Project 7: Botanical Printing: Botanical Rubbing

Well unfortunately most of the pictures I took for this entry were mysteriously missing from my camera when I went to upload them onto the computer so I apologize but this picture is all I have for the Botanical Rubbing craft. At Ms. Stewart's suggestion I made wrapping paper by doing leaf rubbings on tissue paper. It reminded me of my childhood as I did these rubbings with my mother and in art class. The wrapping paper turned out well but since it was tissue paper it was see through so when I went to wrap this gift I threw a darker blue tissue paper underneath. Its unfortunate that you will not be able to clearly see what the wrapping paper looks like because the other pictures are missing. (Although mom, and sister will be able to see it up close and in person as it is on its way to the birthday boy!)

I enjoyed the botanicals but I am very ready to move on (appropriate as we move into fall).

PROJECT 6: Botanical Printing

At first I could not decide what I wanted to create using the botanical printing method. I thought maybe I could make a set of sheets but then I remembered that we have a king size bed and sheets are expensive and I did not want to risk making an ugly set of expensive sheets. The bed in the guest room is a full but already has enough sheets sets as it is. While flipping through the suggested pieces Ms. Stewart has in her book I came across the canvas bag. Perfect! I have reusable grocery bags but they have lately started to smell like mold and I have been meaning to replace them. (I haven't because I could not reconcile getting rid of reusable bags if the entire point was to save waste). The canvas bags I purchased are not as big as the grocery bags I am currently using so I am not sure if they will do the trick for grocery shopping but I think they will make fantastic farmer's market bags, or just "running to target to pick up a few things" kind of bags.

To decide what botanicals I wanted to use I simply went into my front yard and snipped the most interesting branches from my plants. The red, yellow and orange bag is made from a branch from my rose bush. The green bag is made from a branch of my peonies and the purple bag is a branch snipped from my sage bush. I then took the branches in and pressed them for a day in a phone book. The next day they were perfectly flat and ready to use. Ms. Stewart's method of painting the branch then rubbing the brayer over it to transfer the image worked perfectly I must say. The activity was fun and simple and something one could do with a child and in an afternoon. I am looking forward to using my bags and have to say I am very pleased with the way they turned out.

The only complaint I have about this project is the cost. Fabric paint is expensive ($5 a bottle) and unless you plan on using it again, it is hard to spend that kind of money to get the different colors you want. I only used a tiny portion of the bottles and now have what seems like a life time supply of fabric paint that I will probably not use up.

PROJECT 6: Botanical Printing