I used to love pressing flowers as a little girl and nothings changed. They're just so darn pretty! My folks would often take a book off the shelf, sit down for a read only to have their laps completely covered in pressed leaves as soon as they opened the book ... so they bought me a flower press. Now hubby's lap is getting covered in leaves ... so when I saw this in the charity shop I snapped it up. I see them in charity shops ALL the time, so keep your eye out.
So what can you do with the pressed flowers / leaves?
SO much ... flower locket, decoupage them onto furniture (personal favourite) art, card making .... in fact Melody Gee has made a pretty cool mood board of inspiring projects on Pinterest. What I'd love to make, and WILL make, is a wildflower lamp shade like this one from Wild dreams in the US. So I shall begin collecting now, and when I get around to doing it (eventually) I'll show you how I did it so you can make one too if you so desire. In the mean time ... let's fill those laps!
How to press flowers using books
1 Make sure your flowers are completely clean and dry.
2. Fold a piece of blotting / absorbent paper in half and lay your flowers (spaced out) inside.
However you lay your flowers is how they will be preserved
3. Gently fold the paper over. Place this into a heavy book (dictionary / encyclopedia) and put some heavy books on top ... phone books are great for this. In 4 / 6 weeks your flowers will be ready to use!
TIP! Make a note of when you put them in so you know when they'll be ready. You can put the flowers directly into the book but you run the risk of colour bleeding and sticking.
How to use a flower press ...
Flower presses are made up of two bits of wood, cardboard and absorbent paper, all held together with screws. If you're using a secondhand press you may need to replace the paper / cardboard. Just use some recycled cardboard or a wad of newspaper, and some absorbent paper or freezer paper and cut them all to size. Then it goes; cardboard - paper - flowers - paper ... and repeat.
TIPS! Some suggest changing the paper every 5 days. This is only really necessary if the flower has a lot of moisture it as it, as this can cause the flower to turn brown.
I'd love to see your pressed flowers (and your flower presses!) so please do come and share your piccies on the AHC facebook page. Enjoy my little flower faeries!
JM xx
lovely post! I never new that flower press existed. Could you please tell me the brand of yours? Here where I live there are no charity shops :(
ReplyDeleteHi Mel, ah glad you liked the post. I'm afraid there is no brand written on mine. But you could easily buy one from amazon / ebay and the like! Just search flower press. Failing that I find big heavy books work perfectly well ;-)
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