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How to Press Flowers



In my bid to become more creative over the last few months, I've started pressing flowers. Flowers bought for me by myself or others; ones that have fallen from bushes or been cut from my mum's garden, they hold a sentimentality that only I will ever truly understand which I can now keep forever! If you'd like to do the same, then the process is relatively simple, just follow the steps below:

 

  1. Select a flower that you want to press and cut its stem to the length you want to preserve.

  2. Leave it for a few hours (or even a day) to dry out on a piece of kitchen roll.

  3. Get a large piece of newspaper and fold it in half. Then put this between an open book. I recommend hardback books as they’ll have a firmer hold.

  4. If it’s a fuller flower, more rounded flower, you might need to manhandle it a bit more before the next step. For example, if it’s a rose you’ll need fluff it out and then remove the inner petals so it becomes flatter and more easy to press into a book.

  5. Take your flower and place it between the book.

  6. Gently close the book, ensuring no petals or leaves are being folded within the pages.

  7. Place many books on top of it – you want to have as much weight as possible so I’d recommend a good stack of your heaviest!

 

After pressing the flowers, I didn't have any idea of where to keep them. The first few stayed loose in my room on top of a vinyl cover of Taylor Swift's Evermore album but I realised I needed to keep them somewhere they would be protected. I then decided I'd put them up on my wardrobe door stuck to pieces of card:


 

  1. With some PVA glue, gently stick your flower to a piece of card/thick paper.

  2. (Then I, with some guessing and a wonderful app, PictureThis, wrote down the name of the flower and where it originated from.)

  3. Get a clear, laminate sheet and cut it to the size of your card.

  4. Using clear Cellotape, stick the clear sheet over the card, making sure the flower is secure.

  5. Keep your beautiful pressed flower wherever you'd like, perhaps as decoration on your bedroom wall or in a scrapbook - its up to you!

 

That's it! The process is quite easy once you give it a go. Don't be disheartened if some fail, it's a process that takes practise to perfect. But that's all the fun of it. It's a beautiful and hands-on project that's made me feel closer to my inner artistic and nature-loving roots.





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