Real Flower Pounding Printed Top DIY

Tik Tok is full of amazing craft hints and tips, if you haven’t checked it out it is well worth a look. While browsing the other day I came across a video where a lady used real flowers to imprint a design into fabric. I was so impressed, I love it when original ideas come to light and I had to try it myself.

Since watching the Tik Tok video I have found out this craft is called flower pounding or Hapazome, the best flowers to use are flowers with thin leaves that have vibrant colours to transfer, Violas and Pansies work well but you can use rose petals, petunias, forget me nots and impatiens.

What you will Need

• Real flowers
• Fabric and fabric scrap
• Hammer
• Craft Mat or Hard Surface

How to Make

I made a quote t-shirt a few months back, but thought that it could do with a little more detail to make it really stand out. When I saw the flower printing tutorial I thought it would be the perfect addition. You can use a whole range of flowers, but flat faced flowers offer the best printing as they lay flat against the material. If you are wondering how my t-shirt quote looks infused into the fabric, google Cricut Infusible Ink, it’s magic.

You need to make sure your flowers are fresh, if you can’t use them straight after picking them, soak some kitchen roll, wring it out and carefully wrap your flowers inside, you can also use clingfilm to keep the moisture in longer.

Take your fabric, I used a white cotton t-shirt, I placed a craft cutting mat in the middle of the t-shirt to protect the back of the material and to give me something solid to hammer onto.

Take a flower and place it where you want the design to print, press it down gently and cover with a piece of scrap fabric. Using a hammer hit the flower several times, ensuring you hit all over the surface of the flower. I would probably use a bigger hammer next time to cover more of the surface with each hit.

Gently peel back the scrap fabric and check you have imprinted all the flower design to the fabric. Repeat this process until you have used all your flowers. After I had finished I ironed my fabric to lock the ink, hoping this will set the colour when washing. I shall report back how it washed.

I really love this flower craft, I love working with flowers in many forms and this idea is so creative. Each time you hammer a flower, it’s exciting to see what unique design you will get. You can try this technique on a number of crafts such as embroidery hoops, accessories and tote bags to name a few.

I hope you enjoyed reading my flower pounding DIY blog post and that you give it a try and don’t forget to check out Tik Tok for some craft inspiration. You can follow me @i_heart_maggie on Instagram or Tik Tok and you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can see what I have been making, and don’t forget to check out my other blog posts.

PS, If you are wondering what ‘Mardy’ means. It is a local saying from the middle of England that means to be in a petulant bad mood; sulky or grumpy. You may remember the Arctic Monkeys having a song called Mardy Bum…If not go and listen to it!

Love

Claire X