Flower Pounding

Our ground is currently covered in snow, and I for one am ready to start seeing some flowers! Along those lines, I decided to pull out some cards I made last year by pounding some leaves and flowers from our yard. This is a very fun technique - simple and a great stress reliever. Collect various colored flowers and/or leaves, then grab some white cardstock and a hammer (a mallet would also work as long as it's fairly heavy). Next, position your flowers onto the cardstock, then cover it with something. I used parchment paper so I could see what I was doing, but plain newsprint or even copy paper would be just fine, too. Next, hammer away! You're pounding all of the gorgeous pigments from the flowers into the paper fibers, so you need to hit it pretty hard.

It's really fun to see what colors emerge from the flowers - the deep purple "so kind" card was from a burgundy mum, and the circular wreath type image was made from white flowers that are very similar to a hydrangea. I really love the leaf image from our Japanese maple, too. I know I'll be making more of these cards as the spring flowers appear, then through the summer and into the fall.

You can also use this technique on natural fabrics like cotton or linen; there are some gorgeous samples out there that quilters have created!!

Credits: "so kind" and "thinking of you" by Wordsworth, "Delight" verse by Uptown Designs. Patterned papers from K&Co