Hammered botanicals (flowers & leaves) with a Big Shot

 I received one of my exchange cards this week and it featured a beautiful botanical print on the front!!! She mentioned inside that she had created the print by pressing the leaves through her Big Shot.  I went looking on line for some instructions and found this video tutorial  and these step by step instructions.  This morning I thought I would give a go!!  I collected leaves and flowers from the yard and moved my Big Shot to a separate table so I would have lots of room.   What fun!!!!!!!  Just a note to say that the squishing gets a bit messy with the Big Shot so I would recommend adding a layer of paper towel to the sandwich to catch the spills especially at the final end where all the liquids end up.

 So you can see that the papers I created look awesome!!  Looking forward to crafting with them once they are dry.
So you use your Big Shot with all the platforms and two plates.  I put both of the plates on top with my botanical sandwich in between.  You can see here some of the botanicals I used.  You end up with two prints because you put a piece of white cardstock on the bottom, add your flowers and/or leaves and then lay another over top to create your botanicals sandwich.  It works best with fleshy flowers and leaves but they are also the ones that create the most liquid so be prepared with paper towel.

The first one you see there is one large chives head which has been dismantled and distributed over the half sheet of white cardstock.  I split the stem and cut it into pieces and laid them randomly among the florets.  This works very well!!  They are both juicy enough to give a good print.
Next, I used geranium flowers.  These were dead headed off the plant two days ago and were sitting on  a tray drying so I can use the petals in handmade paper.  I used willow leaves with them.  The willow leaves are not fleshy enough but the geraniums are very juicy so together they gave a decent print though there was not very much green in it.

 For the third one, I used geranium buds, mint leaves and a few leaves off my potato plant.  This worked very well though the mint leaves were not a juicy as I originally thought they would be the potato ones were perfect!!!  There a few potentilla leaves as well and they are not really juicy enough either.

For the fourth one, I used geranium leaves and radish leaves.  This combination worked very well and made a very good print.  

Forgot to take a photo of my last print which I made use coleus leaves.  That was perfect too!!

This is so totally fun!!  You don't need a Big Shot - a plain old hammer will do the job perfectly and give you a bit of exercise to boot!!  A little less mess with the hammer because the juices are not being pushed around.  So think slightly fleshy leaves and flowers for this technique.
If you don't have a garden or flower beds or pots consider that you can probably get some at the grocery store - radishes or carrots with the leaves on, any of the herbs, kale, spinach or lettuce might work, thin slices of onion, beets or carrots might work.
On the other hand, any empty lot in town might have a good selection of options - dandelions with leaves, thistles and maybe even grasses might give good results.  Considering checking out the local flower beds for any plants that need dead heading - marigolds, impatiens, petunias, pansies, etc.  Or ask your friends if they can spare a few from their planters or gardens.  One bonus
I ended up washing up my plates and platforms to ensure that the juices I produced with them this morning have all been removed and will not affect my paper die cutting later.
If you give this a try please leave me a message and link to where you have posted the fun papers you have created!!!

Therese