Present Not Perfect (Take 2)

We are half way through the current challenge at Path of Positivity so time for another sample.

A couple of years ago my husband decided to enter the village horticultural show with some vegetables from the garden. Unfortunately he was not very successful but it got me thinking at the time and the challenge theme has brought it to mind again.

Most serious gardeners that enter horticultural shows take ages preparing their entries, be it vegetables or flowers. From seed to full grown specimen they lavish care and attention on their 'babies'. They grow many more than they need to enter and then select the finest of the bunch. Out of a bed of beautiful looking dahlias they may only find a few that meet the strict criteria of the competition. The blooms with perfectly shaped petals, no browning, correct uniform colouring, straight stems and so on. It is even harder to select if you are a vegetable grower, no bends, kinks or curls in the wrong place, everything uniform in size and shape.

As I consider the artificial feel to these 'perfect' specimens I am thankful that nature does not operate  under the same strict conditions. Our world would be all the poorer if everything were uniform and perfect. Let's be honest, how many of us take a walk in the countryside or visit the gardens of a stately home just to look at the 'perfect' flower ignoring the many that are less then perfect. I personally love the abundance of nature and if there are bends, kinks and brown edges to the flowers or the veg is a bit knobbly I don't mind one bit. It's the differences that make each of us unique and who gets to decide what 'perfect' is anyway.

So here is a basket of flowers for you to enjoy, if you look closely enough you will see that they are all slightly different but from a distance they all look the same. (I'm sure that comes from a song lyric!)



Materials used:Imagine That Digistamps - Freda's Flower Basket
A4 pink card
X-Press It card
decorative die set
Copic pens
printer card

The image and sentiment are printed on X-Press It card and the image coloured with Copics. Both are trimmed to required size.

The green paper from the set is printed on white printer card and cut with a die to make mats for the image and the greeting. Working out the positioning of the die to make the greeting mat took a bit of thinking!

The twisted easel card base is made from the pink card and the matted image and greeting attached in the relevant places.



The challenges at Path of Positivity are always 'Anything Goes' with the theme being optional so even if you are not inspired by the theme you can still have a go. The allocation of prizes is different for the AG entries and the theme entries. All the information is on the blog.

If you do follow the optional theme, be sure to add FT after your name so that we include you in the draw for the prize for Most Inspirational. We also ask that you please leave a comment letting us know how your creation relates to the concept of being present not perfect if it isn't readily clear within the design itself or clearly written somewhere else in your post.  You can simply write a sentence at the bottom of your post next to the link up for this challenge, if it would be easier. We just need to know how your project ties into the theme. Letting us know, clears up any ambiguity that may exist.

Remember, in order to be considered eligible for this month's prizes, ALL creations must be positive, inspirational, motivational or encouraging in some nature. You don't need to follow the optional theme if you simply want to have a chance at the Random Draw prize of a $7 gift certificate from Pickled Potpourri, one of our guest sponsors this month. You only need to follow the theme if you want a chance to win this month's sponsored prize of a $10 gift certificate to the Imagine That Digistamp store, provided by the second of our guest sponsors this month.

Thank you for dropping by. Hope to see you at Path of Positivity this month. Take care.



I would like to enter the following challenges:Craft for the Craic May - Anything Goes
Crafting With Friends #43 - Anything Goes (Just for fun)
Creative Fingers #130 - Anything Goes
Simply Create Too #127 - Must Use A Digi Stamp
Imagine That Creative Playground May - Anything (Crafty) Goes