Paper Flowers For My Mixed Media Collage or Embellished Vases

There's nothing quite like having a delightful time "playing" with crafts and being lost in your creations.  Such is the way I've been for several months now and I couldn't be happier.  Lost in my crafting bliss.

I have been experimenting with collage and painting of glass vases or bottles I have accumulated over the years or from my crafts supplies stash and creating paper flowers for them.

One of the vases I embellished was a round glass vase that stood 6" tall.  The vase above was originally solid blue in color and I wanted it to be a combination of blue, teal, black and white sponge-painted colors.  I added a paper collage to the vase first and then added the sponge painting to it.

In looking at the paper flowers that I should make for this vase I decided to go with a combination of daisy like flowers and poppies. I created three double-layer white daisies and five blue poppies.

I decided to compliment the colors different colors of metallic paints on the vase and painted the poppy blossoms with a combination of royal blue, dark blue, and silver metallic paints and painted their paper-clay centers with a silver metallic paint.  For the double daisy blossoms I painted them a combination of white and silver metallic paint with purple glitter paint and painted the paper-clay centers with a Christmas green metallic paint.  Once the metallic paints were dry I added a clear glossy glazing medium.

Because the vase was bigger than my miniature bottles and because the flowers were larger and heavier I decided to add smaller cubes of the green floral foam to the inside of the vase until it filled it up to within 1" of the top of the vase.  This helped to stabilize the larger floral stems.

Once the flowers were dry I added them to the vase and bent them into the positions I wanted.

One of the vases I embellished was a glass vase that stood 13" tall.  The vase above was originally solid blue in color and I wanted it to be a combination of blue, teal, black and white sponge-painted colors.  Generally I like to collage the vase first and then add the sponge painting but, this time, I decided due to the shape of the vase I would just sponge paint it.

I loved the way it turned out so much with just with the sponge painting that I decided not to embellish it any more.  I was going to add Victorian collage images but felt the beautiful colors should stand on their own.

In looking at the paper flowers that I should make for this vase I decided to go with large daisy type flowers as this vase was so tall it needed tall flowers.  So, I created eight daisy like paper flowers.

I decided to compliment the colors of the teal and royal blue metallic paints on the vase and created three royal blue metallic painted flowers and five teal blue metallic painted flowers. I painted the royal blue blossoms with a combination of royal blue, white, and silver metallic paints and painted the paper-clay centers with a silver metallic paint.  For the teal blue blossoms I painted them a combination of dark teal, light teal, and silver metallic paint and painted the paper-clay centers with a green metallic paint.  Once the metallic paints were dry I added a clear glossy glazing medium.

When everything was dry I added the paper stems to my vase and bent them into positions that were pleasing to my eye.

Because this vase was bigger than my miniature bottles and because the flowers were larger and heavier I decided to add smaller cubes of the green floral foam to the inside of the vase until it filled it up to within 1" of the top of the vase.  This helped to stabilize the larger floral stems.

I created these two vases for the winter season decorations and can hardly wait to put them out.  They're just so pretty and so beautifully blue.  Maybe they'll cheer me up during the snowy winter season when I, too, might be blue....  One can hope......