An Open Heart
Saturday Morning I was having my coffee and reading blog post. It’s a favorite past time for a Saturday. I love seeing what everyone is creating. Understanding Blue had a great post about a Mixed Media Challenge that she was participating in over at Splitcost Stampers. Make sure you check out the blog post and fabulous card making. The challenge was to create a card or project using flowers by pressing them through the Big Shot. After doing this you should use at least one other medium to complete your project. Well, I just loved what Lydia created!!!! My next thought was I want to try this. It reminded me of pressing flowers as a child with my Mother (Yes, she is a retired Science Teacher…Biology actually….So pressing flowers was something we would do) Or when I moved into my current home. I borrowed her flower press to press all the beautiful wild flowers in our yard.
So Saturday afternoon I got out and searched for flowers. We have been so dry that most of the wildflowers in the yard were dried up. The only flowers I had blooming was a white flower and that was not going to work with white paper. The next stop was my parent yard. I did find a few flowers blooming and pressed them. I also, pressed a purple and green leaf off a plant she had in her back yard. It was perfect for this experiment in Mixed Media. The next place I headed was to Amy’s at Sugar Magnolia’s. Amy is the owner and operator of a great flower shop in Decatur (Sugar Magnolia’s) Actually, she has much more that a Flower Shop. I asked her if I could press some of her flower for a blog challenge. No I think at first she thought I was the crazy lady….. I mean come on who goes to a flower shop and ask to kill their flowers. Maybe , I should have thought this through…..Then, I pulled out my Big Shot and was ready to go to work…… But, in the end I was glad I had asked because she always had such wonderful array of plants. Amy and I had fun picking out what to try and press. She was so very helpful!!! Thanks Amy :>
When I got home from pressing my flowers I looked though what I had. I picked two of my favorite pressed images and went to work making cards. The first card is from one of the flowers pressed at Sugar Magnolia’s. I love how the purple blooms show so well! The second one just happens to be from my parents yard. Is it not lovely how that worked out. I am saving my other images to use at another time.
This card is full of soft color. I used Daffodil Delight , Pear Pizzazz, and Perfect Plum. The stamp is from Peaceful Wreath and is stamped in Perfect Plum. 
For my second card I wanted to challenge myself to use more stamps and another medium. So, this is what I came up with. I used the pressed flowers as my background. Then stamped the images from An Open Heart with StazOn Ink. (I used Stone Gray for a softer look, jet black would work just fine) Then I water-colored my stamped images using a aqua painter with Tip Top Taupe, Perfect Plum, Pear Pizzazz, and Seriah Sand inks. I kept the water-coloring light and airy to coordinate with the softness of the pressed flower. I’m not sure that this is tequniqually a third medium but, to me it was. The background papers are Perfect Plum and Pear Pizzazz
Here are the details of how to press flowers with a Big Shot:
- pick fresh flowers that are juicy and have lots of color.
- make a sandwich for your Big Shot that is layered as so multipurpose platform, cutting pad, paper of choice, flowers, paper of choice, and cutting pad.
- pull the paper apart from each other after pressing. Allow, this to dry before removing any flower parts that remain
Just a note. I used watercolor paper for this. Whisper White paper will work as well. I found that watercolor paper absorbed the “ink” of the plants that I picked much better. Dry plants such as ferns do not work as well.
Hop on over to Spitcost Stampers and check out all the Mixed Media cards using this wonderful technique. And be sure to stop by my new favorite blog Understand Blue and give her some love!!!!!
Here is today’s Supply List:
Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog
Happy Tuesday!!! See you here tomorrow for the InKing Royalty Blog Hop. It’s sure to be a great time.
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