Do you enjoy looking at the pretty flowers you've grown in your garden? I know I do! Wouldn't it be fun to preserve some of them and keep your favorite flowers on display all year long? Of course! One way to preserve them is to press the lovely flowers!
There are a few different ways to press flowers - press flowers with a book (this may take several days or weeks to do), press flowers with a flower press (this can be very time consuming and or expensive and may take a few days to weeks, too) press flowers in a microwave (This process is faster, creating a dry flower in a matter of minutes rather than days. and press flowers using an iron (it's another way to speed up the process of drying flowers).
Welcome to this month's Sustainable Craft Challenge Blog Hop hosted by Julie @ Sum of Their Stories. This challenge is all about sustainable crafting! Each month is themed and all projects must have some sort of a sustainable element to them. This could be an upcycling or recycling element, or something that reduces waste, uses leftovers, etc. The theme for this month is - Flowers! And my project is all about preserving a few of my favorite spring flowers by pressing them with an iron and then adding them to a glass vessel using a decoupage medium for a stylish finish! To start, select the
flowers you want to dry. Keep in mind that it's best to pick flowers after the dew has evaporated. You don't want the flowers to be wet. Since I had a beautiful display of early spring flowers such as phlox, azaleas and snowballs in my backyard, it was a no brainer to use them for this project.
It's a great way to keep favorite flowers all year round by pressing them with an iron. Of course there are perhaps better ways to dry and press flowers, but this is one of the easiest and quickest ways for me to preserve them!Materials Needed:
- Fresh flowers
- Iron
- Parchment paper
- Mod Podge
- Soft brush
- Glass vessel
Once you've picked out your flowers, cut each flower at the base, close enough to remove the whole stem while still keeping the flower intact. I'm using Phlox,
Azaleas,
and Snowball, which looks like Hydrangeas but they're not! This plant blooms in late winter and early spring.
Arrange the flowers on a sheet of parchment paper. Since the azaleas were bulky, I picked the petals apart and removed the stamen. Then I arranged the petals in circles.
I also tried arranging some azaleas whole and with buds on the parchment paper to see how they would do pressing with an iron. I also picked the snowball flowers apart. They ended up looking like beautiful larger phlox with five petals. I had a red azalea bush in my front yard and tried a couple of those along with a few leaves.
Included in one bunch to iron press, were a couple of tiny phlox from my garden, plus a fallen petal from a vinca nursery plant that I picked up.
After arranging all the flowers and petals on parchment paper, place another piece of parchment paper on top.
Preheat the iron on the low setting, no water or steam. Then place the iron on top of the flowers for about 10 seconds.
Some articles say not to move the iron, others say to go back and forth. I did both. I think moving the iron back and forth helps to further flatten the flower instead of just placing the iron on top of the flower. If you hear the flowers sizzling (which I didn't) this means there is still moisture in the flowers and as long as they are sizzling, the flowers aren't completely dry. Repeat keeping the iron on the flowers for 10 seconds at a time until you don't hear any sizzling.
Let the flowers cool in-between the parchment paper for a few minutes. Pressed flowers are extremely fragile. Handle with care! You might also see where they say use tweezers to move and hold the pressed flowers. The first time I tried removing the pressed flowers from the parchment paper using tweezers, I poked holes and tares in the petals. Now, I gently roll the parchment paper away from the pressed flowers to release them from the paper and gently pick them up with my fingers.
Flowers can mold if they still have moisture in them, break, bruise or completely lose their natural colors, as you can see with these. The azaleas are not as colorful - actually faded, and look how the vinca turned out. Plus, all the flowers actually shrunk in size, too! I had read that white flowers will turn brown, along with spots on green leaves! I can attest to that. Just take a look:
What a bummer! Luckily, I did manage to get a few good flowers from the bunch for my project!
Let's start with a clean glass vessel, vase or container. Use alcohol to wipe down any oil and residue left from using soap and water to clean the glass.
For this, the petals of the azaleas will be added one at a time. to create the flower. Using a soft brush, add a light coat of Mod Podge or a clear-drying decoupage medium to the side of the glass where you want to place the pressed flower.
Then, add a light coat of Mod Podge to the bottom of the flower petal. Place the petal onto the glass and gently smooth out any air bubbles with your fingers. Continue adding petals to the glass using Mod Podge moving around to create a flower image and then . . .adding phlox around to create a decorative design.Once one side is done . . .decoupage another azalea flower and phlox on the opposite side using the same technique.After the designs are finished and the Mod Podge has dried, be sure to seal the pressed flowers with additional coats of Mod Podge. What a lovely way to preserve spring flowers!
Be sure to check out all of the "Flower" sustainable crafts projects listed below:
The attached self adhesive felt will be the lining of the bag.
Next, measure around the coiled rope to determine how much self adhesive felt to cut for the middle side. (17")
Then cut out a piece 17"x3.5" long and wide. Because the manila rope is so stiff, I will use twine to cover the self adhesive felt for the middle side of the bag.
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