Tag: buttercup
Plants and Pressed Flowers – Buttercups
In the Mid-Atlantic States it is the season of the buttercup. I love these sweet yellow blooms. I thought the clump I photographed recently in a public park was a perfect specimen. I hope to paint it one day as a botanical watercolor. There is one problem with the photograph though. Buttercups reflect light so intensely off their petals, the details of the flower are a bit obscured in the brilliance. I found a great article that explains why buttercups reflect light. You can read it here: Why Buttercups Reflect Light.
Buttercups are one of the best pressed flowers for color retention. I have found I need to pinch away the hard green center before I press them in books. You can gently heat the book or just place it under weight for a few days. I have many flowers to use throughout the year if I am diligent in picking and pressing them in the few weeks they are in bloom. I like to press most with their stems intact. If I chose to use only the flower it is easy enough to snip the stem away. Buttercups combine well with blue lobelia and ferns.
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Pressed Flowers – Greeting Cards
Johnny Jump Ups, moss, Vinca leaves, barberry leaf, violets & wild onion curls
I have several books of this seasons pressed flowers dried and ready to use. The batch of cards in this post is composed with spring-flowering pansies and wildflowers. I glue pressed flowers to white or eggshell cardstock with rubber cement. After they are dry I press the finished art inside a book with a weight for several hours or preferably overnight. I then check for any loose spots. If I find one or more I touch these up with rubber cement on the tip of a long floral pin, and after they are dry re-press in a weighted book. When they are completely dry I position them on a complementary piece of colorful cardstock cut into a standard greeting card size. Below each pressed flower photo I’ve listed the plant material I used.
Common celandine, johnny-jump-ups, honeysuckle leaves & wild onion curls
Butterfly: pansy petals, nandina leaf, maple bud, seaweed stems & unknown weed foliage
Wild rose leaflets, wild onion curl, wild mustard sprigs & johnny-jump-ups
Buttercups
Johnny-jump-ups, common celandine, honeysuckle leaves & wild onion curl
Wild onion curl, maple keys (seed pods) fern with fiddlehead, Vinca springs & unknown weed sprig
I thought this card has a definite heart shape, but my husband didn’t see it. He thought the maple keys looked more like wings. I guess it’s proof of that old cliché: “It’s all in the eyes of the beholder.” I like it though, it’s unique. I am going to try to make some dragonflies with the maple keys next. I’ll post the results soon. Here’s another maple key composition below.
Wild violet, fiddlehead fern, unknown weed foliage, common celandine bud maple keys & wild onion sprig
MINDING MY P'S WITH Q 