A Fun Day Pressing Plants!

 I checked out the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge this month and got so excited about it I made a plethora of cards.  Hostess Bonnie's  challenge is Botanical Prints -  to gather leaves, flowers, stems etc from your garden and then press them with your Big Shot or gel press them etc.  Bonnie has links to several videos for different techniques.

So my first card was made using a leaf stem from one of my Astilbe plants - long past bloom but the leaves are still green

I put the stem between two pieces of water color paper and ran it through my Vagabond.  The first card is more CAS and I'm linking this one to the challenge.  This is the print gotten from the back side of the stem and pressed much lighter than the panel that was over the front of the stem (see 2nd card)

I added a stamped sentiment panel up on foam dots, 3 green enamel dots and splatter - using a gold Paint Marker.

My second card uses the front panel of watercolor paper that was laid on top of the face up stem,  It gave a much darker imprint.  I die cut this panel with Ship Lap Builder from the Greetery, layered it over a piece of DP from Ink Drops/Earth paper pad from Craft Consortium..  The ship lap die adds woodgrain texture to the panels and they are popped up on foam dots.  I stamped the sentiment on a strip of water color paper in brown ink and splattered the panel  with the same gold Paint Marker I used above.

For my next card I pressed 2 geranium leaves and a few red single petals that were left on the geranium.  These leaves pressed very lightly on both front and back panels and the petals were very watery and ran across the panels.   I stamped Quinn and Hearts Mini from Lavinia over the pressing using my Misti to get good coverage over the water color paper, and added splatter using a Purple POSCA Ink fine tip pen.  I stamped the sentiment from Heart Felt Verses from Lavinia on a strip of watercolor paper and used it as a seat/grounding for Quinn.  I added Clear Glitter Wink of Stella to her wings but you can't really see the sparkle in the photo.

And finally,  another press from two geranium leaves and a full red geranium blossom - funny how it turns purple when pressed!  I die cut the panel with Nordic Circles from the Greetery, I layered the outside piece over a white card base with foam tape and adhered the pressed circle inside.  I splattered the card with a Purple POSCA ink pen and added the stamped sentiment on a die cut strip up on foam dots.

What a fun day I had in my craft room pressing these leaves and petals from my garden -  now I'm going back in to try out the gel press technique shown over at the challenge.

CAS Mix Up