Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Celia and Bobby's Bouquet Paintings


Celia and Bobby were married on August 29th of this year. Celia chose to do a painting with her bouquet from CurlyArt for their home as well as one for her mother as a gift! I think they make phenomenal parent gifts at just $100 each with another order, it is just so much more unique than an engraved picture frame…


Celia’s painting (top) is 12×12 inches, while her mom’s painting (above) is an 8×8. The flowers used include both Celia’s bouquet as well as one of her bridesmaids’, bringing in lilies, roses, stephanotis, orchids, and berry leaves to the mix.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Lindsay's Bouquet Painting


Lindsay was married on August 22nd, and contacted CurlyArt to turn her gorgeous wedding bouquet into the above work of art. The painting was done on a 12×16 inch canvas, and includes roses, lisianthus and stock. A photo of the couple is pictured below - so you can see the bouquet before and after! Their photographer was Artisan Events out of Chicago.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Danielle & Bobby's Bouquet Painting


Danielle and Bobby were married on August 22nd of this year, and Danielle’s gorgeous calla lilies, black magic roses and hydrangea were preserved and turned into the above painting by CurlyArt. You can see some of their professional shots here, and the slideshow here from Ray Anthony Photography. Pictured below are three of the four sides of the painting, which was done on an 11×14 inch canvas. Congratulations Bobby and Danielle!


Thursday, November 19, 2009

Heather's Bouquet Painting


Heather was married on August 8th of this year. She had her bouquet sent off after the wedding to be preserved - and I just love the final result (so does she)! The green filler especially pops off the canvas, really showcasing her beautiful flowers.


Some more close-ups of the details - Heather’s flowers include delphinium, roses, hydrangea, stock and other filler. The painting was done on an 11×14 inch canvas, and three of the four sides can be seen below!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Rachel's Invitation Inspired Bouquet Painting


Rachel and Daniel were married on August 2nd of this year at Addison Oaks, and Rachel's wedding coordinator TwoFoot Creative shipped her bouquet to me to be turned into this beautiful painting! The canvas is 11×14 inches.


Rachel’s bouquet consisted of white, blue and green hydrangea. The inspiration behind the painting came from her invitations, created by the lovely Tifany from Gourmet Invitations!


Congratulations Rachel!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Renae's Bouquet Painting


Renae loves the color turquoise, so of course the background color of her bouquet painting had to include that color! Her bouquet was pressed over an 8-week time period, and the all-white flowers create a very elegant look on this canvas.


The flowers used in this painting include stephanotis, lilies, roses, lisianthus, and orchids. It is 11×14 inches in size, with the painting continuing around the sides so that no framing is necessary!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Emily & Andrew's invitation and bouquet painting!


Emily and Andrew were married on June 27th, and decided to have Emily’s bouquet turned into not only a painting for them to enjoy, but also two parent paintings that they will give as Christmas gifts to each of their parents!

I used a 16×20 canvas for Emily and Andrew’s painting, incorporating the invitation, paper used to wrap the invitation, as well as her flowers. For the parent paintings, 8×8 inch canvases were used.

Nesha & Levar's bouquet and invitation painting!


Nesha and Levar were married back in July, you can see their wedding details by clicking here. Nesha’s bouquet was created by Flowers by Heidi, and looked absolutely beautiful - so it’s no wonder they also turned out great on canvas!

This painting was done on an 11×14 inch canvas, and included the couple’s invitation. The flowers from her bouquet were orchids, roses, calla lilies, stock, dahlias, and other filler.

Yao & Chris' bouquet painting!


Yao and Chris were married on June 20th in Ann Arbor, MI. Yao’s bouquet consisted of several varieties of red flowers, including ranunculus, cockscomb, orchids, dahlias and gerbera daisies. Her bridesmaids each carried one of the flowers from her bouquet. Their painting was done on a 12x12 inch canvas. Here are some side views of the painting:

Friday, October 2, 2009

Courtney & Jason's Painting


Courtney and Jason were married on June 19th, 2009. Her painting was one I worked a long time on before I thought it was just right! There was a precarious balance between the pink of the gerbera daisies in the center and bringing that pink in elsewhere in the painting.

The flowers from her bouquet and a bridesmaid bouquet (to bring in more color) included the gerbera daisies, hydrangea, and roses.

This painting is 18x24 inches. One of my favorite elements when using roses is searching for the odd-shaped petals. To the right here, you can see two hearts that I found in the center of a rose!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Sarah's Bouquet Painting


Sarah and Marshall were married on June 6th, and her bouquet was sent to me by TwoFoot Creative to be preserved. Her flowers include calla lilies, orchids, hydrangea, sweet peas, and roses. The size of this canvas is 16x20 inches.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

How NOT to have your bouquet made...

I recently got a bouquet in the mail, and when taken apart, this is what remained. Needless to say, the flowers did not arrive in superb condition since they had not been in contact with water since the morning of the bride's wedding 4 days earlier.

When you discuss your flowers with the florist for your wedding, please let them know that you will be preserving them. Ask how it will be wrapped, and try to get them to use the entire stems of flowers so you can easily keep them in water all day and until it needs to be shipped out. Had this bouquet contained water-loving flowers like hydrangea, there would have been no salvaging it at all.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Molly and David's Spring Bouquet

Molly's bouquet had the most beautiful blues and yellows in it, I was very excited to get to work on it!

There were roses, lilies, tulips, button mums and freesia in her bouquet.

The button mums faded quite a bit during the process, so they were enhanced with some metallic paint to make them pop a bit in the painting.





The background of the painting was done in blue with some neutral ribbons. This will hang in Molly and Dave's kitchen so colors were chosen to compliment that room.

This painting is 12x16 inches.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Salma's Bouquet Painting

Salma wanted her bouquet painting to be very neutral, emphasizing the blush pink from the orchids in her bouquet. She loved the ribbon effect from one of my previous paintings, so that became the background here as well.


The other flowers used in the painting are roses and peonies. White flowers do tend to antique when pressed, which adds a lot of depth to the paintings and for Salma, it helped bring out the neutral colors she wanted incorporated.

This painting was done on a 16x20 inch canvas, and will hang horizontally.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Special Occasion Paintings

I have been asked a few times about paintings from flowers that are not wedding bouquets. Any flowers can be pressed, so of course this can be done!

The painting above was done as a thank you gift on an square canvas. The flowers were taken from a standard store-bought bouquet!

Other ideas for preservation include prom flowers, baby shower, funeral flowers as a sympathy gift, "just because" flowers, garden paintings etc.

Friday, August 7, 2009

A Bridal Show

I would love to get more Southern California business, so I have been going to a few bridal shows to increase my exposure closer to home! They were both first-time shows however, so the turnout was less than desirable...

Fortunately, I have also been networking with various ABC (Association of Bridal Consultants) members and vendors, which has helped get the name out there! I attended the meeting in Orange County in July, and will be visiting the LA meeting on the 17th of this month.

I love my out of state clients, but the advantage to those that are local is that the flowers can be dropped off to my studio! This lends itself to much fresher looking flowers, and a significant savings on shipping costs.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Lorraine's Invitation Inspired Painting


Lorraine had a wonderful "birds and branches" themed wedding, and shared all her storyboard ideas and invitation graphics with me. She wanted the painting to mimic her RSVP card, using her bouquet flowers as the buds and flowers on the branches! I love the result, which is a 16x20 canvas painting to be hung horizontally!



Here is a detailed photo of the flowers, which are all pressed as single petals and then reassembled as whole flowers or buds onto the canvas and sealed into the painting. I add details that are not preserved when pressed, such as the center of the flowers and a few leaves (some bouquets do have real leaves I can use!).

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Surprise Painting from Mother to Daughter



Since this painting is waiting to become a Christmas surprise, I cannot post the bride's name! Her mother took her bouquet after the wedding, and shipped it to me to press and preserve on canvas. She had an absolutely gorgeous array of flowers and colors to use!

This is a 20x20 canvas. The flowers used include roses, freesia, stock, and hydrangea which were blended together on the canvas to create a "secret garden" type feel. I can't wait to hear how the bride likes her painting!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Wedding Gift Centerpiece Painting

This painting was done using not a bouquet, but a centerpiece that a guest took home from a wedding to surprise the bride with later! I love the idea of gifting someone a painting!

Ivy leaves, lilies, roses, and a variety of filler flowers make up this painting. The leaves are something you don't see often in bouquets, making it a very unique feature to this 11x14 canvas!

If you like the idea of sending in a centerpiece - make sure to disassemble the arrangement before shipping! Pulling the flowers together in a bouquet-like fashion will keep the flowers from turning as much during the shipping process and will also cut down on shipping costs.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

My daughter is a wedding planner in Michigan, and also how I got started in the bouquet preservation business. She wanted to do something different with her bouquet after her 2007 wedding, and this was the result!

To test out the idea of using invitations, I started with one of hers - and the result is pictured to the right. Hers was a letterpress invitation, and the thicker paper used in that style invitation is definitely the thickest consistency I would want to use in a painting!

Invitation paintings make great keepsakes for parents and grandparents as well, and can be added to your order for $100 for an 8x8 size. canvas!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Natalee's White Bouquet

Natalee was married in December, and had an all-white bouquet for her winter jewel-toned wedding. She wanted to incorporate colors from her wedding (green and eggplant) into the painting, with just a hint of gold.

This painting is a 12x12, and the flowers used are roses, ranunculus, calla lilies, and a few leaves Due to the nature of their consistency, ferns were painted in rather than pressed.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Angela's Invitation and Bouquet Painting


Angela is not a flower person, so she didn't start out interested in preserving her bouquet on canvas. However, when she saw that I also do paintings incorporating invitations, she had to have one!

Angela's painting is a 12x12 canvas. Her flowers consisted on white callas, the palest of pink roses, and several leaves (some of which were too big to include on the canvas!).

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Sample Painting for Jacob Maarse

This painting was done as a sample to hang in the wedding meeting room at Jacob Maarse in Pasadena.

This was done on a 18x24 canvas, using pale pink, magenta, and yellow roses with filler and leaves.

One of the ways I can keep my costs at an affordable level, is by using extra pressed flowers from bouquets to create sample paintings.

My next sample will incorporate some wonderful banana and monstera leaves!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Tiffany's Callas

Calla lilies are some of the harder flowers to press, as they shrink in size and do change color a bit. This painting is an 11x14, and was created to look like the flowers were growing from the bottom of the canvas. Some of the shimmer was done by the florist to add some glitz to Tiffany's bouquet, and the rest was added so that the rest of the painting was consistent with that!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Laurel's Bouquet Painting


Laurel's bouquet painting was done on a 16x20 canvas using a pale, neutral background. She also had a painting done for her parents, which included a photo of her and her husband (see the post below).

The flowers in Laurel's bouquet consisted of roses, dahlias, peonies, stock, and freesia.

The variety in both style and color made for a very vibrant combination!

Her actual bouquet is pictured here as well, to give you an idea of how the bouquet is transformed once pressed and sealed onto the canvas.

Pressing takes on average 6 weeks, but depends upon the amount of humidity in the air at the time as well as the type of flowers you have selected for your bouquet.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Laurel's Parent Painting

Laurel was my first California bride! This painting was done on an 11x14 canvas using their save the date in addition to her bouquet flowers. This size and style make great parent gifts or thank-you's to other people who played a part in your wedding day!

Stock, roses, freesia and peonies are used here with a neutral background. When a photograph is involved, you don't want the background to be very busy!