My Pressed Flower Journey

My journey into flower pressing began in the early 1980s, and continues today, more than 35 years later. I'm still as  passionate as ever about this wonderful art form and relaxing pastime. Once I tried it, I was immediately hooked. The colors, forms and textures were amazing. Flowers going into a press might not come out the same color they went in, and it’s always a little magical to see the transformation.

My passion began accidentally when I ran out of room for dried flowers. The sheer volume of dried flowers took up much more storage space than pressed flowers. My house and shed were filled with gorgeous dried flowers, and I had no more room to add to my beautiful collection. Each time I saw new blooms that I wanted to keep I felt sad that they would just wither and die, never to be seen again. Then I discovered flower pressing and never looked back.

My husband crafted several large flower presses for me out of plywood, nuts and bolts. They were very functional and did the job. I was off on my new endeavor. I bought some large sheets of blotting paper and cut them to size to fit the presses. I was able to stack 5 or 6 layers in each press separated by sheets of newspaper to wick out moisture and speed the process. That would amount to being able to dry up to a couple of hundred flowers at a time per press. I’m still using those same presses today and can’t begin to imagine how many flowers I’ve processed with them. I've given a couple of them to friends, and most recently had my husband create three more for me. Included is a small 'mobile' press that I keep in our vehicle just in case I run across something beautiful that I can't resist putting in a press.

New 2019 homemade flower press 

One of my rough but still functional presses from the 1980s

Next I had to figure out how to store my new palette of colorful flowers. I purchased some inexpensive plastic stacking desktop drawers. The kind that holds an 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of paper. I filled them in no time at all. Storing 25-50 flowers per sheet I carefully filled the drawers with stacks of paper and flowers. I also managed to acquire a floor model jewelry case that works great and holds tons of flowers.

Storage drawers

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A friend had recently purchased a heat laminator and invited me to take a look to see what it could do. We were experimenting with it and decided to put a few leaves into one of the pouches to see what would happen. What came out of the laminator was fascinating and started me thinking about the possibilities. I started making bookmarks and cards with my treasures.

Over the years I've pressed tens of thousands of flowers and made thousands of bookmarks, cards and wall hangings. I'm still passionate about pressed flowers and you can find me pressing flowers and beautiful Maine fall foliage from first bloom in the spring to last leaf drop in the fall. The colder months are spent creating with my little treasures and remembering the beautiful days I picked my palette of spectacular blooms and dreamed of what I would create with them.

Thanks to All of Our Emergency Workers

It seemed like everything I wanted to do couldn't be done.  I had no idea when I was a kid that we would be so dependent on technology someday that it could bring us to our knees.  Well, I'm being a little dramatic, but you get the idea. I couldn't ship any orders because I couldn't get into our online Etsy shop. I couldn't do any banking because the internet was down. I couldn't email anyone an e-card to tell them Merry Christmas because I had no email.  I couldn't even look up a recipe except in an old fashioned, real book, eek! no reviews? There was no television without cable.

So we had no internet or cable for a couple of days, but thankfully we had power until...just before Christmas dinner was fully cooked. Darn it, we almost made it. Well, the roast was done, but the roasted potatoes and carrots were not to the ideal done-ness. We made do. Then we hooked up the generator so that we could have heat and a light (we learned our lesson in the 1998 ice storm and bought a generator). We converted to a gas stove top a couple of years ago so we would be fine for cooking and most importantly, coffee! This storm wouldn't be as bad as the 1998 storm, but still, who wants to spend Christmas without our normal stuff like heat and lights.

But most importantly, I thought about all of the emergency workers who were giving up their Christmas to help out the rest of us.  The line workers who repair our power lines, the police who keep our roads safe, municipal employees who plow our roads, medical staff who fix our banged up bodies and everyone else that it takes to keep our world comfortable for us. Those folks who thought about the families who were having a cold Christmas without their normal everyday comforts. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are all heroes in our world.

So now I can have a nice cup of hot coffee and sit and look out the window. I'll watch all the birds flitting about in the icy trees that look like spun glass and sparkle in the sunlight. Thanks to all of our heroes.

One More Use for Duct Tape

So what does a Grammy do with her grandson two days before he goes back to school.  We started out going shopping for a last minute outfit and to get school supplies still missing from "the list". He has to be prepared this year since it was the first day at a new school.  Then it was out to lunch at Friendly's for the two of us. He's so much fun to chat with at 11 years old.

So when we got back to the house we checked out some cool crafts online that we could do together for the rest of the day.  I bought some of the awesome new patterns and colors of duct tape a while ago and we pulled those out to make something.  Neither of us ever tried duck tape crafts before so we were going to start with a really small, simple project.  Well, somehow after our online research I found myself talked into making a bullet proof Nerf gun vest.  I was thinking maybe a pencil case or a wallet.

It took a little longer than I expected. We got the back piece and one side of the front measured, cut and taped in about two hours.  By then we were both a little weary of measuring and cutting pieces so we decided that we would finish it the next day since he was spending the night.

We fell a tiny bit short of green tape, so before we completed it we had to make a trip to the craft supply store the next morning . Then there were the inevitable adjustments along the way, but we finally completed it late in the afternoon just in time for him to take it home with him. In all, it took about 4 hours to complete. I don't think it came out too bad for our first try.

I understand it might be part of an outfit for Wacky Wednesday at school sometime in the future!  And I was told that we might need to add pockets for Nerf accessories too!

Artist's Block

I've had awful artist's block lately. Or maybe it's adult ADHD because I can never settle my mind down long enough to concentrate on just one thing that I'd like to create.   My mind goes from one subject to the next at lightening speed and when I'm done I'm so confused about what I want to do that I don't do anything.   And what medium to use only complicates things even more. So when that happens I usually just go buy some more art supplies to clear my head. Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me?

I'm a dabbler at heart and like so many mediums that I can't say that I am a watercolor artist, pen and ink lover, mixed media maker or any other thing that anyone could identify me with. So I'm just going to show you a bunch of some of the things I like to do. Of course, these are all things that I had to slow down my mind long enough to concentrate and finish!

Watercolor painting of chives

Acrylic painting of hot peppers

Whimisical whale using soft pastel background and ink

Painted rock using acrylics

Oil pastel painting on birch bark with a birch twig frame

Birch bark collage on a piece of reclaimed wood

Pressed leaves and wild flowers made into laminated bookmarks

Zentangle style ACEO in ink and acrylic paint

You can find all of my creations in either of our shops here MyHumbleJumble or here at TheRusticWoodshed

Easy DIY Flower Vase

I've had this tradition at camp for years of picking wildflowers for the table when we are up for more than a day or two.  My container of choice is whatever is on hand and most of the time it ends up being something like an old coffee can. So when I found this DIY idea on Pinterest I just had to try it.  It was so easy and turned out kind of cute so I thought I would share it with all of you.  It's just about the easiest thing to do, and I'm all about easy, so here goes.

You'll need:

clear glass container to use as your vase. I used an old jar.

ModPodge craft glue

food coloring

paint brush

Water to clean up

• Mix some ModPodge with your favorite color of food coloring or create your own custom color. I used a little more than I needed but if you mix it in a container that has a tight fitting lid it will last a while in case you want to do more than one.

• Brush a thin even coat on the entire container. Let dry thoroughly between coats and add as many coats as needed to get the desired depth of color.  I did about 7-8 coats to get the color I wanted. I added a piece of twine for a little embellishment.

• Voila! You have a nicely colored glass vase for your flowers.

NOTE: This is not waterproof so don''t submerge in water.  

It was early in the season when I brought my vase to camp so I opted for a few larch cone stems to fill in until the summer flowers arrive. What do you think?

The new ModPodge vase with larch cone stems