Paint(ing) without Paint (Brushes) — Inspired by my Children, my Mother, and Mother Nature, Herself
Being a mom, I never get anything done on time. Okay, let’s be honest, I was like that before having children — I got that from my mother. Regardless, since entering motherhood, I have come to truly realize just how precious time is, how it is spent, and that sometimes it’s perfectly okay if not everything gets done on time.
I mean, of course I really wanted to post this for “Mother’s Day”, but more and more, I am also coming to realize that everyday is Mother’s Day when you think about how we all got here. And this goes for ALL mother figures and also for all the mothers who are no longer in this world, but forever remain in our hearts...
It has been almost 10 years since my mom passed on and so of course this day is always difficult for me. Many days are. However, as part of the healing process and also to honour her, my daughters and I have started a new Mother’s Day (and any day) tradition, in which we pick wild flowers together and create some kind of project with them. One of the earliest memories I have with my mom was running (wild) with a handful of (wild) flowers that we would later create art with at home.
Today we ran down memory lane and as I shifted through my thoughts, I found myself reminiscing the creativity my mother always carried with her, along side the abundance of wild flowers we often gathered together. You see — this time, last year, my oldest daughter had expressed to me that she wanted to paint. However, we were all out of paint and didn’t have any brushes on hand either. So, naturally, I thought, “What would my dear mother do?” She, herself, was a wild flower, forever ready to flourish, no matter the circumstance. And that’s when it hit me — nature’s paintbrushes made from wild flowers! And for nature’s paint — a good old cup of tea. Or in this case, a good cup of old tea. That’s right — this time we used some old loose leaf tea that my kids “accidentally” spilled all over the floor a few weeks back. Me being my mother’s daughter, I couldn’t bare to throw it out, especially considering it was from Rain City Tea (one of my favourite local tea companies). “NO, save it! We can use it for a project”. Those are the words that I imagine coming out of my mother’s very loud mouth — guided by her caring heart, of course. Needless to say, the tea was saved, and today it became the “paint” for the wonderful craft that I’m about to share with you. And yes, I know it’s not a cake recipe, but craft recipes are cool too, right?
Anyways, let’s get to it, shall we?
Things you will need:
.(wild) flowers
.tea (bags or loose)
.teacups or jars
.white paper
.appropriate outdoor clothing
.basket for collecting (optional)
Directions:
Go on a nature walk and pick some wild flowers. No, the neighbours garden doesn’t count... My child learned this the hard way. Luckily the owner of the house thought it was funny and cute. Still, it was a “No, honey, we don’t do that”, from me (to my daughter, not the house owner). Now, as much as I encourage you to go outside and immerse in nature, you can very well buy flowers from the store if you need to, or even use old flowers that were previously in a vase at home. If you are going to buy though, try to buy local if you can. My current favourite flower shop in Vancouver is Blossom & Vine. Speaking of supporting local, if you’re looking for some clothes for you or your littles to go out in, check out The Baby Bonsai Boutique! I’m mentioning this, because it’s important to dress appropriately for the weather (obviously) and well, who doesn’t love cute clothing? My girls are currently loving their “grow with me” hoodies (pictures below) and they were the perfect fit for today’s weather.
Okay, so, once you are home, get that kettle boiling and make some tea. As briefly mentioned above, you can use tea bags or loose leaf. You can also make more than one type of tea for different colours / shades. In addition to the green loose leaf tea by Rain City Tea Co, we decided steep some chamomile, rooibos, and black tea bags that were sitting in the back of the pantry for far too long. Make sure to steep for at least 5 minutes or even prepare the tea before your walk. Use different teacups or jars for separating. As you can see, we reused some mini Mason jars from a previous occasion, which worked perfectly.
Once the tea is contained and separated by colour / shade, allow to cool for approximately 10 minutes (for safety sake), if not already cooled from earlier.
Dip the tops of the wild flowers into a tea of choice and “paint” onto white paper. For a more colourful painting, I encourage you to press / smudge the flowers while painting, as this will extract the natural dyes in the petals. And for added texture, feel free to take any remaining flower petals and scatter them onto the paper.
Once you and/or your child(ren) are done painting, allow paper to air dry for the rest of the day or over night.
Note, if you decide to scatter the flower petals, leave them in place, then glue them down once they are dry. After that, you can press them between a book to flatten everything out.
Okay, I think that about covers everything (literally). My daughters and I are absolutely in love with the way this project turned out and we had so much fun creating it together.
I hope you all enjoyed this crafty blog post! And for more visual details, I have created an IGTV video of the process, which I will link below. Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.
Hope you all have a great May long weekend!