Crafty Cardmakers 18 - a challenging challenge!

Well this really was a challenge for me! The idea this fortnight at Crafty Cardmakers is to do something that you would normally avoid - so maybe a past challenge that you didn't fancy trying for some reason, a technique that you wouldn't normally do, equipment that's been gathering dust, basically anything that you'd normally run a mile from lol!

I've chosen to challenge myself in a couple of different ways for this one. Firstly I would normally avoid black & white themes - I just don't think I'm very good at them and I really love to work with colour. The major challenge for me though was using my sewing machine - bought about 6 months ago, and it's been sat in the corner of my craft room gathering dust ever since! Honestly I don't know why, but the bloomin' thing terrifies me! I've never used one before (ever!) so I'm not sure why I thought I'd just be able to buy one and suddenly be an expert... Anyway this is it's very first use on a card so PLEASE excuse the wonky stitching, I'm sure it'll get a bit better with some practise!

The tree image is from a Kanban stamp set, stamped and then heat embossed. I've been looking at this set in my local craft shop for ages - it's not my usual style (not being cute!) and I wasn't sure if I'd get enough use out of them, but I really do love this tree, so in the end I bought them! I've added some black flat backed pearls to the tree here and there. The papers are Papermania, with Coredinations cardstock. The flower was cut with a Woodware daisy punch, with a button from my stash. Lace is from my stash and sentiment from Craftwork Cards. Both the flower and the sentiment were positioned to cover particularly wonky bits of stitching!

I'm also entering my card for the following challenges:

• Cupcake Craft - make your own flowers
• Lots To Do - black & white
• The Pink Elephant - nature
• Secret Crafter - how does your garden grow? (not at all if I'm honest, although we do have some trees!)

While I'm posting - does anyone have any camera recommendations? We have a little bit of spare cash this month that (if I get my way) will hopefully be spent on a new camera. We can't spend too much though. So what do you have and would you recommend it? I'm soooo tired of slightly blurry pics - my current camera doesn't even have a macro setting.