We were challenged to do something with flowers in our Pinterest Challenge Group. Our hosts, Julie from Sum of Our Stories and Gail from Purple Hues and Me challenge us to be more sustainable in our crafting. We also are asked to take our inspiration from pins on Pinterest and I found these two pins to help me create the idea I used this month in this challenge. Pin 1. Pin 2.
To understand the "sustainable" part of my craft, you need to know how watercolor paper is made. I use a cold press paper, which means that a sheet of paper is basically cellulose pulp pressed through felt-covered metal rollers at cold temperatures - hence the designation “cold press”. Cold press paper has a slightly rough surface. Making this paper takes a lot of manpower and energy and is somewhat expensive, so I cut my sheets to use just what I need to paint. Hence, I have tons of smallish pieces of watercolor paper.
So to use some of it up, I washi taped the paper to my painting surface and got my materials ready. The washi tape allows me to create more than one bookmark and have a clean border when I am finished. Then I got my supplies in order.
As you can see from the photo at the top, I am still a beginner, so giving you a tutorial on how I painted the flowers isn't a great idea. However, I will tell you there are a number of great artists to follow on TikTok, like @hannahhh.mp (she's also on Instagram) who does a weekly tutorial. I have learned a lot from her.
Here are my finished bookmarks:
The washi tape is removed and I cut down the center to make two bookmarks. I'll give them to my friends, who seem to like my little works of art.
Check out these other, flower-inspired crafts below. We have some crazy awesome crafters in our group!
Julie | Sum of their Stories
Gail | Purple Hues and Me
Terri | A Good Life
Ann| The Apple Street Cottage
T’onna | Sew Crafty Crochet
Julie | Treasures Made From Yarn
Allyson | Southern Sunflowers
Mel | Decor Craft Design
Donna | Modern on Monticello
Niki | Life as a LEO Wife
They are lovely and remind me very much of the watercolours my nan used to do. She loved to paint and we all were lucky in the family to be given paintings and cards made my her. How nice to be able to use even small scraps of paper to make something lovely. A perfect example of "Waste not want not!"
ReplyDeleteYour bookmarks are beautiful, Terri and I'm sure your friends love them. Any reader would!
ReplyDeleteYou did a wonderful job on painting your bookmarks - very pretty! I think you're in more than just a beginner stage at painting. :)
ReplyDeleteYou are very talented and quite the artist to create your own watercolor paper bookmarks, Terri! And they look quite beautiful, too! I had never heard of that technique before now and will have to look further into it! Great job!
ReplyDeleteYour bookmarks are so pretty! The flowers you painted are really lovely. You did a wonderful job. I wish I could paint like this. :-)
ReplyDeleteLove how your bookmarks turned out.
ReplyDelete