On Friday, Nov 14, Martha made mushroom prints with Seal. Wow! I thought they were amazing and was excited to do with it with mini-Martha. I even thought we might be able to frame them and give them as a gift.

First stop  – the store. I bought two pieces of 12×12 cardstock for 50 cents each at Joanns. They had never heard of spray fixative and acted like I was a lunatic (don’t you hate that? Are they there to serve the customer or what?). I found that at Michael’s for $6.49. Then off to the grocery store where we bought portabellas for $2.07 and shitakes for 67 cents.

We came home and removed the stems.  Mini-Martha placed the mushrooms on the papers. We covered them with bowls for 24 hours.

Number 1

Number 2

The result? NOTHING. One portabella made a little bit of a mark. One shitake left a white mark. That’s it. Total dud.

Now, Martha probably had her mushrooms brought in that day from her own private mushroom patch, so I wonder if this craft depends on having absolutely fresh mushrooms. If so, it would have been nice to be told that (no idea how one would find those in November when there are no farmers markets open here in upstate NY). I’m really, really disappointed in this and so is mini-Martha. Thumbs down, Martha.

The other thing I have to say is Martha said you should save the mushrooms and eat them after the craft. Mine had started to mold! Yuck!

Number 1 completed

Number 2 completed