Hammered Flowers Technique

Finally back to crafting!

So glad to have all the moving and organizing out of the way so I can play again.

Today's technique is Hammered Flowers...

Nope, we're not taking flowers out to the bar and getting them tipsy ~ LOL!! It's actually a great stress reliever cause we're going to smash the heck out of them.

This is the perfect time of year to work on this technique as flowers are blooming like crazy. You need to make sure you've got freshly picked flowers so they are nice and juicy since that's what we're after. Darker colored flowers result in darker impressions but lighter colored flowers work as well. You'll need to be careful on what leaves you use as some are REALLY juicy and tend to squirt everywhere once the hammering begins.

Hammered Flowers

Supplies:

Hammer

Paper (cardstock, watercolor paper, canvas, etc)

Fresh Flowers & Leaves

Instructions:

1. Arrange the flowers and leaves in desired pattern on the paper. I am using watercolor paper for this example.

2. Cover the flowers with a second sheet of paper.

(Sorry it's blurry...)

3. Hammer the heck out of it! I use a rubber mallet but any hammer will do the trick. You want to be sure to cover the entire flower/leaf so all the juice is squeezed out and absorbed into the paper. Depending on what paper you use you may be able to see the outline of the flower coming through the paper which helps as you hammer.

4. Peel apart the two sheets of paper to reveal two original flower designs... BOTH very usable for a variety of goodies!

NOTE: the flower remains usually stick to one or the other sheet of paper. You may choose to leave these remains stuck to the paper to dry or scrape it off...totally up to you. If you leave them on the paper it will end up looking like embedded dried flowers.

The pink flower was peeled off.....

Here are some additional examples of Hammered Flowers on different types of paper....

Pink = Bazzill Cardstock, White = Ranger Sticky Backed Canvas

Plain White Cardstock (not textured)

Blue Marbled Textured Cardstock (fern leaf)

Watercolor Paper

Now that you've got these great pattern papers what do you do with them????

Well stamp on them of course!

Check out these projects I made with some of the Hammered Flowers Paper.....

This is the sticky backed canvas... I used a charcoal pencil to highlight and define the flowers a bit, added Distress Inks and some stamped images.

Here is a fun little card made using one of the watercolor paper examples. I stamped the sentiment then mounted it on a variety of pattern papers/cardstock.

And I turned this fern print into a neat little cabinet card!

So there you go a fun little stress relieving technique to get me back on track!

Hope you give it a try!

If you do, please feel free to post a link to your creation in the comments section :)

Have a wonderful day!!