Japanese Dye Technique

What do you get when you take a hammer, some flowers,different herbs, muslin, SU cardstock and a lot of imagination? The most colorful fabric and paper to use for your crafting projects.I used a variety of herbs and flowers - parsley, dill, geraniums (pink and red), hibiscus, petunias, marigolds, roses, and delphiniums to name just a few.I placed my SU Whisper White cardstock down first, then arranged the buds, herbs, and petals randomly and then covered them with a piece of muslin. Next I just hammered away getting different colors as each plant species gave up its juices. SU should name it's next green CS parsley since it is such a pretty color. I let the cardstock and fabric air dry. I did heat set both with an iron using parchment paper so as not to scorch the media. The next decision was what to do with my creation.I started with the fabric and decided to make a journal by applying an adhesive to Whisper White CS (8.5 X 11 and scored it in the middle),applying the muslin and smoothing out the edges, sewed all around the outside with a zig-zag stitch and used a decorative stitch and sewed randomly throughout the front cover (for decorative purposes only). I folded some copy paper (8.5 X 11) in half and aligned it with the center of the journal cover and using a machine basting stitch secured the paper down.
I made two cards, one using the Fun Flower die to create a fabric flower and the second one using the Top Note die. Each card color was chosen to enhance the colors created in the fabric.
The cardstock color imprint is basicaly the negative of the fabric. The section that was more greens and yellows (dill, marigolds, and thyme) was used to create a butterfly scene using the inlaid technique. I used the SU Beautiful Wings embosslit, Butterfly die and the Butterfly punch. I saved the purple and green hues (petunia and parsley) for a cardstock Fun Flower