You can press and dry delicate flowers, then use them to make beautiful cards and stationery.
- Fresh, delicate flowers
- Phone book
- Good quality paper (to make the card or stationery)
- Scissors
- Glue
- Tweezers
- A brush
- Optional – Coffee filters
Instructions
Pick some delicate flowers and leaves – sturdy flowers and thick leaves do not work so well and take a lot longer to dry than the delicate ones. Some plants that work well are California poppies, buttercups, tiny daisies, clover, ferns, pansies, and thin-petaled blooms.
Press each bloom/leaf in a thick telephone book. Some flowers will leave a bit of color on the pages when you’re done, so ask your parent’s permission before using a book of theirs. You can protect the pages of the book and speed up the drying process by pressing the flowers between flattened coffee filters. The coffee filters absorb a lot of the moisture as the flowers are pressed.
It takes at least a week or two to completely dry out and press a flower – bigger blooms take longer.
When the plants are dry, carefully remove them from the book.
Arrange them on your paper in an artistic manner. You may have to trim some stems with scissors.
Remove the plants, remembering where the plants were so you can put them back later. Brush a thin layer of glue on the paper where the dried plants were.
Carefully put the plants back in place. This can be difficult and using a tweezers to place them on the glue can be helpful (adult help may be needed at this stage).
Make sure all the plant material is touching the glue and lying flat on the paper. Let the glue dry completely.
You now have beautiful stationery or cards!
