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So how can we make gorgeous art completely naturally
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Well, it's by pounding the flowers or leaves that we're going to use. It's really easy to do and I'm going to show you exactly how
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If you stay around to the end, I'm going to show you lots of different ways that I've used mine as well
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So let's get started. You're going to need some sort of tape to hold your flowers or leaves down
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Now I recommend a washi tape like this one, simply because it doesn't stick very well and you can peel it up without damaging your paper
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Piece of kitchen roll and a hammer or a mallet of some kind
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just something to hit it with and some paper. I recommend watercolour paper because it takes the dye really well
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But feel free to experiment with other papers. Copy of paper, not great
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And something to hammer onto. I'm using an old bit of wood that's just ready for burning
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Just think on that whatever you use, you could well damage it. You are going to hammer it
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Some thick newspaper can help. So let's get started. I've cut my page down because I know exactly what I want to do with it
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And I want to make sure my design sits there. So just gather your leaves or flowers and then you're going to arrange them
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Now, what I would say at this point is if you're going to use leaves
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they need a lot more pounding than flowers. So if you're going to do both, I recommend arranging it all
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taking a photo, lift off your flowers and then arrange your leaves
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Do those and then put your flowers on. Or the other way around
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But I wouldn't try and do them all in one go because that's very difficult
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So as you can see, I'm cutting the stems off. You could leave them on and press them down flat
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But I just wanted the effect without them for the moment. I think my flowers will lie down better
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So just play around with the arrangement and get them how you want
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You will find that wide flowers like this that sit quite flat often work a lot better
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But I really recommend you experiment because it's not always the flowers
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you think that are going to do the best effect. I was convinced some yellow flowers I had would look fabulous and it just made a
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yellow splodgy mess, so I didn't use those again. So as you can see, I've got a little arrangement building up
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and I'm looking at it and I'm thinking it's quite, quite nice
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It's pretty much what I want. I'm just going to add another yellow one. And this is a different style of flower
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So we'll just have to decide which way to press the stem
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And if you have flowers like that, you just have to give a little bit of thought of how it's going to look
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Now, as you can see, I've managed to do it all over to one side a little bit. So I'm just going to adjust them and I think I'm going to spread them slightly
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So there's a little gap between the flowers. So even when they're pressed down flat, there'll still be little gaps
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Once you're happy with your arrangement, I really recommend taping it down because they have a tendency to wander around
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when you're hitting them. So just apply some tape and make it go all the way over onto whatever you're
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hammering onto and it's just going to secure the whole thing. Now, I'm going to put a few on so that every flower is at least caught in one
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place just to keep it there. And if you start getting it on and you think I'm not quite happy with that
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just peel it back. You've checked your tape, you know you can peel it back without any damage
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So I've got that one stuck. Doesn't matter. I'll just reposition it
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Just make sure everything's underneath the tape. Otherwise, your dye will not transfer
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And then make sure you're completely happy because we're now going to start pounding it
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So get your paper towel and place it over the top. And that's just going to keep everything nice and tidy and neat
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And it's also going to allow you to see when the dye is starting to escape from the
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flower or the leaf. And then just start. I recommend picking one area and having a good go
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Now you'll see with the flowers, I'm not hitting it really hard. I'm holding the hammer near the end
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I'm not needing all that weight and all that leverage of the long handle
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It's just about applying pressure. So experiment. Give it a try. And you can see that dye is starting to come through on the paper towel
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So probably starting to work well. So move on to the next flower and just work your way around them all
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I've sped the film up. I don't work that fast. Work around them all until you think, well, they might have all transferred
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And then you can have a little look. You're not committed to anything
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You're just having a look. And if you think, actually, I'm going to do a bit more, just do a bit more
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And then when you look next time, maybe you'll peel a bit of tape up and have a look. And if you're not happy, go again
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If you are happy, well done. It's entirely up to you. So you're going to experiment
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The first few you do are maybe not going to be your best, but just try them out
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If you're enjoying this video, please give me a thumbs up so it transfers to lots of people
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Because we want everyone having a go at this. I mean, talk about a sustainable craft
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It really is a good idea to do. And you get to preserve those flowers that you like
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You can keep looking at them forever. Not the actual flowers, but a print from them
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So you can see I've peeled a petal up. Not quite sure, so I'm just going to apply a bit more pressure
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A little bit more hammering. And then it comes time to have a look what you've produced
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So just gently peel your tape up. I'm going to start with the last one I put on
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And you will find some bits of flower stick to your tape and some bits don't
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And it really doesn't matter. Just take your time and do it carefully
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You don't want to damage your paper. And you can see one of those flowers with the yellow, I've not got a complete flower
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But I don't think it matters. I think I'm still going to be able to make that look nice
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But you can see the blue ones really are obviously bright blue flowers
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And the yellow one at the bottom seems to have stuck really well as well
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So then if they're easy to peel off, you can peel the other bits off
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But if they don't come off easily, just leave them to dry
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It really doesn't matter how long they take. And then you'll be able to brush those bits off
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You don't want to damage your picture. So I've realised that I forgot to record me adding any embellishments to this picture
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So I'm just going to show you that after it dried, before I framed it
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I got a fine marker and I just added some detail. Now you could do that with any colour
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You could add watercolour detail. You could add anything you wanted. Stickers even. It's your art
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Embellish it how you see fit. But one of the things I really like to make are gift tags
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And you'll see a nice, simple gift tag with one leaf on it. So effective
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No creative flair required. Just punch a hole, put a tag on it and away you go
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And cards. I like to use the nice green or brown card blanks
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And then I just take my picture from the front and glue it on
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And all I've done is cut them out using a ruler and tearing them
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so that they look even more natural. So you can see on there I've used the black outline again
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And then I'm going to have another one without the black outline. So get creative, make your own art
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and please leave me some comments below telling me how you're going to use yours
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Thank you for watching and check out my next video
