A cute find

Forget-me-not

When I started this blog I promised myself I would update it at least once a fortnight... I completely forgot about it for half a year! So I'm going to start up again and try to keep the momentum going because I have just found some inspiration that will get me crafting again!
 
I was poking around in a charity shop lately, having a nosey at all the nic-nacs they had (as well as the hand-made cards that people had donated, sometimes it's tempting to buy a really pretty one and pass it off as my own haha) but anyway I found something that I was really excited about...

 
It came in the box with instructions and everything! For only £2! The most astounding thing about this find though was the age of the flower press. It was made in 1979, making it over 30 years old. All the pieces of paper and cardboard are there, the screws work just fine and I'm currently waiting to see how the flowers I picked will turn out. (I picked and placed them in the press 3 weeks ago, apparently you have to wait 4 weeks and keep turning the screws to squish them even more.) 
 
 
 

My favourite part about buying this press must have been opening it up to find several delicate, paper-thin flowers that somebody had left in there. If you think about it, somebody might have been nice enough to place them in there when they donated the flower press, or in fact, somebody may have used it once about thirty years ago and forgotten all about the flowers! Who knows. But I have lots of plans for the flowers that I can now turn into embellishments, here's a card I made out of the forget-me-nots....

To make this sympathy card

•  I started by painting the white card to give it a water-colour effect. I didn't use water-colours paints, instead I used some cheap children's ready mixed paints from Wilkos and just made sure to mix and apply them using lots of water.
•  Next, I chose the faded purple forget-me-nots because they looked quite sad, thus they suited the context of my card. I stuck those on with pva glue.
• I stamped 'with sympathy' (using a stamp I bought from Hobbycraft, of course, it was only £1!) onto a pastel green coloured piece of paper which matched the background slighty, and backed this onto a piece of lilac card that I'd cut out using pinking sheers.
• I stuck the tiny piece of ribbon on with double sided tape because it was too heavy for the glue. On top of this I added my stamped sentiment.

 

 

I'm so pleased that now I have this flower press I can make my own free embellishments, it's just a pity I have to wait so long for them to squish completely!