Scrap N Grow

Posts Tagged ‘Wire’

Hello Bloggers!  I hope you are having a relaxing Sunday.  The weather here is cool and damp. April’s showers are beginning to bring some May flowers.

Today, I have another ever-blooming bouquet, daisies.   Daisies are probaly my second most favorite flower behind the coneflower.  There are literally hundreds of different varieties of daisies available in nurseries nationwide, but today’s feature can only be found here at Scrap N Grow.  This rare variety is called  Leucanthemum superbum “Paperie”.  I created this rare hybrid using the Giant Flowers Cricut cartridge.

Leucanthemum superbum "Paperie"

To begin, I cut several sizes of daisies, corresponding flower parts, and leaves using the Giant Flowers Cricut cartridge. Afterwards, I used my McGill Paper Blossoms cushion pad and molding tools in order to add dimension to each of the flower heads and leaves.  McGill’s molding tools have a ball on each end and by carefully rolling the ball onto the surface of the die cut, the paper fibers break down and become pliable for shaping.  I then used Tim Holtz Distress Ink Peeled Paint along with my ink blending tool to shade the edges and side of each leaf.  Next, I used my Scor Pal to score the midline of each leaf, and then crumpled, molded, and shaped each leaf to mimic the characteristics of leaves found in Mother Nature’s daisies.  Below is a closeup of the flower heads.

Close up of Leucanthemum superbum "Paperie"

I then set the flower heads and leaves aside to begin constructing  the flower stems.  I created the stems using 19 gauge dark annealed steel wire.  I cut varied lengths, folded them in half, and then wrapped the wire with green floral tape. Afterwards, I bent the very top of each stem about 1/4 inch flat and adhered the stem to the base of the flower head using a hot glue gun.  I have found that hot glue works the best, it is a strong hold and is quick to cool.  For the leaves, I punched a hole in the midrib base of each leaf before sliding the leaf over the floral tape wrapped stem to the desired location and then worked quickly to apply hot glue to adhere. To avoid finger burns, I used a flat nose pliers to temporarily hold the leaf in the desired place and quickly shaped the leaf on the stem shape till the glue cooled.  I added 1-3 leaves to each flower stem. Lastly, I arranged the completed blooms into a beautiful pitcher for display.  I love how they turned out!  They put a smile on my face.

Thank you for visiting, I hope that you come back again soon for more blooming inspiration. Before you go, if you don’t mind, I would love for you to leave a comment telling me what is your favorite flower.  Chances are great, that I will be making more everblooming flowers in the coming months.  Thank you again and have a fabulous day!

Michelle

Happy Friday the 13th! I hope your day is going well so far.  Today’s post highlights  ”wired blooms” that I created recently.  I have always enjoyed experimenting with different materials.  Today’s wired bloom art made of wire is a new medium for me.   I got the idea from perusing a magazine while in the check out line at Michael’s recently.  The pages contained greeting cards and canvas art embellished with wire shapes.  I thought to myself, “that’s neat”, placed the magazine back on the shelf and proceeded to checkout.  Well, the idea continued to resonate with me for later that evening, I pulled out a bundle of dark annealed steel wire (19 gauge) that I have had for a very long time, grabbed my wire cutters and a wooden dowel. I sat down and thought I better start with a basic flower shape, a daisy.  I used the dowel to help round the petals edges and tinkered with this for a bit, continuously shaping and bending the wire until I felt that the shape resembled a daisy.  Overall, I was pleased with my initial wire sculpture attempt.  I then had  the idea to take the daisy shape one step further and try to create a double decker daisy shape that would resemble one of my favorite flowers, a double decker coneflower.  Again, I bent and shaped the wire until I had a desirable outcome. Later the next day, I thought  I would try a dahlia style flower.  I followed the same steps as before and think that this one is my favorite out of my first three. My blooms are picture below.

Wired Blooms

Creating these were fun and wire as a medium is a flexible and forgiving medium. Since these initial flowers, I have been keeping a list of other ideas that I would like to try and create.  I envision these ideas easily incorporated onto a canvas, onto journals, or even on greeting cards like I initially saw in the magazine at Michael’s.  Stay tuned for future wire art posts.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you come back again soon.

Michelle