Pressed Flower Art

 About a year ago, I attended a class with my daughter & some friends, where we made trinket dishes using clay & pressed flowers. The class was taught by Brush And Blossom. I usually teach art & craft classes, so it was nice to be the student for a change. 

After the class, I became a little obsessed with gathering & pressing flowers. I would pick flowers from my yard, & there are beautiful wildflowers & weeds growing along my dirt road. 

To press them, I placed flowers, ferns, leaves, etc. between 2 sheets of  paper, then placed the paper between sheets of parchment paper, & placed them in a book. I have a huge dictionary that works perfectly. 

I have so many pressed flowers but have only done a few projects with them. At Christmas, my son & daughter-in-law gave me packs of these fun stickers. I added some of my pressed flowers to them to make pretty bookmarks.

I wanted a better way to display the flowers rather than hidden in a book. So, I came up with an easy art project using the flowers & the stickers.

I started by painting a wooden canvas with the color Caviar, from the Dixie Belle Paint Company. 

I set the canvas aside to dry, & painted a simple wooden frame with Dixie Belle's color, Weeping Willow.

When dry, I glued the frame to the canvas.

The hardest part of this project was deciding which one of the stickers to use. There are several different ones in each pack, & I have 6 packs.

Once I decided on the one I wanted to use, I peeled off the clear back, & added flowers to the sticky side of the bottle design. 

When making the bookmarks, I add the clear backing back onto the "bottle". But for this project I left it off so I could simply stick it onto the canvas inside of the frame.

I then added a few flowers at each bottom corner of the canvas using ModPodge.

I added a fern across the top of the canvas to complete the project.

Now to figure out what to do with all the other pressed flowers I have!

Linking To:

The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors,  Sugar Bee Crafts, Flour Me With Love, The Answer Is Chocolate, Skip To My Lou, The Thrifty Home, Flutter Buster,,  Finding Silver Pennies, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, The Painted Hinge, Yesterday On Tuesday, Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, My Hubbard Home, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers, The House On Silverado

Dragonfly Art With Terra Clay Paint

 One of my favorite things about summer...

dragonflies!

I also love creating art with Terra, a clay based paint from the Dixie Belle Paint Company. So, I combined my love of both dragonflies & Terra to create a pretty piece of art.

I started by painting a wooden canvas with Dixie Belle's chalk mineral paint in the color, Caviar. Then I used a Re*design With Prima decor stamp  called, Handwritten Note, along with Dixie Belle's metallic paint to add an all over design to the background.

I used my Cricut Maker to create a vinyl stencil of a dragonfly, & placed the stencil on the center of the canvas.

Now for the fun... I started finger painting with Terra.

Terra is perfect for furniture, especially if you want a blended or ombre look. It reactivates with water so once you mist it with water, you can move it around. Because it reactivates with water, it is very important to seal it, especially if you use it on furniture.

Once I laid out a few colors, I used my mister bottle to add a little water so I could easily blend the colors. 

If I had painted the background color with Terra, it would have blended with the dragonfly colors once I wet it. That's why I used chalk mineral paint as the base. Another option would have been to use Terra, then seal it before painting the dragonfly.

Once the Terra was dry, I added Chameleon Wax to the body of the dragonfly. This is an iridescent wax that looks  different depending on the color it is applied over.

I used my finger to apply the wax.

I peeled up the vinyl stencil to reveal my pretty dragonfly.

Here is a piece of art I created after watching a video by Melissa of  The Top Drawer RVA. She shares the steps to painting beautiful roses with Terra. You can find her tutorials HERE.

Linking To:

Ginger Snap Crafts, Chic On a Shoestring,  Simply Sweet Home, The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors,  Sugar Bee Crafts, Flour Me With Love, The Answer Is Chocolate, Skip To My Lou, The Thrifty Home, Flutter Buster,,  Finding Silver Pennies, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, The Painted Hinge, Yesterday On Tuesday, Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, My Hubbard Home, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers, The House On Silverado

Problem Solving With Mud

 At first glance, this table I picked up at a yard sale appears to be in good condition. It's one of those pieces that some would say, "It's real wood. Why are you painting that?" Well, first of all, some pieces just look better painted. Second, some pieces have issues & painting them is the best option to save them from the dump.

Upon further inspection, I found that this table had a lot of issues that needed attention. The top was not only scratched, it had large patches of white areas.

And, then there's the drawer pull. I like vintage pulls & try to use them when I can. But this one was missing the ring that hangs down to pull the drawer open. So the only way to open it was to grab the sides of the drawer & pull. So, I knew it had to be replaced.

Not only did I have holes left behind from the screws, the drawer pull left an uneven finish. The best way to fix it? Dixie Mud.

I started by filling the holes left from the screws.

To hide the uneven finish, I decided to do a raised stencil on the front of the drawer using the Lotus Bloom stencil from the Dixie Belle Paint Company.

I held the stencil in place then went over it with the Dixie Mud.

I pulled the stencil up while the mud was still wet, then allowed it to dry overnight. 

Once dry, I gave the mud a light sanded to remove any uneven areas or peaks.

I was using Dixie Belle's acrylic based paint, Silk, on this piece. Silk requires a light scuff sanding. After sanding, I decided better safe than sorry, so I also did 2 coats of Slick Stick on the base of the table. Slick Stick helps paint adhere better to slick or shiny surfaces.

I waited 24 hours after applying the Slick Stick, then painted the base of the table with the color, Hampton Olive.

Since I had to replace the original drawer pull,  I grabbed a mold & air dry modeling material from Re*design With Prima, created a medallion, & glued it onto a wooden knob. 

After painting the knob with Hampton Olive, I drilled a new hole for the pull, & added it to the drawer. I used Dixie Belle's water based Voodoo Gel Stain in the color, Tobacco Road, to accentuate the raised detail on the drawer & the knob. I did this by painting the stain on, then wiping it back with a damp rag.

For the top of the table, I used Dixie Belle's oil based No Pain Gel Stain in the color, Walnut. No Pain Gel Stain can be applied directly over a factory finish. I did 3 coats waiting 10 hours between each coat. It completely covered those white patches. 

I sealed the top with Dixie Belle's Gloss Clear Coat.

Silk has a built in sealer, so I did not seal the painted base.

Another piece saved from the dump!

Linking To:

Ginger Snap Crafts, Chic On a Shoestring,  Simply Sweet Home, The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors,  Sugar Bee Crafts, Flour Me With Love, The Answer Is Chocolate, Skip To My Lou, The Thrifty Home, Flutter Buster,,  Finding Silver Pennies, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, The Painted Hinge, Yesterday On Tuesday, Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, My Hubbard Home, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers, The House On Silverado