The other day I noticed some beautiful flowers in my front yard. This lead me to memories of drying flowers with my mother when I was a child which in turn lead me online to learn (or re-learn) how to dry flowers. It turns out to be very, very simple and the results are quite pretty. So, you will need:
- Flower or flowers. Be sure to pick ethically.
- Newspaper
- Heavy books & added weights
Open a heavy book about halfway. Lay a sheet of newspaper across it and lay one of your flower on the page. Fold the newspaper over and close the book on paper and flower. Weigh the book down by stacking other books on top of it and or stacking a convenient heavy object on it. Leave it for several days in a warm dry place but check process daily. The amount of time you will need varies from plant to plant. The process is complete when the flower no longer feels damp to the touch. I left my flowers alone for 4 days.
When you have finished drying your flowers you can use them in other projects you might have. They may be quite brittle, however, so you’ll want to be very careful as you use them. You could attach them to cardstock with white glue in an eye pleasing manner and frame for a lovely bit of artwork for your walls or gift for a friend. You could arrange (with white glue) on a bookmark sized slip of cardstock and then use transparent contact paper to laminate it for a very lovely finished bookmark. You could turn botanist and make sample cards with your specimens that you can catalog, learn from, and share. There are many possibilities.
Let me conclude by sharing the website I referenced: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-to-press-flowers.html
If you dry some flowers of your own, share the pictures with us. We’d love to see them.
