic board'. I first decided I needed a magic board after seeing this post. I'm not sure I'd go as far as saying that the board changed my world, but I am certainly feel that it is a step in the right direction towards better photos.

Here it is in the making:

Cut to size and ready for primer

Two coats of Crown Eveningwear and still patchy

The finished product, being modelled by some beautiful flowers I was given by the lovely Dave

Now maybe you're thinking that a 'magic board' is just a fancy name for a piece of painted MDF (which may be true), but it's a million times better than the rather rubbish paint in The Lodge as a background- see how scratched and marked it is behind Mr and Mrs Santa:

My magic board advice would be:

1. Use matt paint (this was very well-received advice from badskirt's blog)
2. Use undercoat- although I should have used grey, not white, given how bright the colour is
3. Use emulsion as it washes off, unless you want to get in a big ol' mess
4. Buy rollers from (yep, you guessed it) Pound Land- I don't find ones from DIY stores any better unless you spend a lot- not worth it for a magic board!
5. Pick a sunny day, so your board dries quickly and can be left outside

Flowers

This evening I finally got round to making something from Eithne Farry's beautiful book- Lovely Things to Make for Girls of Slender Means. I picked a simple project- fabric flowers, which are based on a template drawn around a mug:

With hindsight, I should have used a plain fabric, as this one is only coloured on one side, which doesn't make for such a pretty flowery effect. I haven't yet built up my fabric supplies though, which is why everything is made from this one rather bright pattern from Ikea. I would quite like to attach brooch backs to these for cute Christmas presents... watch this space.

On a separate note, whilst buying flowers may not usually be thrifty, I think that these reduced-to-45p sunflowers from the supermarket have rather brightened up our living room and so far have lasted nearly a week. When combined with the lovely sunshine we had today, it almost feels like summer again!