Choose flowers in season to match your greeting card to the birthday month.

Flowers can really be used in all occasions: Mother's day, get well, thank you. When you create your own, the easiest way is to use tissue paper which is layered and overlapped to look like petals.

Years back, I got interested in the language of flowers. In the centuries past there was a whole dictionary of meanings which could be construed by people. With time passing meanings have changed and like in all areas of life, flowers have their moment and glory in turn and according to fashion. It might be that if you want to use the language of flowers again, you will have to translate in plain English at the back of the card the symbolism of you chosen bloom.

I have included in this article some of the commonest flowers. It is noticeable that as everyone uses red roses when it comes to the matters of the heart, red tulips are a perfectly acceptable alternative and red Chrysanthemum plainly scream: “I love you”.

Amaryllis – splendid beauty, pride

Arum lily – magnificent beauty

Bluebell  – constancy, forgive and forget

Campanula – white, gratitude

Carnation – red - "alas for my poor heart"; striped - refusal; yellow - disdain; pink - woman's love

Chrysanthemum – red - "I love you"; yellow - slighted love; white - truth

Daffodil – regard, chivalry

Dahlia – good taste

Forget-me-not – true love, "the key to my heart"

Freesia – friendship

Garden Pink – pure love

Gladiolus – strength of character

Hyacinth – blue - constancy; white - unobtrusive loveliness

Iris – yellow - flame of love

Lilac– purple - first emotions of love; white - youthful innocence

Lily – pure and modest

Lily of the valley – return of happiness

Mimosa – sensitivity, secret love

Narcissus – self esteem, female ambition

Orange blossom – bridal festivities, virginity, "your purity equals your loveliness"

Orchid – longevity, elegance

Peony – bashfulness

Ranunculus –"you are rich in attractions"

red roses still imply passionate, romantic love and pink roses a lesser affection; white roses suggest virtue and chastity and yellow roses still stand for friendship or devotion

Snowdrop – hope

Sunflower dwarf – adulation

Sweet pea – departure, delicate pleasures

Tulip – red - declaration of love;- beautiful eyes

Violet – faithfulness, modesty

list from the flowers association

Everyone loves getting a special card on their birthday and we all want to show our cherished ones that we think of them on their annual special day.  So here  is an article crammed with different ideas to see you through all year along.

When you make or chose a card on the internet, first of all you need to bare the person in mind, their personality, their hobbies, but with birthdays there are external factors which are important e.g. The season, the date.

 Autumn is a season of really beautiful colours, make a show of them, look to match the colour of the greeting card and that of the wrapping paper, use a lot of colour ribbons for your card and your gift, it gives your present a warmth like nothing else, ribbons glued on edges of card will also make your card look neat.

Winter is a time for frosty colour schemes, what ever you chose as a design make sure to stay clear of Christmas images. See through or crystal effect works very well, attach acetate embellishments or try to print your design on transparent film, get the correct film for the printer or the ink will not stick leaving you with a series of blobs.

Spring birthdays are ten to the dozen, so it might make life easy to get a collection of cards with pastel colours in order to personalize them later.

Summer time combines fun and bright colours. Summer birthdays often mean outdoor parties, cards can reflect that too, if this is the case it is a good idea to co-ordinate the gift tag and paper, use bright ribbons for tag that are guaranteed to stand out.

If you run out of inspiration, using the horoscope for adults and the age for children never fails, that does not mean that you have to avoid the age with adults. To mark the passing of years, the milestones are important: 21, 30, 40, 50 when it is almost compulsory to have a design related to the numbers, then it depends on you and the personality of the recipient if you use humour or not.

The date of birth can be used too, choosing an news paper article of the year in question is a classic but why not picking a star born the same year and include them with your greetings

Pop up cards are simple to make and they always make an impression.

Downloads offer a great choice. By using the computer, you can choose your alphabet for the lettering, it will give a clean look to the card.