Showing posts with label nature crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature crafts. Show all posts

Sunday, September 17, 2023

You Should Take Pumpkinhead Photos


This tutorial was originally published on Crafting a Green World in 2022!

It's unwieldy, unbalanced, and will definitely put a crick in your neck, but it's so worth it! 

This photo shoot with Jack-o-lanterns on our heads is one of the funnest Halloween activities I've done yet in my life. And I used to get paid actual cash money to work in a haunted house and scare the snot out of people! 

And happily enough, this pumpkinhead photo shoot is also one of the most eco-friendly Halloween activities! You don't need any single-serve candy with assorted wrappers. There are no costume components to source. No plastic, no face paint. All that's required is a fresh pumpkin from a local farm, your favorite comfy fall clothes, and a lovely natural space, ideally with deciduous trees in the process of transitioning.  Here are all the components for the perfect pumpkinhead photo shoot:
  • fresh, whole carving pumpkin. You have to go pretty big with these, so I found a place that was selling them per pumpkin, not per pound. I can eyeball it better now, but the first time I took my teenager with me and held pumpkins up to her head to make sure I wasn't buying one that was too small. The trick is to find a pumpkin tall enough that it can touch your shoulders. Too short, and not only will it slide around, but the top of your head will be taking the entire weight of the pumpkin, which is HEAVY!
  • pumpkin carving tools. Yes, I use those cheap-looking mostly-plastic carving kits that all the big-box stores sell, but, um. Those pumpkin carving kits are the bomb! Not only are they easy to use and give super accurate results, but my family has been using the same cheap tools for probably over a decade by now. If you gave me one of these nice stainless steel and wood pumpkin carving sets, though, I wouldn't be sad...
  • autumn apparel. Jeans, boots, and flannel shirts look suitably autumnal.
  • head protection (optional). The Jack-o-lanterns really are quite heavy! To provide a little padding and avoid getting pumpkin guts on your hair, you can opt to wear a washable fuzzy beanie or a shower cap.
  • wagon (optional). We walked down a local trail for a bit to find the perfect autumn scene for our photo shoot. A folding wagon made sure we didn't have to lug Jack-o-lanterns in our arms while we hiked!

Step 1: Carve your Jack-o-lantern!


Carve the opening in the pumpkin at the bottom, not the top. Make it just big enough for your head to fit.  

Scoop out all the guts, and reserve the pumpkin seeds to roast


Any simple face works well in a pumpkinhead photo shoot. I think that smiling faces are funnier and neutral faces are slightly creepy. I've found through trial and error that anything detailed that you might try to carve will just get lost amid all the other details in these photos. In this case, simpler is easiest AND best!

Step 2. Take a lot of photos!


Take the photos the same day that you carve the pumpkin. The only thing worse than standing around with a fresh pumpkin on your head is, well, standing around with a not-so-fresh pumpkin on your head! 

For the best results, your background should be fairly simple and autumnal, and have some depth. Fields always look good, and forests can look good if you can get a little distance from your pumpkin-headed subjects. Placing your pumpkinheads close to the camera in front of a flat vertical surface like a wall is likely going to make your photos, in turn, look flat and too posed.  


Pumpkinhead photos are awesome for people who are awkward in front of a camera lens, because they don't have to pose in any particularly cute way. They don't even have to smile! You can literally just stand there, arms hanging limply at your side, half-blinking with a weird expression on your face, and as long as you've got a Jack-o-lantern on your head, you'll look awesome.  


Certain posed photos can look especially funny, though. I searched Pinterest for family, couple, children's, and graduation photo shoots, and made a list of several to try. My partner and kid thought of more to include, as well, as we got into the groove. 

We did end up having to ditch all of our ideas that involved various dance poses or anything requiring good balance. Those heavy, wobbly Jack-o-lanterns play fast and loose with one's center of gravity!

Step 3: Edit photos to make them even spookier.

 
Your photos will look awesome as-is, but you can edit them to make them even more awesome. 

Adding grain or using a sepia filter makes the photos spookier, as does vignetting them. Play with the saturation and temperature to make the leaves and pumpkins pop. 


If you can use Photoshop, you have even more options to make your photos spooky and fun! My partner darkened the eyes and mouths of the Jack-o-lanterns, removed joggers from the background of some photos, and, as in the photo above, popped the head right off my teenager. That photo is my favorite! 

And when you're finished with your photoshoot, I actually think that having the opening at the bottom makes the pumpkin even better as a Jack-o-lantern on our porch. It's a win-win!

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Pumpkin Pounding: A Halloween Project for Small Children

 

This tutorial was originally posted on Crafting a Green World way back in 2009! 

Encouraging my children's independence is VERY important to me. Not only is it easier for me to parent two small children who can pour their own milk and put on their own coats and carry their own balance bikes up and down the front porch stairs, but it's also a priority in my parenting that my girls see themselves as capable individuals who can handle challenges and perform the meaningful work of day-to-day living. 

Because of that, carving pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns can be a really frustrating experience. 

I do permit my children to cut with sharp knives (with supervision), but not to use them on something as thick and unwieldy as a pumpkin. Although there are around-the-house materials that make pumpkin carving an activity more appropriate for small children (subject for a later post), my girls' favorite Jack-o-lantern craft is something that we call pumpkin pounding.

Pumpkin pounding is a hands-on activity that uses real tools on a real pumpkin, and each of my girls was able to do it with help at age two, and independently by age three. The best part, however, is that in the end, depending on how enthusiastic a pounder your kid has been, you end up with a real, live Jack-o-lantern for sitting on the porch steps and popping a candle inside. 

You will need:
  • field pumpkin that's not too round. You want to be able to sit it on its various sides, as well as its butt, and not have it roll all over creation.
  • hammer. You can lay out a variety of hammers for your kids to experience, but the best tool for them is one that's as light as possible but has the widest hammer head
  • nails. Again, lay out a variety to try out, but the best ones are as wide as possible with the widest head
  • knife and scraping tool and whatever else you'll need to cut the top of the Jack-o-lantern and scrape the insides
1. Set the pumpkin up in a space where kids have enough room to swing a hammer, and where they can get in the correct hammering position--a low table or the floor or a bench, etc. 

Be prepared to leave the pumpkin in that space for a few days, to give the kids the chance to come back over and over to this activity independently. 

2. Show your child how to press the tip of the nail into the pumpkin flesh until the nail is held there by itself. That's the safest way to hammer, but older children can also be taught how to gently tap the nail into place with their hammers. 

For kids younger than three, you may need to set up a handful of nails like this for them to hammer. 


3. Let your child hammer nails into the pumpkin. 

Remind them not to hammer the pumpkin just for the heck of it, but pumpkins are extremely sturdy and surprisingly forgiving, and even though your kid will hit the pumpkin a LOT, and HARD, as they're aiming for that nail, it's not going to crack.  


4. At about five years of age, your kid can also learn how to use the claw end of the hammer to lever the nails back out of the pumpkin when she's done hammering. Otherwise, you'll probably need to do this, so give her plenty of nails to work with before she needs your help. 

5. The Jack-o-lantern will show best with as many nail holes as possible, so feel free to take a whack at the pumpkin yourself. It's amazingly cathartic. 

6. When everyone is completely finished with the pounding (and this may take several days), cut off the top of the pumpkin, and scrape out the insides to finish it. Pop in a candle, and enjoy your pretty pumpkin. 

My kids and I are, for some reason, inordinately fond of our autumn-themed craft projects. What are your favorites?

Saturday, September 2, 2023

Homeschool Science: How to Grow a Pumpkin out of Another Pumpkin

 

This tutorial was originally posted on Crafting a Green World way back in 2015!

My kids just harvested the pumpkin plants that they've been nurturing all spring and summer. It was quite an exciting achievement for them, and even more so because they've actually been following this process for almost a full year now. 

Almost a full year ago, they first picked out some organically-grown, heirloom pumpkins, and these newly harvested pumpkins came directly out of the body of those. It was a fascinating process, a pretty easy way to grow pumpkins, and a great way for a kid studying botany to follow the life cycle of a plant throughout its entire lifespan. 

Here's what we did: 

1. In the fall or winter, choose your pumpkins. Have the kids look for organically-grown, locally-raised, heirloom pumpkins. We found ours about this time of year--I can tell, because the kids drew Jack-o-lantern faces on them in Sharpie, since of course we weren't going to cut them. 

2. Store them all winter. I don't have any great tips for this, and our own storage didn't go perfectly. The kids had chosen several, and we kept them all winter on our nature table. Every now and then, I'd walk by and notice that a pumpkin was starting to rot, and so I'd toss it out in the bushes for the chickens to eat. Now that I think about it... THAT'S why we have two volunteer pumpkin plants in those bushes this year! We actually got loads of pumpkins from those two vines! 

This winter, I plan to store our pumpkins in our root cellar. We'll lose the opportunity to have all those conversations that naturally occurred as the sight of a pumpkin caused a question to pop into a kid's head, but more pumpkins should survive the winter that way. 


3. In the spring, cut them open and fill them with dirt. Set up a work space outside, give the kid a knife, and have her cut open the top of her pumpkin. Note all of the seeds inside, chat about it, remove a seed for dissection and study under the microscope, etc. 

Have the kid fill her pumpkin all the way to the top with good-quality potting soil, then water it. 

These pumpkins are a little tricky to put under grow lights, since they're so much taller than the other seed flats that you'll also have under there, but if you can manage to start them indoors, it'll be well worth it. On the other hand, this year I deliberately had the kids choose small varieties of pumpkins, so that they could plant them directly in the garden and still have time for the pumpkins to mature. 


4. Plant the pumpkins. Have the kid dig a hole deep enough to cover the entire pumpkin, and then plant it. You don't want any pumpkin sticking up out of the soil to rot, but covering it with dirt will allow it to decompose in the ground and turn into lovely nutrients for the pumpkin seedlings.  

5. Cull the weaklings. One of the coolest things about this project is that your kids will see a LOT of pumpkin sprouts coming out of that pumpkin! Even at nine and eleven, my two thought that this was pretty awesome. 

Of course, they'll have to continually pinch off the weaker ones--I had mine pinch off half of the seedlings at a time, every time, until they were left with one lone winner. 

This step does take supervision. My younger daughter accidentally pinched off her best seedling pretty late in the game, and ended up not getting a pumpkin at all from that particular plant. She was SUPER bummed! 

6. Weed and water. For the rest of the summer, the kids can care for their pumpkins just as they do the rest of their garden. This is a great opportunity for a garden journal, or weekly measurement, or other monitoring of the plant's progress. 

7. Harvest. In the late summer or early fall, your kid can harvest her pumpkin, knowing that she not only grew it herself, and not only from seed, but actually from last year's pumpkin that she also picked out. Does she want to make it into a pie, or save it to make a pumpkin next year?

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

The New and Improved Way to Press Flowers in the Microwave

I spent years pressing flowers in the microwave using the supplies that I had on hand--a terra cotta plant dish, a Pyrex bowl, and paper towels.

But when my Girl Scout troop also wanted to learn how to press flowers in the microwave, I realized that what's good enough for me is not NEARLY good enough for them! They needed proper materials and a clearer method.

A trip to the town's ReStore scored me a whole troop's worth of unglazed terra cotta tiles at something like ten cents apiece. And simply substituting white typing paper--even the back sides of used typing paper!--turned out to be a much easier method than using paper towels, with a cleaner-looking result, as well.

So here's the new and improved way to turn your microwave into a flower press!

You will need:

  • two unglazed terra cotta tiles. The larger the better, as the size of the tile is the limiting factor in the size of flower you'll be able to press. The tops should be completely smooth.
  • plain typing paper, several sheets. Recycle used typing paper, as long as at least one side is blank and clean.
  • freshly-picked flowers. I think the ones that have a distinctive front and back are most easily pressed, but you do you!
1. Set up the microwave flower press. 

The bread of your flower press sandwich consists of two unglazed terra cotta tiles, the unglazed fronts facing each other. 

My tiles have gotten dirty because the backsides of the paper that I've been laying against them has had printing on it. It won't affect the flowers, though, and they'll wash clean. 

Fold a stack of 4-5 pieces of typing paper in half. Place the flowers you'd like to press in the fold of the typing paper stack, then fold the top of the stack over the flowers and sandwich the stack in between the terra cotta tiles.

If your flowers are especially big and juicy, you may have to dissect them a bit before you place them in the press.


2. Microwave the flower press. 

Pop the entire flower press into the microwave, and microwave it for approximately 30 seconds.

Use an oven mitt to lift off the top tile, then check the flowers. They should feel dry, not damp. If they're still damp, continue to microwave in 15-20 second intervals, checking in between. 

If the flowers are already a little crispy, then you've microwaved them too long. Better luck next time!


When the flowers are perfect, let the entire press cool for a few minutes before you remove them. If you've got several terra cotta tiles, you can keep a few flower presses going simultaneously:

While a third person grates cheese, ahem.

A DIY microwave flower press is SUCH a time saver! Even fairly young kids can work it, as long as an adult handles the hot parts, and this makes the entire process of collecting, pressing, and studying or crafting with flowers a lot more enjoyable for a small child. 

You can also use this press in tandem with a traditional flower press--which you can also DIY! Put flowers into the traditional press right away while you're hiking, then transfer them to the microwave press to finish them off when you get home. 

Sunday, November 13, 2022

Holiday Crafts: Leaf-Carved Pumpkin


This tutorial was originally published on Crafting a Green World way back in 2013!

Yes, we DID finally carve our pumpkins! 

To be honest, I was quietly hoping to get away without carving pumpkins at all this year, especially after Halloween came and went without the kiddos making a peep about Jack-o-lanterns. 

However, last week my older daughter, passing by the gorgeous whole pumpkins decorating our front porch, suddenly seemed to notice them for the first time since early October. She did an actual double-take, then shouted, "Hey! When are we going to carve our pumpkins?!?" 

Busted! 

Fortunately, the kiddos were perfectly happy with my suggestion that we carve the pumpkins into something appropriate for Thanksgiving, not Halloween, and that's how we ended up with our leaf-carved pumpkins. They're festive without being spooky, use real leaves as stencils, and are, thankfully, just as fun to carve as Jack-o-lanterns are. 

Here's how to make them: 

1. Collect autumn leaves. Go on a leaf walk around your neighborhood, and collect some nice samples of the autumn leaves around you. The best leaves will be supple, not brittle, and medium-sized or smaller; we did try one giant sycamore leaf on one pumpkin, and although it looks really cool, it's WAY too big and lets too much light through. 

2. Hollow out your pumpkin. Don't forget to save your seeds to roast or make dehydrated crackers with, and to compost the guts or feed them to the chickens. 

Years ago, my Aunt Pam also taught me a neat Jack-o-lantern trick: use a fork to score the underside of the lid piece of the pumpkin, and rub cinnamon into the cuts. The heat of the candle inside will waft a cinnamon scent across your porch every night, and knowing what I know about herbs and oils these days, I wouldn't be surprised if that cinnamon helped preserve the pumpkin a bit, as well.

   
3. Stencil the leaves onto the pumpkin. Hold each leaf to the pumpkin and trace around it with a Sharpie. The more leaves you can fit on, the more festive your pumpkin will look, in my opinion, although my kids didn't carve a ton of leaves, and I still think their pumpkins look pretty cool. 

And if you've ever been faced with a half-finished Jack-o-lantern and a kid who insists that her hand is just too *tired* to make a mouth, whine whine, you'll appreciate the fact that you can just as easily be done carving after one leaf as you can after twenty.  


4. Cut out the leaves. Yes, that's my kid wielding a steak knife. I can't bring myself to buy any of those plastic Jack-o-lantern knife thingies, even though I've heard they work great. (Note from Future Julie: I now own those plastic Jack-o-lantern knife thingies, and they DO work great! Way better than steak knives!)

Know what also works great? Steak knives. 

5. Shine on. We popped our pumpkin back out onto the porch with a rolled beeswax candle inside, and we LOVE how it looks. The kiddos got to carve their pumpkins, I didn't have to do it with all the other million things that I had to do before Halloween, and it looks like we actually did them Thanksgiving-themed on purpose. 

Here's hoping that next year, I don't have to come up with a Christmas-themed Jack-o-lantern concept...

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Pumpkinheads, or, Put on a Jack-o-Lantern and Take One Thousand Photos

 

So, this is probably my favorite Halloween activity ever. Thank you, TikTok!

I've been wanting to do this pumpkinhead photo shoot since last October--you know, back when it was actually trendy. I didn't end up getting around to it--so many Halloween crafts, so little time!--but when a teenager specifically requested Halloween projects this month, I wrote it at the top of my to-do list in red letters.

Will, who is by far the most practical of us, declined the opportunity to dress in flannel, put a heavy Jack-o-lantern on her head, and stand around while I took one thousand photos. Fortunately, though, a couple of other family members were willing to indulge me on this beautiful fall day at the peak of autumn foliage:


I took SO MANY PHOTOS! We just kept thinking of poses that it would be funny and awesome to do with a Jack-o-lantern on one's head!




The key to true magic, though, is having a graphic designer at one's service:






This photo shoot was so fun, and I am so happy with the photos! And afterwards, our pumpkinheads joined the rest of our Jack-o-lantern family:


I've longed for years to buy more of those carvable fake pumpkins to add to our menagerie, but the big-box stores eventually realized how awesome they are and they've been stupid expensive for a while now. I bought them yearly when the kids were small, though, and those kid-carved forever pumpkins are my favorites, so I'm pretty stoked to have a new type of magical Halloween memorabilia to display next year!

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

The Foolproof Way to Make Poured Teacup Candles

 

I have finally locked down THE foolproof way to make perfect poured candles from any wax type and in any heat-proof container.

The secret weapon is a drill!

Up to now, I'd always been stymied by the process of choosing an appropriately-sized wick for both the wax type and the container dimensions. If your wick is too small, the candle will tunnel, look awful, and eventually just pathetically peter out. If your wick is too large, the candle will burn way too hot, smoke and sputter, and potentially crack the container and set your house on fire.

Neither is ideal.

So, here's the secret: you pour your candle wax into the container of your choosing, just as if you're making the candle, but you DO NOT ADD A WICK.

Let the wax rest for 48 hours, then get a drill and literally drill a hole for the wick directly into the wax. Insert a wick, light it, let the candle burn for an hour, and see how you like it. You can pull the wick out and replace it, drill holes for additional wicks, repour wax over the top of the candle to start over, etc.

There is no way to mess up the entire candle, yay!

I did a lot of wick tests for the poured teacup candles that my Girl Scout troop wanted to make. I wanted a wick size that would work for most sizes of teacups, AND I was really hoping to use the multi-pack of candle wicks that I found at Goodwill for 99 cents, because I'd already spent quite a bit on the beeswax.

Unfortunately, this is what my first wick test looked like:


That's 8 ounces of beeswax, and I don't know what the make and model of the wick is, but clearly it isn't going to be able to keep up with burning through an entire teacup of beeswax.

So I made a couple of changes:
  1. I gave up on the idea of a 100% beeswax candle in a teacup. Beeswax burns so hot that I decided that it's just not an appropriate candle wax for a teacup candle, which narrows quite dramatically. I couldn't free myself from the intrusive daydreams of some kid's teacup candle getting too hot, exploding into their face, and then setting their house on fire.
  2. I embraced the idea of multiple wicks! Test burning a wick from the Goodwill pack let me measure the diameter of the melt pool, which makes deciding on the number and placement of additional wicks a lot easier.
Here, then, is the foolproof method that I used to make poured teacup candles with teenagers. This tutorial assumes that you already figured out the melt pool you'll get with the wick and waxes you're using. If you don't know that info, do the thing I wrote about above where you pour a wickless candle, then drill a hole into the cured wax, insert a wick, and test it out. With this specific ratio of beeswax to coconut oil, the wax is actually soft enough that you can ditch the drill and just use a sharp bamboo skewer to make the holes for the wick. It SO quick and easy!

1. Melt 8 ounces of beeswax. I used aluminum cans in a crock pot for this, so that when I did the project with my Girl Scout troop, each kid could be in charge of their own can of wax. 

Eight ounces plus the coconut oil, below, was more than most kids needed to fill their teacups, so I had silicon molds on hand that they could pour the excess into. We saved all that awesome wax so we can make more candles someday!

2. Wick the candle. While the beeswax was melting, I showed the kids how to stick the tabbed wicks to the bottoms of their teacups. With this wax blend and the wick size, the melt pool for each wick was 1.5" diameter. I passed out rulers, and the kids figured out for themselves how many wicks they needed to create a full melt pool, and where those wicks should be placed. 

Since we'd be lowering the burn temperature of the beeswax by adding coconut oil, this wick placement is a pretty low-stakes judgment call, so I gave advice when asked, but otherwise let the kids consult with each other and/or figure out where they wanted their wicks to go on their own. Candlemaking is overall a heavily adult-monitored activity, thanks to the safety concerns, so it's nice to let the kids make their own decisions whenever possible.

In the future, though, I will explicitly note that the wicks should be no closer than half that burn diameter to the edge of the teacup. What with placing the wicks on their own and then figuring out how to keep them upright while the wax melted, some wicks ended up pretty close to the wall of the teacup. Not the biggest deal, but it will lead to more smoke and soot than if the wick has enough space to burn cleanly.

2. Add 1/4 cup of coconut oil to the melted wax. I chose to figure out a volume measurement for the coconut oil just to make it easier for a group of teenagers to do while all standing around a table. You could also probably measure out and add the coconut oil to the can at the same time as you measure out the beeswax, but I did all the beeswax measuring before my troop arrived so I could start it melting in the crock pot, and I wanted to leave something for the kids to do.

I had the kids use a pot holder to remove their can of melted wax from the crock pot and put it on their own work space, then measure and pour the coconut oil into the melted wax. I gave them popsicle sticks to stir with.

3. Use popsicle sticks or bamboo skewers to prop the wicks in place. Even if the wicks are primed and stiff, they'll collapse as soon as the hot wax melts their own wax coating. It's better to prop the wicks in place before you pour.

4. Pour the melted wax into the teacups. I encouraged the kids to pour a little at a time, hoping to avoid too much wax shrinkage, but I'm not sure if it made a difference. This step was utter chaos! It's VERY exciting to pour candles, and somebody is definitely going to spill, and everybody is going to have trouble with their wicks shifting. The kids find it thrilling, though, so just go with it.

Here's what it looks like when the wax is poured and starting to set:


The wick placement is really good on those candles! 

5. Trim the wicks, and let the candles set for 48 hours. For bonus points, save the trimmed wicks to make new candles!

I was VERY worried that the candles wouldn't be solid enough for the kids to take them home that day, but another bonus of adulterating beeswax with coconut oil is that the wax solidified much quicker than 100% beeswax would have. 

6. Let the candles burn for at least an hour the first time they're burned. I'm a believer that the first burn is crucial to building a proper melt pool. It probably matters more for some candles than others, but I think that burning a candle for at least an hour that first time gives it a fair shot at establishing a good melt pool.

Here are the candles my kids made, after about an hour of burn time:


You can see the melt pool better with this overhead shot:


The candle on the right is perfect. The middle candle, after a few more burns, did build up to a full melt pool. The candle on the left is still tunneling down that original melt pool, mostly, I think, because the bottom wick is butting up against the wall of the teacup. 

And here's how it looks to have teacup candles in your life!

Overall, I think this was a decently teenager-friendly project, and I'm satisfied that this is about the most foolproof method around for pouring teacup candles. The kids talked about making candles for holiday presents, so we might revisit this in a few months. Otherwise, I'm thinking that sand candles could be a fun project for a camping trip!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, road trips, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Thursday, August 4, 2022

Decoupaged Pressed Flower Greeting Cards, and a Real-World Practicum in First Aid

My Girl Scout troop's Folk Arts IPP meeting is a wrap!

Alas, for I did not meet my goal. At one point I asked the troop to start cleaning up after soapmaking while I went to see if the beeswax and coconut oil were completely melted for candlemaking. I swear I was gone for approximately fifteen seconds, but I came back into the room to the following:

KID #1: "[Name Redacted] hurt herself."
KID #2: "I see blood."
NAME REDACTED (bleeding profusely from the head and dripping blood onto the floor) begins to fall over.
KID #3: "I don't feel well."

And scene!

I also can't say that my first aid administration went perfectly, because how do you situate a kid when her head is bleeding so needs to be elevated, but she's also losing consciousness so her feet need to be elevated? Do you just prop her up like a little pretzel with her butt on the ground and her head and feet jacked up? Keeping her conscious felt pretty important so my co-leader and I put her feet up high and her head just on a pillow, but I'll clearly have to ask more scenario-specific questions at my next re-certification.

 But the good news is that the injury was actually just a side quest, and nobody actually got injured during either the cold-process soapmaking (during which the kids wore long sleeves, gloves, and face shields) or the poured container candlemaking (which, tbh, was pretty chaotic, so I think we just got lucky).

We did get a chance to press flowers in the microwave, but our first aid practicum used the time previously intended for decoupaging our flowers, so we'll save that for another meeting.

But until then, I was left with SO MANY flowers that I'd already pressed to give the kids plenty to work with, and since I'm uninterested in figuring out how to safely keep pressed flowers in my already overburdened craft supplies storage, later that week I snookered my own kids into helping me decoupage them, in the process further refining my almost perfect technique.

And now that technique IS perfect!!!

My old method for making pressed flower bookmarks came from this tutorial, which came from a magazine article, which came from a vintage Boy Scout manual. All of them called for decoupaging the flowers first onto waxed paper, and then using the method of your choice to adhere the waxed paper to a more structured paper.

My incredible innovation is just to... ditch the waxed paper. Decoupage the pressed flowers directly to the material of your choice, saving yourself a step and, I think, improving the overall look of the finished product. I also changed out the glue to one that dries stiffer, which I think makes the work sturdier and requires fewer top coats.

To test out this innovation, the kids and I made SOOOO many greeting cards! Will has a ton of thank-you notes to write and we're out of nice cards, so this was a good chance to replenish our stash.

To decoupage your own pressed flower greeting cards, you will need the following:

  • pressed flowers. I do have a new and improved microwave pressed flowers tutorial coming up, but until then, my original microwave pressed flowers tutorial does work well. 
  • backing material of your choice, ideally one with structure. I used this hemp watercolor paper and this Strathmore watercolor paper, and of the two I preferred the hemp paper. I really liked how the off-white color and visible fibers add to the overall look.
  • single ply of the cheapest disposable tissues you can find. If your tissues are multi-ply, separate them into the individual sheets. 
  • clear school glue. I used Elmer's clear school glue leftover from Syd's slime-making phase. 
  • paintbrush. A stiff paintbrush works better than a soft one. 
  • matte medium. I use this Liquitex matte medium. It's weirdly expensive, so I think you could play around with cheaper sealants, too.

1. Cut and fold paper to make greeting cards.

Will and I did this with a guillotine paper cutter, but you could do it by hand. If you've got 8"x12" pages, you can make two 4"x6" cards from each page. We made some that hinged at the top, and some that hinged on the side, mostly because we weren't paying attention to what we were doing.

2. Arrange pressed flowers on the greeting card front.

Queen Anne's Lace

This part is really fun! It was definitely assisted by the huge stash of flowers I'd already collected and pressed. Seriously, I took trips to the local parks to take little snippy-snips of the wildflowers growing there, waded around vacant lots next to strip malls, and sacrificed many of the lovelies from my garden.

Rose of Sharon

But having such a large selection of flowers to choose from made that completely worth it!

3. Use clear school glue to paint a single ply of tissue paper over the entire card front.

Gently set the tissue over the card front. Use your non-dominant hand to gently hold the tissue and the flowers in place, and with your dominant hand dip the paintbrush into clear school glue, allowing a generous coat of glue to remain on the brush.

Start with the center of one flower, and gently paint glue onto the tissue paper covering it. The glue will seep through the tissue paper onto the flower, rendering the tissue paper translucent:

Use the stiffness of the brush to coax the tissue paper into all the little nooks and creases of the pressed flower, aiming for maximum adhesion of the tissue paper to the flower and card. 

Rose of Sharon and fern

The tissue paper will make lots of wrinkles when you glue it to the card, which is fine. What you don't want are air pockets between the flowers and tissue paper, because those will stay visible in the final product.

Queen Anne's Lace

Work your way across the surface until the entire card front is covered. Leave the excess tissue paper in place until the whole thing is dry, which should take about a day.

Rose of Sharon

4. Trim the tissue paper and add embellishments.

Trim the excess tissue paper from the greeting card fronts. If possible, it is highly desirable to have the assistance of both a teenager and a cat for this step:


You can do anything that you want regarding embellishments, but I entertained myself by finding fun phrases and conversations from this vintage Spanish textbook that I found in a Little Free Library once upon a time:


Although some is random--


--some, I think, is quite apt!


Dab a little more clear school glue onto the back of each embellishment to place it, then use the pad of your finger to thickly coat the entire greeting card front in matte medium.

Chamomile

Let dry. 


You can add additional coats of matte medium, which I did for a couple of cards but ultimately decided that it's unnecessary, especially because matte medium is so expensive!

And here are some of our finished cards!

It's that Queen Anne's Lace from Step 2!

Chamomile from Step 4

Fern

Rose of Sharon from Step 2


I still need to make matching envelopes for these cards, but then they'll be ready for thank-yous!