Among the items in the things from our mutual miniature friend was a punch for split-leaf philodendron leaves, so I had to try it out, of course. But first, paper needed to be painted, as I'd gone through almost my entire stock of leaf paper. Marilyn was putting together a fuchsia kit here Friday, so I painted on the other side of the breakfast bar.
I do like the leaf, but wish I had more than one size; the more sizes of leaf one has, the more convincing the finished plant. This one is intended to go into a planter, which has disappeared - and I'm blaming the cat, who has been batting around every tiny thing she can find! I think she may be heading into a sort of second kitten-hood, as she is 12 years old....
I mentioned a pansy kit; the finished product is shown below. I found I prefer my own method, and there were some things about the kit I rather didn't like. For one thing, the paper is very soft, and didn't take well to my colouring pencils. For another, the pot had plasticine stuffed into it, so the oil in that got into the wood, which will not take paint now. I did the best I could, adding a wee bead of orange paint in the centre of the yellow to add a bit of depth to the flower. (A better thing to use for "dirt" in miniature plants is something like Crayola Model Magic, an air-dry clay that takes paint and glue very well!)
There were only five pansies, so I added a bud. The kit had absolutely no room for mistakes; five heart punchies in purple, fifteen teeny white circles, ten leaves, and five 1" (2.5 m) stems. When I've taught flower making, I've always included practice punchies and longer wires, for those inevitable mistakes newbies tend to make....
I'm still experimenting with the lily and Schefflera kits; my conclusion at this point is that I should quit while I'm still sane, and see if I can reproduce both of these very well-designed plants with some of my own paper. (I do believe I still have a Hanky-Panky lily kit that I've never assembled.) The laser-cut pieces of the lily and Schefflera are perfect, especially the lily stamens and there are some punches in my collection that I may be able to trim to the desired shapes - except for those marvellous stamens; they could only be made with a laser cutter.
My younger daughter arrives this week for a nearly 3-week visit, and the day after she arrives, the Carpenter-in-Chief and I have to drive to Quebec City, for a funeral delayed due to Covid. We'll drive the day of the life celebration, stay overnight and head home on Saturday, and our daughter can look after that darn cat while we're gone! She will likely use my car to visit her best friend not far from here while we're away.
