So Chip has inspired me. I've been collecting seeds from my garden as various flowers get done and realized that I could make paper packets pretty easy. I scanned a sketch of the flower and made four to a page with Word. The hard part was remembering were the "turn text sideways" button was. And then I colored each individually with colored pencils. I think they turned out pretty well and will make nice additions to Christmas presents this winter. (Which is why I can't show them off to family!)
The pictures are pretty bad, but I think it shows what I did.
22 comments:
I think that's both nice and clever.
Bravo!
Similarly, I have made some cards, but not pop-ups, because of Chip. Not sure if folks like receiving them, but I enjoy making them.
Look at that. ChipA may started something here.
Can he singlehandedly... (not really ;) save the postal service?
(Well, maybe I shouldn't set the transformer sights so high for him)
Very nice, Synova. Where'd you find the template for the envelope?
What a nice idea. Your gift recipients will love them!
Beautiful!
Great work Synova.
Does anyone know if you can grow pumpkins on a table. I have a vine growing in a raised bed, and it got bigger than I expected, and is now going over a wall. I wanted to have the pumpkin sit on a table at the base of the wall so the dogs don't water it, because they seem very concerned about plants getting enough moisture. They appear obsessed with the duty. So, does the vine have to be on the ground or can it be elevated. It is, of course, rooted in the ground, but I worry that the little rooty fingers that come out all along the vine need to get in the soil. Is that true?
Deborah, I just made an 8x8 cell table with 1 1/4 inch margins on the page and then adjusted the sizes of the cells and changed the table lines so they were dotted and light orange.
Most of the cutting ends up on the dotted lines but I have to eyeball the cuts through the margins.
I did do a prototype, though, to test how big the flaps had to be.
I think you can put your pumpkin on a table, Bagoh. I've never done it but people grow those viney melon-things on trellises so it must be okay to have them off the ground.
That is wonderful.
Chip is indeed an inspiration. He inspires me with his food blogging.
It makes me think of combinations and techniques I never would have tried.
So cool, Synova.
Thanks for all the nice remarks. :)
Does the chocolate flower smell like chocolate. What species is it?
Estos son muy elegante.
Does your printer not do color? Did you color each picture once then print multiples, or color each one after printing? That's how I read it.
I practiced making painted strokes with a child's watercolor set. The idea is how much to load the brush and how quickly to deposit the color, that is, take a minute to learn how the brush works. It does take a bit of technique. That is why those pen brushes Palladian used are so ace. Sometimes a dry brush is better and you don't know how it looks until you practice a moment on a piece of scratch paper.
Then, in light pencil draw a simple chile plant so you know where to place your marks. Just a few leaves, and a couple of chiles in another color. So two colors. With chiles the colors can mix, they do that in real life as they turn. And paint the leaves and the chile as if it were Japanese calligraphy, that is one simple stroke for each thing.
When dry, highlight in pen, draw the stem in pen if you like, add a touch of detail. But only partially.
Then, here's the cool part. On the back of the drawing, using an x-acto knife or a needle or pin, gently tear through the paper half way and insert an actual chile seed. Do not glue. Cut or scratch out a tiny pocket for the seed. Do this, say, four or five times.
Cut the paper in a circle to fit a standard pot. Usually 4" diameter.
See where this is going?
Instruct the recipient to place the drawing on top of a pot filled with dirt and water it, for the chile plants to grow through your little painting.
This creates a disturbing psychological conflict. Your little painting must be destroyed for the plan to work.
I used chile seeds somewhat of a novelty that are supposed to grow in to chiles that look like a penis, to help assure they'd be planted.
Painting the penis chile is like drawing a couple of stacked S's. Little green comas for sepals. Then incompletely outline in ink. So the whole thing has a careless sketchy appearance of nonchalance.
But alas, after all that, it didn't work. The woman said she liked my little painting too much to destroy it. So maybe this isn't such a great idea after all.
Your see packets are lovely Synova. Much better than I can do myself. Yours look so lady-like and precious. I cannot do that. I'm so well chuffed. *glees*
Yes, Chip, we don't want to destroy a pretty drawing! A cute idea my sister did once with her daughter, to send in a card to our mother, was to 'make paper' by shaping shredded white construction paper, mixed with water, into a glob. Then pressing it flat, with seeds sprinkled and mashed in as the paper was flattened to about a quarter-inch. And then left to dry. Then put on the front(?) of the card with instruction to place in pot of dirt and kept watered. The key, I think would be to use seeds that sprout and grow very easily, such as zinnia, marigolds, etc.
Berlandiera lyrata, I think. It does smell really nice even from a considerable distance and I *suppose* it sort of smells like chocolate/vanilla. The plant is scraggly and the flowers close by noon. It's pretty enough but it's not getting by on it's looks.
I've got some volunteering and I've seen big mounds of it in the ditch down by the freeway so "drought tolerant" is a good bet, too.
Chip, I colored each one after printing. I thought it would look less manufactured that way. Plus, my grand foray into Photoshop was to figure out how to crop the scanned sketch and use the eraser tool for any smudges.
My kids all have art/drawing tablets and could do the whole thing like a pro.
As for brush markers... I think we've had a grand total of four of them on account of not cheap.
Me: Hey, I found a Copic marker and it's not dried out.
Kid: *grabs marker and runs*
Me? I'm going to buy some Prismacolor pencils from Amazon... about half price compared to Hobby Lobby. The ones I've been using are pretty poor. Also, it turns out that Geosciences involves a lot of coloring, so I can claim they're for school.
"It's pretty enough but it's not getting by on it's looks."
:) It's a fighter.
I'm going to buy some Prismacolor pencils from Amazon
I've had my set for over ten years with a few Derwents thrown in for extra color. I love the way they layer. They're the gift to myself that keeps on giving!
Fun post. With this recognition for inspirational "chippies" everywhere:
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
John Quincy Adams
*Missing from the list is "grow more" with that yet to happen!
I've seen this guy do a demo of using Prismacolor... really do for certain follow this link...
http://markferrari.com/art/colored-pencil/
really do for certain follow this link...
Unbelievable! In addition to the art I liked this description:
I loved colored pencil's precision and meditative, tactile quality. The images seemed to flow down my arm and out onto the page through my fingertips.
Yes, MamaM, right before he explained that he's gone digital. Unfortunate, but I don't blame him.
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