Guest Design Spot: flower pounding

Please note: this article was originally published on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog. I think enough time has passed that I'm publishing it here as well so that it can go out to my email subscribers and be linked along with my other tutorials.

Hello everyone! This is Jay from IndigoInklings dropping by for another visit this month at Maggie's request. Recently I read about a technique that was done using the Wizard by Spellbinders. It's called flower pounding. Flower pounding itself isn't new. As you might guess, it's been done using a hammer or a mallet and a nice flat solid surface. Flowers were placed atop paper and pounded to release and transfer the pigment. What was different was that this was done with less effort (and noise!) by using a die cutting machine. I decided to adapt this technique for the Cuttlebug and share it here.

Now thankfully, this time of year there are lots of flowers in my backyard. These are a few that I picked just for this project. Love the wonderful variety of shapes, textures, and colors!

What you need to have on hand for flower pounding, besides some fresh flowers, are your Cuttlebug machine and plates and some card stock or water color paper. What I did was cut the sheets in half and then fold each half in half to make a folder. There's no need to be neat about this. I know my Scor-It is in the photo, but it was there primarily to be a nice backdrop.

Here is the sandwich that I used for flower pounding: A, B, and C plates, with the flowers placed inside the folder. I've found that the side that releases most of the pigment is the face of the flower, so if you don't use a folder, then put the bloom face down onto your card stock, then cover it with a layer of scrap paper before sandwiching it and putting it through.

Here you can see that I did place the folder between the plates before rolling it through. You can also see why I used a folder. This can be a juicy project. Depending on what type of flower you use, it can be really juicy! This is why I mentioned that water color paper would also be a good option.

This is what it looked like when I opened up the folder. You can see that pigment has been transferred from these shrub rose blooms to the card stock.

This is how it looked after I peeled the flower petals etc away. Both sides of the folder are potentially usable, so that's another neat thing.

Here is the same sandwich, different flowers. These were much thinner than the first blooms. I had a shim handy, just in case it looked like the blooms needed to be squeezed harder, but I didn't need it. It's a good idea to have at least one or two of them close by though.

Again, here is the folder opened up.

And this is the design that's left once the flowers are removed. You can gently rub the flowers off with a finger. Often you can peel up an edge of a petal with a fingernail then pull it off the rest of the way. I found that using a scrap piece of card stock as a scraper worked nicely, too.

This is one more example with a Bachelor Button. I used watercolor paper for this one. I've had a lot of moisture get forced out of this type of flower before, so I learned from that!

This is one side of the outside of the folder after rolling it through.

This is the other side. I really liked the colors and the delicate look.

Here is the folder opened up. The flower was squeezed from the top then down toward the stem. This is why I also tended to place my flowers near the edge of the folder that would be going through the machine first. Think of the Cuttlebug as a wringer with all of the pigment and moisture getting squeezed out and forced along as the bloom moves between the rollers. It's much less messy to have excess folder at the trailing edge to catch all of that. Yes, as you might guess, that's the voice of experience. :-)

This is one side with the flower parts removed.

This is the other side. The amount of pigment left by the flowers can be impressive. And don't discount the stems and leaves, or the stamen and the pollen. They can all leave color, shapes, and texture behind.

This is a card made with flower pounded shrub roses. Notice the bright yellow that was transferred from the pollen. You might recognize the scalloped QuicKutz border embossing folder that I used as the background for their layer. The sentiment is by Hero Arts and was stamped using Memento dye ink.

Since the pounded Yellow Loosestrife blooms left behind an image so reminiscent of stars, I paired them with the above sentiment from The Little Prince made by Silver Crow Creations, and I added some QuicKutz die cut flourishes.

The focus of this card is that Bachelor Button "image" that was on the outside of the folder. As I said, the delicate look appealed to me and I wanted to go with something more subtle. The stamped sentiment is by Hampton Art Stamps and I added the score lines using my Scor-It.

I made this last card using one of the images made with a shrub rose bloom. I cut and embossed it using Spellbinders Nestabilities dies and layered it on top of white card stock with some decorative scoring that I again made using my Scor-It. The decorative edges were made using the Fiskars Upper Crest border punch. The sentiment is by Hero Arts and was stamped using white craft ink.

So, no tips or tricks using embossing folders this time, but I hope that I've inspired you to try a technique that doesn't get much more complicated than going outside and picking some flowers. I've found that fresh blooms work better, by the way. Again, it's that voice of experience. :-) And for those of you who are Big Shot users, or even owners of the original red Sizzix machine, click on over to my blog where I've described how to flower pound using those die cutters.

Have a good day everyone! Enjoy your weekends! And be sure to have fun checking out all of the special features that will be published on this blog in the upcoming days. :-)

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. :-)

art of flower pounding, using the Big Shot

Pounding flowers isn't a new concept. It's been around for a while. Using die cutting machines to pound flowers and get them to release their pigment onto paper isn't new either. I remember the old red Sizzix being great for this sort of thing, back when the original Sizzix was new, but I'd never tried it. Probably the wrong time of year or something. ;-)

So, this morning I was catching up on my Google Reader subscriptions and came across a blog post in which Spellbinders' Wizard was used to pound flowers. I had to try it. We have lots of flowers around here, and though I may not have a Wizard, I have my trusty Big Shot.


Our poker plants are blooming. So are the clematis and peonies. None of those was really right for this project. Then I remembered that my shrub rose, pictured up above, is full of blooms! These would be great! Nice color, not too big, fairly flat, also lots of them! Sorry that the sun wasn't out when I snapped my photo this morning. It looks so pretty in the bright sunlight, but we were due for rain.


Here's a close up of some of the blooms.


I plucked three candidates for my first attempt at "pounding" flowers with my Big Shot.


I trimmed the stems and placed them--hm, I guess you'd call it face down on my card stock. You can see what I mean.

I then arranged my stack as follows, from the bottom up: multipurpose platform on Tab 2, clear cutting plate, 1/2 sheet of card stock, arranged flowers, scrap text weight paper folded in half, clear cutting plate. You may or may not need to shim, depending on the size/thickness of your flowers.


This is what I got after running it through the Big Shot. There was quite a bit of pigment transferred, but you can also see where the juiciness of the flowers kinda squirted out and made a rather unsightly mess on what had been going to be my card front. This called for a change in plan. LOL!


Here is the card that I made after switching gears. The embossed background was made using the QuicKutz vines embossing folder. The rose leaves are Primas. The sentiment is by Penny Black and stamped using Memento dye ink.


Here's a close up view of the result of the flowers being pressed by my Big Shot. I like the way it turned out, even if it wasn't quite what I'd envisioned when I started. :-)

Addendum: I'll make a separate post at some point, but for Cuttlebug users, this will work in your machines, too. The stack that I used, from the bottom up, was: A plate, Cuttlebug backing shim, C plate, card stock, flowers, another sheet of card stock, B plate. As usual, you may or may not need to shim, depending on your particular machine and on the 'thickness' of the flowers you choose. Just remember not to force anything! :-)