Page 5 of 5
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, August, 2013
Posted: Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:58 am
by Ivy
The bookmarks are beautiful and if you can find a roll of clear Contact Paper, you could "laminate" that way, too. I've done that, years ago.
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, August, 2013
Posted: Sun Aug 25, 2013 1:14 pm
by Harriet
Ivy, isn't clear contact paper a creative thing! What we are using clear contact paper for right now is to cover the design portion of composition notebooks. Dd wants to have a little personalization to those, such as a collage of copied images of her favorite animated characters, maybe her own small sketches, etc. She had to do this in a previous year as an assignment, with a collage of copied images of classic book covers. It worked well. She just found lists of the classics on the internet and printed the page and then had a bunch of rectangle images to cut out and arrange.
But I was looking at the contact paper and thinking it is a little milky and not very clear, for showing off delicate things. I think laminating plastic would be better for petals.
I put another link in that previous post, of a good general overview of flower pressing.
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, August, 2013
Posted: Sun Aug 25, 2013 10:04 pm
by Ivy
Harriet, You are so right about the Contact Paper maybe obscuring the beauty and delicacy of the pressed flower bookmarks! 
I used it for Christmas card fronts, to make place mats, years ago.
Thanks for the super idea about using Contact paper for Composition notebook covers, too. That's an awesome idea. 
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, August, 2013
Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 8:43 pm
by Harriet
Well, pooh! Now the teachers are saying they all want 3-ring binders, no composition notebooks. I told dd one thing she could still enjoy doing was to make a collage to slip into the front of a "clear cover" 3-ring. Seems like a less formal "canvas", of course, lol.
I pressed some periwinkle and some crepe myrtle petals Sunday afternoon. Made sure to use a blossom from one of the outlying crepe myrtles at the school just in case dd did care enough about some teacher to make her/him a bookmark this way. If these do no better than the kalanchoe petals, we won't bother with them anyway, but it they do as well as the violets, we might have something to work with. Her sketched bookmarks last Christmas were a good teacher-gift idea.
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, August, 2013
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 9:42 am
by BookSaver
Harriet ~ Love love love those flower bookmarks.
Ivy ~ The colors you're using for your crochet all sound very pretty.
Nancy ~ Have you been able to play with a fun project? You are so busy with dgks and chickens, do you still have time for art dates?
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, August, 2013
Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:02 pm
by Ivy
Booksaver, Thank you for complimenting me about my choice of colors for dgd's afghan.
The 2.5 year old grson will have royal blue, pastel baby blue, and dusty grey blue. I found a new Red Heart Super Saver variegated yarn with blue and bright colors in it for contrast. I may need to buy more because when I got home, I believe (from memory) each skein was only 5-ozs.
The 4.5 year old grson will have a very bright red, black and white. I can just "hear" someone saying, "Hey! What's black, white and red all over?" And he'll say his afghan and somebody else will say, "No! It's a newspaper!" OR "No! It's an Avon lady at the North Pole!"
I guess those childhood jokes stuck with me and now their color references are going into an afghan. Fancy that!
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, August, 2013
Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 4:33 pm
by Harriet
I noticed a seasonal surprise 
of lilies blooming by the side of the road and, on a whim, stopped and plucked one to see how its petals will press. In the same pressing, I tried a blue orchid blossom from one of the memorial gifts. I had already saturated the roots early this morning, so I knew the plant was at a good point for pretty petals. I pressed all of this as separated petals because both blossoms are thick. I hold out less hope for this lily than I will for some more traditional old types next summer, since even though it was small I think this is a tetraploid (hybrid - thick petaled). That's probably why there were any at all at the end of August.
It's funny, August was a slightly unfortunate time for me to start thinking of pressing flowers as a craft!!! 
I keep thinking of the much greater variety of spring or early summer blossoms it would be fun to try! I found myself craning my neck at a wild rose, today too... .. hmmm.... I may tell DangerBoy and WonderBoy that we are searching for 4-leaf clovers when they visit. My mother used to press those, and just enjoy finding them later in a book. I don't think she ever did anything with them. I don't think laminating was even available to the ordinary consumer at that time. All kinds of pansies and johnny-jump-ups will be a natural choice for thin, colorful blossoms in Sept/Oct.
Lifted a page and peeked 
at the crepe myrtle and my periwinkle I pressed last week, and I believe they are going to look lovely. The crepe myrtle, which was that extraordinary vivid fuschia you often see, has held every bit of color, so a little of it will go a long way in a vignette of petals. On the other hand, the periwinkle, which was already a faint pink, has become fainter, if anything, so its color will be very delicate. Those two may not work too well in the same vignette.
I have one more blue orchid blossom left and am just letting it mature. If I learn anything from this pressing, I'll have one more chance to do my best job. The white orchids are just too huge and colorless to inspire me much, although they are beautiful on the plant. I have lots of periwinkle blooms on my plants right now so I might do some more, although why press a lot of anything, since this craft is for small size creations. The African violet is coming on beautifully with 3 stems of blossoms, so I'm sure a few of those will be snipped ahead of their time.
Your bookmarks sound lovely, too.