belly cast complete with pressed ferns and flowers!

Here is a project that's been sitting unfinished in the basement since before little dude was born (he's less than a week from being 9 months old already!). I hope it makes y'all feel better about your own unfinished creative endeavors to read over and over how mine gt started, abandoned, and at last completed at some later date.

I had a whole bunch of ferns and leaves and flowers pressing between layers of cardboard and newspaper and stacks of beautiful art books for many many months on the laundry room floor. Irking me each week as I stepped around them but I had no one to blame but myself!

One Saturday I was helping my daughter give a mod-podge update to an old pencil box and figured I might as well have a go at the belly cast since the supplies were out.

Now while I love love love how the fern looks I am not about to tell you attaching it was easy. The main stem was quite stiff and snapped when I went to lay it across my, uh, lovely curves. I had to hold it down with my fingers while it dried and it is really the glued down leaves that are holding it in place, with a bit of a gap where they meet the stem. So the final result is rather fragile and I must admit I will probably not be able to keep it for my entire life.

The smaller, flatter leaves worked better. Even the smaller ferns or using just the top part of the fern is more flexible and forgiving. I think covering a belly cast with fall leaves for an autumn baby would be gorgeous.

I intend to put some small holes on either side at the top and hang it on a wall with some ribbon but since that step is undone for the moment, you get to see it photographed on the floor!

The one thing I would advise people on doing the belly cast is to have the person laying out the strips do an extra layer along the edges, the outline so to speak. My cast was a little thin in some places along the edge. And really, I would advise doing 2 layers for the whole thing, nice and thick, smoothing out the strips as you go. My friend was very thorough about smoothing them out and the result was quite nice; you could not see the individual pieces anymore. I almost did not want to decorate it after all.

I want to make one: belly cast!

Since I'm sporting a beautiful baby belly of my own these days, you certainly can't be surprised I would be interested in making a belly cast. I just did one for a friend a few weeks ago (twins! surely a once-in-a-lifetime experience?!) and am looking forward to doing mine when I am gloriously grown at the very end of my pregnancy.

There a zillion crazy ways people have decorated them (look on Pinterest). Some are gorgeous and some are just… odd. My current vision is to cover mine with pressed leaves and flowers, all green and summer. This baby will be born in the summer and my others were born in spring. And certainly the metaphor of "growth" is more than appropriate?

The first image above was the closest thing to what I had in mind since it uses dried flowers and leaves. I want my covered though, overlapping lushness. I keep pictures lacy ferns growing upwards. I think lots of Mod Podge will be called for! The second image above uses fake flowers but is covered more solidly. I wonder if I could securely attach a dried flower that was left more dimensional like that?

My poor husband wants to know what the heck I am going to do with it. I have reassured him I will hang it downstairs in my art room. It will be art for my very own self to enjoy!