Hammered flower art is an amazing art and science activity all in one! Encourage the kids to experiment with different flowers, grasses and leaves and see what imprints they leave on the fabric or card. Try different patterns and flower arrangements to see which you like the best.
Preparing to make Hammered Flower Art – Picking flowers
Firstly, you’ll need to pick some colourful petals and blooms. Take a nature walk or explore your garden and pick some colourful flowers (the more colour the better).
Make sure you pick a variety of colours and types of flowers and leaves, so you can experiment with them and see which ones work the best.
Gather Your Supplies
- Hammer, mallet or rolling pin
- Flowers from the garden or a nature walk
- White or natural cotton fabric (an old pillowcase, shirt or hanky is perfect)
- If you don’t have any fabric you can use, you can use thick paper
- Kitchen towel
- Chopping board
- Newspaper
- Sellotape
How to make Hammered Flower Art
- Lay a couple of sheets of newspaper on top of your chopping board and then lay your fabric on top of the newspaper.
- If you’re using a pillowcase, you might want to put the chopping board and newsletter inside the pillowcase, so you only dye one layer of fabric.
- Place your flowers on top of your fabric (randomly or in a pattern).
- Put 2 sheets of kitchen roll on top of the flowers and sellotape your ‘sandwich’ of layers together (so the flowers don’t move around).
- Take your hammer, mallet or rolling pin and bash all over the top of the kitchen roll. Please take care of fingers!
- When you’ve bashed the whole design, take off your sellotape and carefully peel off the kitchen roll. If you’re happy with the effect, take off the petals and discard them. If the imprints are faint, put your ‘sandwich’ back together and continue to bash the design.
- Display your creation with pride, you could frame your design if you used a scrap of fabric or perhaps turn it into a flag or bunting.
Alternatively you can watch the recorded hammered flower art craft along video on YouTube. (Start the video at 2.45).
Tips and Side Notes
Adult supervision is recommended for this activity and I highly recommend you try it too – it’s very fun and therapeutic!
It’s a good idea to do this activity outside or on the floor to protect your furniture.
If you’d like more ideas on crafting outside, you can see more summer craft ideas on the blog.
I hope you and the kids have a blast creating some hammered flower art, let me know how you get on in the comments and please tag me in your photos on socials @madebymecraftparties.
