These are my first collage cards.

The 2 above are for a swap and they are already on their way, one is staying in the UK and the other one is crossing the Atlantic to go to the U.S.A. The 3rd one is for a friend who hasn't been well lately and it's a sort of Get Well/Cheer Up pack. I've included a small envelope with a tea bag inside. Hope she likes it.

The background texts and the images come from 2 gardening books I bought at my local charity shop. They were already written on and some pages were torn so I don't feel so guilty at cutting the pages up.  Both books have beautiful drawings of flowers, trees, birds, butterflies, etc. which are just perfect for this kind of project.

If collage is something you'd like to try there are some nice free images on the Internet or you can have a look at the used books for sale at your local library, charity shop, car boot sale, etc.

Here are a few links for you to explore:

Vintage items for collage (on Flickr)
Victorian graphics
Vintage images
Vintage resources