May Flowers

<p style=”text-align:center”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-563″ title=”&quot;May Flower&quot; display at the library – using discarded books, paint, and a few more things we made a fun Eric Carle-esque flower wonderland.” src=”http://hafuboti.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/3flowers.jpg” alt=”” width=”584″ height=”243″></p>

This is one of those projects where I can only take a tiny-bit-o-credit for anything but putting two other peoples’ ideas together, and then asking the amazing Mary to make it happen. &nbsp;If anything, I actually hurt the project a bit when I tried to help and discovered the best way to&nbsp;attach&nbsp;the 3-D flowers to the ceiling if our main goal was to have them randomly drop and startle both staff and patrons alike. &nbsp;But the end results are absolutely lovely and just brighten my day every time that I come into work.

Here’s where I got my core inspirations: &nbsp;<a href=”http://krokotak.com/2010/03/visyashti-tsvetya/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Our 3-D Flower Inspiration</a>.&nbsp; Yes, this first one’s in Bulgarian – if your browser can translate, then great! Otherwise it’s pretty clear what to do based on the visuals alone. <em>(Gosh, I love the internet!)</em> Instead of sewing, Mary used quick-dry craft glue. &nbsp;<a href=”http://buggyandbuddy.com/giant-spring-flowers-made-with-collage-paper/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>This second inspiration for our 2-D flowers</a> made my mind go “gosh, that paper looks like it was color-washed with paint.” &nbsp;It was a shazam-moment, because up to that point I was planning on using tissue paper again. &nbsp;I excitedly called Mary when she was working at the Main Library and had her gather some larger picture books from our Book Sale that had been sitting there for months. &nbsp;I explained to her that we could color-wash the pages pretty colors and then make all of our flowers, both 3 and 2-D, out of them. &nbsp;She took those ideas and totally ran with them with magnificent results.

<p style=”text-align:center”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-562″ title=”Up-close shot of how beautifully transparent the window flowers are.” src=”http://hafuboti.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/2flowers.jpg” alt=”” width=”584″ height=”494″></p>

Basically, she used some liquid watercolor paints, a spray bottle of water, and a good paint brush. &nbsp;She removed the pages out of some large outdated junior non-fiction books and she would add color, spray water, spread the color over the paper and sometimes spray one more time to create interesting patterns. &nbsp;After the first side dried, then sometimes she’d repeat on the other side – usually using a different color. &nbsp;Many times she left the other side as-is, which was equally pretty.

Once the pages were painted, then she either used a paper cutter to cut out strips of various sizes for the 3-D petals, or would freestyle the large 2-D petals. &nbsp;Then lots of gluing.

<p style=”text-align:center”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-601″ title=”What the 3-D flowers look like without their circular center.” src=”http://hafuboti.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/shinyflower.jpg?w=584″ alt=”” width=”584″ height=”438″></p>

<span style=”font-style:inherit;line-height:1.625″>Finally, minimal tape was used to hang-up the 2-D flowers. &nbsp;She added a fun and unexpected 3-D element to the flower stems with the leaves naturally drooping over. &nbsp;LOVE it.</span>

<p style=”text-align:center”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-561″ title=”Even more paper flowers!” src=”http://hafuboti.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/2.jpg” alt=”” width=”584″ height=”373″></p>

The silly way that I had tried to hang the 3-D flowers? I poked a hole in one of the flower petals and stuck one end of some fishing line through it and taped the heckie-pooh out of the end. &nbsp;Then the other end of the line was looped over a wooden beam and tied with a knot. &nbsp;The majority of the flowers fell off the end of the line. &nbsp;We had to go back whenever a flower fell and just loop the line around a petal (similar to the original inspiration blog) and tie a knot or two with the one end of line. &nbsp;For good measure we’d also tape down the end of the line onto the petal. &nbsp;We had the doors open the other day to let in the springtime breeze and the flowers looked so pretty twirling in the breeze – and NOT ONE fell down with the secondary tying method.

Mary also made a “May Flowers” sign in the front door (I couldn’t get a good pic of it due to all of the crazy reflections on the glass).

My favorite part of this whole thing? &nbsp;I was checking out books to a boy (around 7 years old), and he was looking at one of the giant window flowers. &nbsp;Suddenly he said in a somewhat awed tone “that’s like Eric Carle.” &nbsp;That was never our intention, but it was one of the best compliments we’ve received about any of our displays. <p style=”text-align:center”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-564″ title=”Looook at the preeeety flowerrr…ignoooore the dirrrty winnndow pannnnes…” src=”http://hafuboti.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/1.jpg” alt=”” width=”584″ height=”1607″></p>

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