*This post was created in partnership with Snapfish. All opinions are my own.
If you’re in any way familiar with our family, then you know that we’re just a little obsessed with Colonial Williamsburg here in Virginia. My sister actually works as a writer in the development department for the foundation now, but even before that, we had visited the historic grounds almost every single season. There’s just something magical about wandering the streets of the completely restored historic area, passing horse-drawn carriages, men and women in colonial garb and having the chance to learn about the trades from authentic artists and artisans.
Although I’m a sucker for this type of tradition, I’m not so eager to invite traditional design into our home, what with our ultra-modern tendencies. So, to honor some of my favorite Colonial Williamsburg botanical artwork, I armed myself with some live blooms, my camera and then turned to Snapfish Home Décor to bring my vision to life.
If you’re unfamiliar with traditional botanical prints, you can see an example here in the Williamsburg Marketplace, but essentially these pieces of art feature hand-colored engravings of illustrated floral portraits. Each flower is represented, typically on its own, against a neutral background and finished with a hand-written or typed Latin label denoting the bloom species.
So I took inspiration directly from the source, laying my cut flowers on a white background with their stems meeting at the bottom. After styling and taking the photos (I made five), I uploaded them to Photoshop, increased the saturation and brightness and finished with a bit of Latin text on top. Please don’t look too closely at my Latin, by the way! I tried my best to be accurate, but I may have missed the mark. Happily, only my pro florists and gardeners should be able to notice.
Time to print them out. The totally redesigned Snapfish website made it a cinch to upload and order my final botanical photos. The easy-to-use tools allowed me to upload and order in, oh…five minutes flat. And that was mighty appreciated since I did so poolside while on vacation a couple of weeks back. I was free to be as creative as I wanted to be, and after adding and saving my photos to my Snapfish account and choosing frames, my totally custom floral artwork arrived ready to be unwrapped and hung.
In case you’re as into the idea of modern live botanical prints as I am, you can download the artwork free of charge! Just click these links to download the printable JPGs: yellow flowers (Ranunculus Lanuginosus), purple flowers (Allium Sativum), pink flowers (Dicentra Cucullaria), and red flowers (Rosa Kordesii).
To make it even easier for you to recreate the look of my finished and printed live botanical artwork (or favorite photos of your own!), Snapfish is giving one DGD reader a $100 gift card to shop their collections! In order to be eligible, please comment with what you would do with your Snapfish shopping spree. And don’t forget to also join Snapfish Superfans so that you can share your projects and enter to win even more prizes. Today’s contest is restricted to the U.S. and ends next Wednesday at midnight. Good luck!
Would love to print out some photos from our travels this year! What better way to remember a great trip than with photos!
I LOVE these prints! I’d use the Snapfish gift card to print and frame them for sure. I’m so bad about getting things printing and then just leaving them aching for frames – the fact that I could get it done while ordering the prints is a winner for me!
these are fabulous- love the shadowing on them!
Love love love this idea! Super pretty and simple!
Print my vacation photos into books
Beautiful! Our computer crashed last year & we lost seven years of photos (lesson learned about backing up!). I had hoped to create family “yearbooks” for each year of our lives together. I’d use the Snapfish gift card to start my 2015 yearbook so those images would never be lost!
Oooh – I think I’d have to get these printed on PILLOWS! *swoon*
If I won the Snapfish gift card, I’d be able to get a great start on the blank hallway wall. It’s driving my husband insane!
These are so beautiful!! I would definitely use it to make some fun prints!
These turned out gorgeous! I’m a landscape architect by trade so I know my plants (my plant latin is VERY rusty, so I won’t even try)… but the plant lover in me says GREAT job!!
Soooooo gorgeous. Very creative and lovely idea <3
I would use the $ to put all the pictures from my travels into books.
These photos are lovely. I’d use a Snapfish gift card to print these out for my entry then create some photo books of my quilts. I’ve seen some done by friends and they’re wonderful mementos.
I have always wanted an Aluminum Print! So cool!
I’ll print photos of my kids for my gallery wall (in progress)!
Ok those prints are GORGEOUS!! I am going to print some off for sure!! And I would probably spend the money on prints, I have soooo many unprinted pictures and my walls need some lovin 😉
I would frame them up for my hallway which needs a little color and happiness!
I would print off a bunch of pics and frame them around my house! I need to update the pics I have hanging.
These are so beautiful! Love the idea! I would use the gift card to print out vacation photos and hang them around the house.
Beautiful! I would get these printed and use the remainder to get some prints of my grandchildren! Quick questions — where did you get the frames?
Thanks! The frames came with the prints from Snapfish =)
Thank you so much for sharing your lovely work with us-it is gorgeous!
huge pics for my kids rooms! 🙂
I love your prints just the way they are. I’d love them for my bedroom.
I would love some prints for a (hopefully) new apartment soon!
Gorgeous prints! Love these.
Thank you Vanessa!!
Hello, The links to the prints no longer work, are you able to fix them? Thanks! They are so pretty 🙂
Thanks for making me aware! I’ve updated the links. Enjoy!