Monday, April 18, 2016

T Stands for entertaining and pressed flowers



Last Friday I was preparing a get-together with several friends, including my art friend Kathy.

As I was trying to decide on the table decorations, I was also washing my floral inspired plates, cups, and saucers since they hadn't been used in years.

I had just mowed and picked several of the irises for this vase.

Of course, I needed to rearrange the flowers in the vase, but obviously NOT before I took these photos.

I had to open the muffins so I could get a photo of them without the plastic top, and noticed the calories on the bottom of the box.  Each of these muffins, that are nearly the size of the dessert plates I might add, have well over 700 calories.  Not a good incentive if a person is dieting, but filled with lots of healthy blueberries to counter the extra caloric intake.  They were definitely well received by my friends who celebrated the day with me.  We also had tons of coffee and lots of conversations, too.

After the guests left, I took these to the craft room for the recycle part of today's post.

As I mentioned earlier, Kathy picked up her dies for her die cutting machine when she was here.  Since I had no more dies, I thought I would try something different.   I originally considered doing this in my dedicated-for-crafts pasta press, but decided to try something else instead.

Using the thick plate on the bottom, then a plastic plate over that, I laid down one sheet of thick card stock.  Next I added three iris petals and another piece of card stock I'm positioning on top as I prepared to take this photo.

I laid the top plastic piece on top of the cardstock and flower "sandwich" and ran it through the die cutter three times, using it as a press.

My thinking was these petals are VERY juicy, but they didn't squish OR juice as I anticipated.  So much for this experiment.  Sometimes you don't get what you expect because your thinking is flawed, and sometimes you don't get what you expect because the tools didn't perform as you expected.  I wondered if I had used enough thickness (perhaps several more layers of cardstock would have helped), but by this time, my interest in this technique had waned.  Regardless, I tried, and was able to share that this technique doesn't work with my die cutter.

And although this post goes live on Monday the 18th, this is Day 19 of 22 where I auditioned tableware and one possible tablescape when I entertained my friends on Saturday.  I also attempted to press petals from an iris through my die cutter.  However, I have determined I actually need a hammer to accomplish the look I want.

Now it's your turn to share a drink related post.  Your post can include photos, a place you visited, movies, postcards, books, sketches, mixed media, drawings, paintings, tags, scrapbooking, or other art that is digital, hybrid, or traditional, as long as it in some way relates back to a drink, any drink.  Please share your direct link below and Bleubeard and I, along with the rest of the T gang will be by to visit.


20 thoughtful remarks:

Jeanie said...

I love experiments, whether they work or not -- you always learn. And the iris are beautiful. Maybe it's good they didn't work too well or the petals might be completely stripped! It all looks so pretty!

Valerie-Jael said...

Love all the ideas you had today. I think you needed more pressure to press the petals properly. Love the pretty floral crockery, and those muffins look great! I'm off to bed, but would love to have a muffin! Happy T Day dear, hugs, Valerie

Linda Kunsman said...

nothing like a gathering of friends!! The irises are a beautiful pop of color at your table with those lovely dishes. Really nice to get something special out that otherwise may not get used. I'm sure your friends appreciated them along with those delicious looking treats!
Thank you for sharing your experiment with us too. We ALL can learn by trial and error-how else could we possibly discover the marvelous from time to time? Happy T day!

Halle said...

Hope you had a wonderful time with Kathy! My post is set to go live at 1-ish tomorrow. Crazy day for me tomorrow but unlike last week..I do intend to actually make it around to everyone. I was a very poor participant last week.
Happy T day!

My name is Erika. said...

I love irises and those are just gorgeous. Mine and only just starting to pop up out of the ground. In fact I'm still at the crocus blooming stage here, but my daffodils are getting buds on them. And the vase is very pretty too, as well as your dishes. Looks like you had a fun little get together. Perfect for T day for sure. have a great one. Hugs-Erika

froebelsternchen said...

Wonderful irises and a super experiment... you might have to hammer the blossoms - this will press the colors in the paper better... at least I heard this - didn't try it ever.
I don't mention those wonderful muffins - otherwise my mouth would get watery......

Happy T-Day
oxo
Susi

johanna said...

Susi took the words out of my mouth... i mean: the thoughts out of my head; hammering was my instant thought - i had read this some time before on a blog, can´t remember where.
no Muffins for me today, though they look deli. salty dry pretzels and coke are the choice for my intestines currently...

Meggymay said...

A lovely post and delicious muffins, I wonder if a few more layers of paper would gave helped with the pressure on the iris petals.
Yvonne xx

Divers and Sundry said...

What a lovely table :) Those muffins have 2/3 as many calories as I usually eat in a day. Wow! I've eaten the big muffins before but hadn't realized how many calories they have. I do love blueberry muffins :) Maybe I'll have 2 ;)

Dianne said...

A lovely setting for s little party! Those muffins look so yummy; your dishes and flowers are gorgeous! I have tried getting impressions of flowers, but we literally used a hammer to get the moisture and color to impress on the paper!
To answer about my eye dilation, I guess when you have diabetes ( and I am also growing cataracts) the opthalmologist puts drops in your eyes to force them to dramatically dilate your eye. Then the Dr. can use his instruments to look deep into your eye for any damage (or progression) of your condition. So far I don't have any damage from my diabetes which is great.the cataracts are growing, but not a problem yet. The dilation doesn't hurt when you are in the darkened exam room, but in bright sunlight the glare can be quite uncomfortable. The medication won't allow your pupil to adjust against the strong light until the Med wears off. Can give you quite a headache too. It's a once a year process. Commenting from my phone today...my computer is not cooperating!

Dianne said...

A lovely setting for s little party! Those muffins look so yummy; your dishes and flowers are gorgeous! I have tried getting impressions of flowers, but we literally used a hammer to get the moisture and color to impress on the paper!
To answer about my eye dilation, I guess when you have diabetes ( and I am also growing cataracts) the opthalmologist puts drops in your eyes to force them to dramatically dilate your eye. Then the Dr. can use his instruments to look deep into your eye for any damage (or progression) of your condition. So far I don't have any damage from my diabetes which is great.the cataracts are growing, but not a problem yet. The dilation doesn't hurt when you are in the darkened exam room, but in bright sunlight the glare can be quite uncomfortable. The medication won't allow your pupil to adjust against the strong light until the Med wears off. Can give you quite a headache too. It's a once a year process. Commenting from my phone today...my computer is not cooperating!

Carol said...

Love the table setting ♥ The Iris pressing was a good idea I think you just needed more pressure. :)

Sandra Cox said...

What a lovely lunch. Sounds like you and your friends had a wonderful time. Your Irises are beautiful. I always wanted to press my Irises, adhere them to a dresser and varnish over, but I never did get around to it.

Cappuccinoandartjournal.blogspot.com said...

Can I come over and play? And I want a muffin too.

Krisha said...

Gorgeous Iris in a beautiful vase......so pretty!

Hannah and I did the same kind of flower pressing, but had way different results. We had flower juice all over.....LOL! We used whole flowers.....not an Iris petal. We even added green leaves and got a bouquet smear.... I did place then in the middle of a card base, which may have been thicker than your paper. Try it again with a couple sheets of paper ON TOP of the top plastic plate....should work.

Happy T-day

Lisca said...

Sorry, I rushed out this morning and forgot to comment! That was rude and I apologise. I have had a rather busy morning though as I wrote. The hospital appointment all went schplendidly (results on Thursday when I see the oncologist).
I love your irises. I used to have some in my garden (when I had a garden).
I also love your floral plates. I collect postcards but I think you must collect pretty plates, 'cause you have Christmas plates, Thanksgiving plates and I have seen several others. Very nice. And thank you, yes, I'll have a muffin please...
Yes, postage has gone up over the years and here a postcard in Europe costs 1 Eur 15 and outside Europe 1 Euro 30.(1,31 and 1,48 dollars resp). That is a lot of money for a pensioner like me. I spend about 25 Eur a month on stamps. When those are gone I wait until the next month. With postcrossing I can send as many or as few cards as I want.
I'm off to embroidery now,
Happy T-day,
Lisca

pearshapedcrafting said...

Oooh! Now I know I am still not 100% as I found the sight of your fabulous irises more appealing than the muffins, although on a second look they do look delicious! Your tea set is beautiful! Hugs, Chrisx

Caterina Giglio said...

I love that you share your experiments even when they do not go as planned and either way, they were lovely for T! Such a gorgeous color, too... looks like it was a very nice little soiree ... x

Meggymay said...

I hope you don't mind me joining the fun. i couldn't resist after the comment you left me. I don't know what happened when I added the link, the first one is for a very old post of mine. Sorry, can you delete it
Yvonne xx

Ariel said...

That is wonderful you tried pressing the irises. Most of the time we need courage and patience to experiment new things.I think your trial itself was a great idea. Happy to hear that you had a wonderful time with your friends
Have a lovely week
Hugs
Susan