Celery Art

In my quest to do/try more things I have pinned in pinterest, I made a quick piece of wall art last week.

This was actually one of the first things I had EVER pinned, so I was pretty psyched to try it after I made a fruit and veggie trip to Costco. After I had cut up and prepped all of the food for eating, I realized, that I had left over veggies for an art project!!

Here is the original "pinspiration":

Using cut celery as a stamp!! Genius, right?

Well, I learned some things along the way. I started with some thick watercolor paper. I didn't want to use regular printer paper, so I just grabbed this so the colors wouldn't bleed. I had 4 cut celery stalks and I picked some paint.

I dipped the celery end into some paint and made sure it was squished around really good and picked up the paint.

Lesson 1: Don't cut the celery stalk down too low or the "flower" is all mushed together and then the paint just looks like a blob. Make your lowest cut up farther on the stalk so there is room for the stalks to "spread out." You can see what I mean in the picture below (look at the middle of the stalk...it's a big blob).

Lesson 2: Don't push too hard on the celery stamp when you use it or the paint just bleeds together and there is no stalk separation (lesson 1).

Lesson 3: If you don't push hard enough, it looks like an accident. And this is definitely art that you want to look intentional. Do you see the top left light blue stalk? That was one that didn't get pushed hard enough.

It was a fun, quick project, but probably not something I'd frame or hang. Now if Avery had done it, I'd be the proudest Mommy in town. It was fun, but might be cuter in red or pink on ivory cards for Valentine's Day or something.

I did this project in less than 10 minutes, including set up and clean up. Easy peasy. I think it would be fun for kids too, with hand guidance so that you didn't end up with celery flowers on your wall :) I'm glad I practiced and I might be trying this with Avery the next time I buy celery. Happy stamping!!

Anyone else try something they saw on pinterest lately? Did it go according to plan?