Flower Photos

That's what my son called them.  He said when we were done it looked like we made photos on fabric of the flowers.



I saw a cute spring project online.  One that would look nice hung out or in probably for Easter.  One I knew my boys would love to help with.

My sweet oldest was having a bad moment.  He was rather upset.  Nothing was working he was determined to be upset until he got back the new toy he just had took away for good reason.  But the day was beautiful we were basking in the upper 80's sunshine.  To nice to not enjoy.

I asked him if he wanted to do an art project with me and he said yes, cheerfully.  Well more cheerful than the mood he was in.  He even turned down ice pops a moment before.  So we got together all the materials.

• hammers and or mallets
• paper 
• scissors
• fresh "juicy" flowers and bright weeds
• white fabric not to thick
• little helpers

Notice the grumpy oldest shirt?  We made it last year. Yup kinda crafty with the kids.  And the shorts both are wearing,  you guessed it I made them too.  So they say.  I cut there holy jeans and "made" shorts.  They love them.  But I did turn the pieces I cut off in to special things for them, essentially purses, they call them hunting pouches.  And they store their treasures in them.




After you gather everything and everyone the first step is to cut pieces of white fabric in to squares.  I cut long strips on top of each other to make it not a sharp cup but a bit more frayed.  Then I gave the boys the long strip with a starter cut and said rip away.



See that smile changing?!!

They loved to rip them.  What boy wouldn't.  And it gave the whole square the older look imperfect look.  They were cut and torn into 10x10 squares.  You can make them any size you want.

Last week was my birthday so we had a bouquet of roses and these purple blue flowers.  But that by far turned out not to be enough flowers so we stole  gathered spring flowers from my snowbird neighbors.  They will never know or care.  After we ran out of all of their flower that were not their white one, white ones will not work, we found colorful weeds like dandelions and they work great.  The fresher the flower, the more internally wet "juicy" the flower the better it works.

Lay the paper down on a hard surface that can take a beating.   Then design the flower on the paper how you think you want them to look.  The paper protects the ground this is messy.  If you use card stock you could keep the paper as something pretty like note cards or picture backgrounds whatever.  I used printer paper and it was destroyed by the boys.  It could not be used.  It could barley be pulled off the cement and we would use a new paper for each fabric square.



After you like your layout place the fabric on top of the flowers and beat away.  Smash the flowers so they bleed on the fabric.



When you are done wala...



You have beautiful bright flower photos.



And a happy very proud little boy.  Whos mood was changed for the rest of the evening and thoroughly enjoyed the whole project.



Hang them up or lay to dry in the sunshine.

I plan on putting them together like a large bunting.  But I have not decided how to yet.  I am trying to figure where I want to put them and them I will complete the how to hang them.

It was fun and so personal.  I know it will add a special touch to our home and Easter.