natural pretties

I've had an idea. :)
For this one I was inspired by my wilting tulips, the coming Mother's Day , wanting to do something creative, an art project we did long ago, and Amber's Fairy Place Mats.

Our materials were only pieces of linen, a hammer (a round rock will work just as well) and flowers gathered from the gardens.

I thought at first that we'd just hang them inside embroidery hoops for showing, but instead we're going to frame them for Grammy for her birthday gift.

First we gathered our flowers and leaves.
(note: your fresh design may not look the same when it dries-- many flowers will change colors.)

We cut our cloths, and I wrote letters on them for a pattern for the babes to follow.

We pressed them directly into the cloth-- with another cloth underneath it to protect the fibers from getting too damaged.
sidenotes: The cloth underneath will also be imprinted with colors, so use something that can be marred.
and
I found that the children were better at the pounding than I, they used gentle taps as their strength is less than mine, I kept going for efficiency, and because if it I ripped the cloth a couple of times. Lightly does the trick!
You can also cover the cloth with another to keep the materials from sticking to the hammer or stone, but for this we needed to be able to see what we were doing.
When the children were done tapping the flowers, I placed them into the clothes dryer to heat and to set the colors into the cloth.

That was it!
I think these are lovely for a Mother's Day or Grandmother's gift.