Handmade Paper Craft Flowers

Brighten up dark winter days with paper craft flowers that dazzle!

First, I created a geometric flower template in three sizes in Adobe Illustrator. This program makes it super easy to line up or center shapes.

Next, I cut out the flower shapes on different handmade papers that I bought at art and craft stores. I painted and stamped patterns in acrylic ink on some of the papers to add a dark blue color. Then I layered a bunch of cut-out flowers from small-medium-large. The flower layers are sandwiched between two, one-inch wooden beads to hold the flower together. Each flower is taped and glued to a wooden dowel and placed in a pot.

Encaustic #1

"Into the Blue"
I took a break yesterday and tried a new medium. WOW! That was great! The painting technique that I learned is Encaustic (painting with hot wax). I took a class from artist/instructor Jodi Reeb-Myers at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts.

There are lots of ways to paint with this technique. The two pieces I made were done with mixed media: paper, beeswax, oil paint on a wood support. There is a lot going on in this piece "INTO THE BLUE" (click to enlarge). I tried almost everything possible on this board and almost over did it. It is hard to know when to quit with this medium because you can re-melt the medium over and over again with the heat gun.