Make Your Favorite Springtime Flowers!

There are so many incredible benefits of using wood flowers but one of my absolute favorites is that you can recreate their fresh flower counterparts at any time of the year! Here are a few of our favorite spring fresh flowers and the wood flowers that can be transformed into them.

Anemone

OYL Flower: Ginger

Painting Technique: Hand painting.

• Left Finished Flower - Dip a flat paint brush directly into a navy blue/black paint and paint the center twist. Next, dip the brush into water. Using the paint from that center section, start pulling the paint up to the edges of the wispy pieces of the ginger. Keep dipping your  brush into paint when it is dry to ensure the paint from the center can be pulled onto every wispy.
• Right Finished Flower - Same technique as above except only pull out the center paint slightly. Leave a raw part of the wispies and apply paint directly just to their edges.

Carnation

OYL Flower: Carnation

Painting Technique:

• Top Left - Carnation in raw, undyed form
• Top Right - For this one, we used a straightforward dip dye method.
• Bottom Left - Dip the edges in your paint/water/glycerin mix and while your flower is pointed down, shake off the excess. Turn the flower upright and spritz with a water/glycerin mix. This will help the paint spread to the center gently.
• Bottom Right - For a harder color edge, use spray paint and only spray the outer edges.

Crocus

OYL Flower: Gardenia

Painting Technique: Hand painted.

• Wet the gardenia and paint the edges of each petal with paint. Spritz with your water/glycerin mix to let the paint spread toward the center. Once the flower is nearly dry, paint the center an orangey-yellow.

Daffodil

OYL Flower: Celeste

Painting Technique:

• Left Finished Flower - Dip dye method!
• Right Finished Flower - Pull back the bottom, spikier petals and dip dye just the center.

Daisy

OYL Flower: Wild Double Daisy (larger flower), Daisy

Painting Technique: Hand paint the center of the flowers. Use a small spritz of water/glycerin to fully cover the centers.

Hellebore

OYL Flower: Charleston

Painting Technique: Hand painted.

• Apply paint to the edges of each petal. Spritz with your water/glycerin mix to let the paint blend subtly. Once the flower is nearly dry, paint the center a greenish-yellow.

Pansy

OYL Flower: Hydrangea

Painting Technique:

• Top Left - Hydrangea in raw, undyed form
• Top Right - Wet flower, paint inner creases, spray with mix, paint center when dry. Check out the Blending Colors section of this blog)
• Bottom Left - Dry paint inner creases, dry paint outer edges, spray full flower, paint center when dry
• Bottom Right - Wet flower, paint the outer petals in burgundy, paint the inner petals in yellow, spray center, dab black paint in the center creases

Peony

OYL Flower: Spring peony bud (top left), Ruffled peony (top right), Peony (bottom left), Mature Peony (bottom right)

Paint Technique: All hand painted using the Painting Delicate or Curled Flowers from our Hand Painting 101 blog!

• Add paint directly to the petal creases, wet brush, pull paint toward edges.

Primrose

OYL Flower: Mona Lisa

Paint Technique:

• Left Finished Flower - Wet the mona lisa and paint the edges of each petal with paint. Spritz with your water/glycerin mix to let the paint spread toward the center. Once the flower is nearly dry, paint the center yellow. Use a small spritz of water/glycerin directly on the yellow so the paint can drip down the wispy center section to fully cover it.
• Right Finished Flower - Use the same paint technique as above but to get that almost star-shaped center, bring the yellow pain to 5 points at the base of the center petals.

Ranunculus

OYL Flower: Ranunculus

Paint Technique: Spin method (outer petals) and hand painted (centers)

• Left Finished Flower - The spin method to start! Mix a light pink paint with water/glycerine in one container. While holding the center of the flower, turn it on its side and dip in the paint mixture. Spin the flower until every side has some paint on it but the center remains raw/undyed. Next, mix a darker pink paint with water/glycerine and repeat the spin method but only on the 2-3 outer layers (making sure some of the light pink paint is what is showing closer to the center). For the center, dab your paint brush in green and hand paint. Brush on a little bit of yellow paint on the edges of the innermost petals and spritz the center lightly with water/glycerin.
• Right Finished Flower - use the same method as above, just without the darker pink outer petals.

Trillium

OYL Flower: Trillium

Paint Technique: Hand paint center. Apply paint directly to the center of the flower, dip brush in water, pull paint up inner petals just a smidge.

Shape Technique: These flowers are wired and the easiest way to shape it is to shift the outer petals under the inner ones (as you can see in the far right picture).

Tulip

OYL: Tulip

Paint Technique: All hand painted.

• Top Left - Tulip in raw, undyed form
• Top Right - Mix your paint with a little bit of water/glycerin. Dip a soft, flat paint brush into the mixture and apply all around the bottom of your Tulip. Dip your brush into water and pull the paint up to the top of the petals. 
• Bottom Left - Using a small, round paint brush, apply your paint to the petal edges/creases and in short lines on some of the petals. Dip your brush into water and smooth/soften out those lines.
• Bottom Right - For this tulip, I combined the two previous painting techniques. Add the yellow paint as done in the Top Right flower and add the red along the edges like in the Bottom Left flower. You also want to get a little of that red on the top of the petals (where the tulip opening is).

And there you have it - some of our favorite spring flowers created from everyday wood flowers! Have any others you would like to see? Let us know in the comments!