flower pounding with original Sizzix

I pulled out my old red Sizzix machine to answer a question that was asked regarding my flower pounding post of the other day, that is, how would this be done using the original Sizzix. I correctly anticipated using the cutting pad as well as the magnetic converter. Not bad considering I haven't used this thing in ages. ;-)


As it turned out, that was not nearly enough of a platform to apply good pressure to the flower that I had sandwiched inside a piece of folded card stock.


I pulled out some of these--they're the backings to the packages that Cuttlebug embossing folders come in when they're brand new. I save them to use as shims. They're nice and sturdy and much too useful to throw away.


So here you see the original Sizzix with six Cuttlebug backing shims, the white cutting pad, the flower inside the folded card stock, and the magnetic converter in place and ready to go.


I moved the stack into position and cranked down on the handle a couple of times. I could tell that I'd applied adequate pressure when I could see some of the moisture seeping through the card stock.


Here's a close up of one of the sides of the opened card stock folder.


And here's how it looked after I removed the flower material, leaving only the pigment. The flower had been a freshly picked Bachelor button, by the way.


This is a clematis petal that I'd picked up off the ground on my way in from picking flowers. It had looked fresh, but probably wasn't as fresh as I'd thought. Still, I got some color out of it.


And this was part of a spike of sage blooms. This was also freshly picked. Sorry that the photo is a bit out of focus, but I think you can still see that the 'pounding' released a fair amount of pigment.

So, that's flower pounding using the original Sizzix. Fresh flowers work best, and you'll need to do some shimming to get enough pressure to get a nice release of pigment from your blooms. I have to say that it works quite nicely though, and you don't get the same blotchy look of the flowers that are put through the rolling process of the Big Shot or Cuttlebug. Both of those machines squeeze the moisture from the flower and push it back as the flower rolls forward (imagine damp cloth being put through a wringer), so there tends to be some puddling at the end. Didn't have that problem with Old Red--yet another reason to keep it around. :-)