Pressed Wildflower Bookmark Tutorial

I have had lot's of questions about this technique I use for my bookmarks, and also asked if I have a tutorial, well now I do.
I decided to put it all in one post for you and keep a link under "tutorials" on my side bar.

First let me say, this is a tutorial on " how I make my bookmarks", I do not claim in any way at all the wax paper and tissue technique as my own. As I have said in a previous post I found this technique in an article by Susan Hannen in the Spring 2008 issue of Somerset Life magazine. It really is a beautiful issue, I look at it over and over and never get tired of it.

Susan had found this technique in a 1950's Boy Scout handbook and then went on to fiddle with the recipe until she got it right. I have done the same thing, you may need to fiddle, or experiment with amounts of glue and water used to achieve the look you prefer.

Here are the products I use, 3 ply tissue, Aleene's tacky glue, and Reynolds wax paper which I purchase at the $1 , I hope you can find it at your dollar store too, I use wax paper all the time for working on when I am making a mess, and as a paint pallet, it's great stuff :)

The glue I have used just happened to be the brand I had at home when I first tried this, I am sure you can use any regular glue, but you will have to play with it and see how your brand works for you.

In the second stage of the bookmark I use these products, or gloss gel medium, depends what I feel like. Bits of fiber, and the ink for edging.

So let's get started. Combine a mixture of approx' 60% glue to 40% water. To be honest I just guess. You don't want it too watery and you don't want it too gluey either.
Mix it really well with an old brush. This is the one I use below just some old thing but the bristles are still soft.

For my bookmarks I use a piece of wax paper from the roll wide enough to make several at a time. Then position my pressed/dried flowers the way I want them.
You can add some fiber at this point too so it is under the glue mixture, or add it later with gel medium. I do it both ways.
I use the shinier or top side of the wax paper to lay my arrangement.
(Val has asked if freezer paper would work, but to be honest I have no idea. I have a feeling there would not be the waxiness in it, but let me know if you try it please :)

Grab a tissue from the box and separate it into 3 ply's, you are only going to use 1 ply. This part I find important because I tried using a 2 ply and I really didn't like the look, it wasn't as transparent.

Make sure you are not in a breezy room to do this, or have a fan blowing :)

Take your tissue and gently place over your arrangement. I hold a section of it lightly with a finger tip as I apply the solution to the tissue.
Dab it gently and not too much, don't over do it or the tissue with split open on you. I first do the section where the flowers are and they don't seem to move once that is done.
Then I work around the arrangement as shown below. I need enough to use as a bookmark so I cover a good area and then I will trim it later. I usually do a row of these so I can use up all the glue/water mixture.

Now you have to be patient and let it dry all day or overnight. Then it will look like this ....

Next step: If you are making a bookmark, cut out two pieces of white "watercolor paper" in the size you would like your bookmark. I am using 140lb cold press which is a heavy weight paper, and sturdy enough for bookmarks.

Using a metallic gold thread I now take it to the sewing machine and with one piece of the white watercolor paper I stitch the wax flower paper to it, around the edges.

Tidy up your threads and bring it back to your glue table :)

Turn over the piece you have stitched on and place some ribbon as shown below. Glue this to the paper and then glue your second piece of watercolor paper over top of this.

(Another option is to punch a hole in the bookmark when it is finished, then add ribbon. I do it both ways.)

Now I edge the back with the green ink and sign it if I remember. When that has dried which isn't long, turn it over the front again.

Now you can edge the front with the green ink too.
Don't forget these are just my steps, you can do whatever your little heart desires, use any ink, any thread etc etc, just do your thing :)

If you didn't add any fibers under the tissue, you can still do it now. Take a very teeny tiny amount and lay it where you like the look of it. I stick my little finger in the gel medium and rub it right on top of the bookmark. Make sure to let it dry well.
This is usually when I add "words" if I am going to, do it at the same time.




Now you have a pretty bookmark, which would make a lovely gift with a book or for a garden/nature lover, for anyone really, wouldn't you love one?

Here are two that I finished and put in plastic sleeves. I try to make them skinny enough to do this so it protects the bookmark, that way you can actually use it and not worry about it getting dirty, but sometimes the flowers I use are too wide for these plastic sleeves :)

I use a microwave flower press to dry my flowers and this is my wildflower series, but you can use whatever dries nicely for you, or has been in a flower press long enough to be dry.

Here are the links to my other posts featuring dried flower art....

Flower Art Continues
Flower Art and gifts from friends
Cut dried pressed and preserved
What are wildflowers anyway?
Microwave Flower Press

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial, and will show me what you have done with it :)
Lynn x

Flower art and gifts from friends

I have been playing with my dried, pressed flowers again and I thought they would make for a lovely bookmark. I had fun with this one, stitching over the edges and adding bits of fiber. The close up gives you a better idea.

I then stitched one to a tea dyed piece of muslin and glued it to a mini notebook, this one has a more vintage feel to it.
I am off to glue some more today for new projects, I am still getting used to working in a different room and that room is so hot in the mornings I have to wait until later when the sun moves. Yes, we have the air conditioning on but it is still hot in there, I don't remember a summer this hot in a very long time.

I wanted to share with you some beautiful gifts bestowed upon me this past week for my birthday.
From my gorgeous girlfriend Linda (Blue Eyed Girl), I received the most spectacular ATC. You must click on photo to see the delicious detail, a specialty of the very talented Linda. She also sent me a beautiful mixed media tag and one of her tiny Lotus Books. Thank you Linda, I can't stop looking at your wonderful creations.

I also received this precious little fabric art from my sweet, and very talented friend Terri (Pringle Hill Studio). She is known for her bright colors, and very detailed collage art, and is now branching out and trying fiber art, so I feel blessed to have this, it is so me :)
Just look how sweet this heart is, so much detail again in such a small piece. It is now hanging in my studio where I can see it all the time, thank you so much Terri :)

My friend Terry (Terry's Treasures) has been sewing up some lovely tote bags lately, she is into quilting and stitching , and has made some amazing quilts. This sweet bag already holds some of my knitting. (Yes, I knit once in a while, but with the hot flashes and the humidity here, not much lately , I am sure some of you know how it is :)

Love this fabric and how it is white inside, thank you so much Terry :)


Don't forget to enter my giveaway in the post below :)
Off to go upstairs now and play.........
Lynn

Cut, Dried, Pressed and Preserved

I was just heading upstairs to start packing up my studio, and remembered I had not posted this. I recently discovered a beautiful way to use my dried, pressed flowers. Take a lookie...
This is an altered mini notebook.

And this is a gift tag I created over some dictionary paper and card.
To see the details you really must click on the photos and view the close ups, they look so much better.

I was flipping through some older Somerset magazines and came across this method of preserving dried flowers. The lady in the article had found the instructions in an old boy scout book. Darned if I can find this magazine, maybe I packed it up already, but I am so excited to share with you the process. It sounded so easy, so I thought ok....... try it, if you ruin a few flowers you can dry more this year.

Look at this pretty close up. It is almost transparent so they look so different depending on the background you place them on, this was taken on my patio table which is a dark brownish color.

If you want to give it a try, this is what you will need:
Wax paper, tissues (kleenex), and a mixture of glue and water.
The article said 60% glue to 40% water.

Lay out your waxed paper and make a design or collage with your flowers. Take a tissue and use only one ply , then lay gently on top of your design. Very carefully apply the glue and water over the tissue.
Now you have to leave it for about 12 hours or overnight, then using a cloth over it, take your iron and press firmly.
Ta da... now you can use this to create something beautiful :)

I want to try sewing over the tag using fabric behind it, but my sewing machine is broken. I think it would make a really nice effect.

I used a microwave flower press which I found last year to dry these flowers and they have been squished up in my dry flower press all winter. If you would like to dry flowers quickly check out my post on the Flower Press here.
I have found that the mum's I dried turned out really well, and the leaves above are from my Virginia Creeper last fall. I know when I get moved I will be doing more of this :)

Happy weekend,
Now I suppose I should go pack some supplies .

Microwave Flower Press Part Two

Look what I found when I went outside this morning. It bloomed last week after the others had already dried up and I thought for sure it would have started drying too by now, but it is still very fresh.
So I plucked the poor thing to test my Micro Flower Press because Kelly was wondering how hydrangeas or roses would dry.
I have the small size Micro press and I thought of putting the whole thing it but it didn't want to squash down, so I plucked a piece off of this pretty fleur.

Below is the before and after.......

The pink seems to dry a pretty purple color and it's not bad, but I may take some smaller cuttings and try it again. It was a bit tricky to get the petals to lay flat. You will have to look at the close up to get a better idea of what I mean.

Now I will show you how my pink hydrangeas dried out this year......
This was a black pot I found at a thrift store, it's an iron pot and I spray painted it heirloom white. See how beautiful they dry, and I just let them dry right in the pot.

You can see some dried roses beside the pot too, I just took them out of an old dusty arrangement I had made 2 years ago and they are still going strong. I havn't decided what to do with them yet, maybe tie a nice ribbon around them and leave them laying on the table? Any ideas?
Something just came to me :) I have a huge bush of Limelight Hydrangea. They bloom a gorgeous yellow, then turn to a green and yellow hue, then some of the petals turn pale pink.

I am off outside to cut one, be right back..........

10 mins later, cut and dried, here is the before photo of this beautiful flower. Thank goodness for digital cameras, what did we do without them?

Here they are dried along with a few dogwood leaves :) Now these, I do like, so guess what I will be doing all day? When dried they don't seem to change color a lot, they still have a pinkish hue to them, just so pretty if you could see them in person. They are almost transparent.
Click on the photo for a close up

Ok ladies, that concludes my experiment for this morning, and I just wanted to say if you missed my post yesterday and havn't a clue what I am talking about, go check it out.
Have a great day, and do something fun :)

Microwave Flower Press

My new toy, a tool for drying flowers in your microwave. I have been meaning to post about it for a while, just never got around to it. It is made of earthenware if that is the correct name for it , a nice heavy clay and very nice looking too.

I only wish I had found this sooner this year because there are not many flowers left for me to dry. I did try some mum's from my garden, they were a dark pink and just look how they turn purple. You can click on the picture for a better look if you want.
I keep meaning to go out and pick some wildflowers that grow along the highway but you know how it is, I forget or when I am on the highway I am usually on my way somewhere, like the dentist today.
This is how it looks inside. There are 2 thick layers of wool and two layers of cotton. You put your flowers or leaves in there, then layer the cotton, the wool and then the other piece of earthenware. Pop it in the microwave for 60 seconds, check on it and if not ready put it back in for more. I have found that most things have taken 2 minutes to dry.

After they are cool I put them in one of my flower presses until I am ready to use them. Which could be next year the way I am, there are so many things I want to play with in my art, just too many really, but at least they are there when I do need them :)

Look how pretty these leaves dried and they are quite close to the original color.
They had fallen off my Virginia Creeper which is now turning red. The leaves first turn a lovely pinkish color then they turn red, then burnt orange. These are going to be so pretty on something :)
This little gadget my husband picked up for me at Lee Valley , not sure if that is just a Canadian company or not. There is another one called Micro Fleur Microwave Flower Press, which is made of plastic and that was the first one I was looking for but couldn't find it without ordering from the U.S. Then a friend told me about this one, and I am very happy with it.

The nice thing is that if you need a leaf right away you can go pick one up outside and dry it in 2 mins, then use it on your art work.
Hey Patty, (she's been wax crazy lately) I was thinking how they would look with some wax, either glue them on art with wax or layer over them. What do you think?