Flower Pressing

One of the simple nature activities I remember from my childhood is flower pressing. Nowadays you see all kind of commercial devices to use for pressing flowers, but flower pressing can be done simply and for free with just a few basic materials you’re likely to have on hand at home.

Personally I use paper tissues and a good, thick, hardback book for pressing my flowers. I’m not going to give you precise directions here; this is art, not science. I will give a few words of advice.

Flowers should be dry before you try to press them – I mean that you shouldn’t do this straight after rain or snow.

Choose small, insubstantial, or thin flowers and leaves for best results – thick, juicy, plant material won’t press very well.

Yellow, blue, red, and green materials give better results than white. White flowers will turn a shade of brown. Maybe it’s a good science lesson, but they won’t make such pretty art.

1. Simply lay your flowers between at least two thicknesses of tissue and sandwich the paper, plant, paper sandwich between the sheets of a thick, hardback book or a telephone directory. Warning – sometimes the moisture and color will make it through the tissue and mark the book. Don’t use a favorite book. If in doubt use more thickness of tissue than you think will be necessary and/or use a book you don’t care about like an old phone directory.
2. Place the book containing your plant materials either back on the bookshelf, sandwiched between other books, or at the bottom of a pile of a few books (maybe half a dozen or so).
3. Wait 2-4 weeks.
4. Go back and check to see if your flowers are pressed.

If you need more precise directions there are a number of websites you can refer to. Here is one article which uses a couple of different methods for drying flowers.

Once your flowers are pressed and dried you can make a variety of craft objects from them, including bookmarks, greetings cards, and pressed flower pictures. Here are a few sites with pictures to inspire:

• How to make a pressed flower bookmartk at E-How.
• Pretty flower and painting bookmarks at Flowerox.com.
• A variety of pressed flowers at Preserved Gardens.
• Cute pressed flower items for sale on Etsy: flower fairy card, pressed seaweed picture, pressed flower magnets.

Have you made pressed flower crafts before, or have you put pressed flowers in your journal or scrapbook?

Cheerful crocus photo is reproduced here under a creative commons license from FlickR.

Related posts:

1. The Edible Flower Garden
2. Going on a Treasure Hunt
3. Green Kids Activities