FLOWER SHOW

 A flower does not think
  of competing with the flower
 next to it.
 It just blooms. - Zen Shin  

 Philadelphia Flower Show 

This quote was so fitting for my trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show where the theme was “Holland, Flowering the World”. If you’ve never had the pleasure, I urge you to attend the show at least once in your life. You don’t have to be an avid gardener to appreciate the incredible displays of flowers, water, and trees, and the creativity used to make this magical show come alive. Since the bicycle is such an important part of Holland, there were bicycles everywhere. There were entire bicycles hanging from the ceiling, bicycles that were being pedaled with wooden shoes – no bodies attached (very cool!), bicycles taken apart and made into gates and water features. There was also a very creative display of mannequin heads with flower creations on top of their heads. Some of the mannequins had flowers, some had sedum, and others had stalks. All of them were sitting on white poles. So fun!

 Share your beauty 

There were many ribbons, trophies, and plaques awarded at the show. Ultimately, I guess, that's the purpose for many of the people behind the creations, but I can’t help think that it all has to start with their love of the flowers and plants. One thing's for sure though, none of the flowers were competing with each other, and all of them were there to share their beauty with all of us. Let that thought lead you in your artwork.

 Use Your Head 

That Monday I took many photos and videos, and I decided to make a mini photo album combining my art and my photos. I thought my phrenological head stamps (Lost Coast Designs) would be perfect to use to recreate the mannequin heads display. I wanted the heads to be somewhat 3-D, so I used texture paste, cardboard, and adhesive dots. See my finished album below.

 How to 

To begin, I stamped and embossed several of the phrenological heads in black. Next, I used “Light & Fluffy Modeling Paste” (The Crafter’s Workshop) to make several flowers using the following stencils – TCW704s “Mini Cone Flowers”, TCW625s “Mini Class Picture”, TCW375s “Mini Cornflowers”, and TCW439s “Mini Retrobursts” (The Crafter’s Workshop). (Make sure to thoroughly wash your stencils after using texture paste before it has a chance to dry!) After letting the flowers thoroughly dry overnight, I painted and fussy-cut them out. 

Using the phrenological heads and flowers, I chose 5 photos to recreate for my album. I wanted to use the cardboard to back the heads but wasn’t sure what to put that on nor how I wanted to assemble the album. I finally settled on watercolor paper because it was somewhat sturdy. I cut five pieces of watercolor paper into 
6" x 6" squares and stamped them with inks to coordinate with the colors on the flowered heads. Using two 1 ½” jump rings, I assembled the photo album.

 

 

How did you share your beauty today? I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and will join me every Tuesday and Friday for more blog posts at arteverydaystudio.blogspot.com.

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