Flower Pressing

Flower pressing is an activity taken up by many people, and interests a lot more of them. Flower pressing isn't that hard as long as you know how to do it correctly, and knowing the reason behind it is just a plus.. beside beautifully pressed and dried flowers just look exquisite! Who doesn't want that?!

Going outside and find good flowers, I'm sure you've done this already! If not I recommend small flowers, that move easily... not something strong and large.. not to start off. You may want to consider finding a book on what flowers can be pressed if you want to go into more detail about this topic.

Now, before pressing you will want to make sure the flowers are prepared for flower pressing! This is a big day for them after all! ;)

• Check the flowers for bugs, you don't want bugs being squashed in there or crawling out of your books do you?
• Make sure your flowers are dry! If they are not dry when you are pressing them the can stick to the paper... and tear apart later when trying to remove them.
• Store you flowers in your refrigerator until you are ready to use them. Even getting out other supplies can be to long for flowers to stay out, so cooling them is your best option.
• Make sure you have everything BEFORE picking the flowers! Otherwise the will most likely die in your refrigerator.
• Your ready to start!

First you will need a heavy book, this is to press the flowers down and keep them at that posture. You probably don't want to use a book that you go into often or your flowers could fall out and that could ruin the entire purpose leading you to needing to start all over. You will need to get two sheets of absorbent paper, cardboard is a great choice! If you put the flowers directly on the paper it could and most likely will stain the paper, that would be terrible and ruin your joy of seeing your first pressed flowers when you realize you need a new dictionary now! ;)

Arrange the flowers on the paper, here's what I recommend!

• If you are working with paper, have the flowers allow for the paper to overlap over them, and put around a second sheet on the outside (going the opposite way, so it looks semi closed) for extra protection!
• If you are using cardboard use two pieces and take a rubber band to put around them to easily keep the pieces of paper together!

Now about arranging the flowers, you will want to make sure that your flower petals DO NOT touch each other, or they will dry this way and NOT come back apart without ruining both flowers. This means you want to make sure they wont touch each other even if they shift a little from being out in the book and moved.

After arranging your flowers and holding them together you want to carefully put them in your book. Make sure the book doesn't open and close or jiggle... this could bruise and smash your flowers. This will not lead to very nice results!

Afterwards, put the book in a steady location, keeping it shut tight and let drie for several weeks... depending on your location they could take two weeks or they could take 9 weeks! It really depends on how dry and hot you location is. 3-5 weeks is a good general rule none the less.

Flower pressing is a great hobby, craft and pass time... it's tons of fun, as long as you can wait! It's also a wonderful activity to do with children. Here's a few tips to let kids help with the flower pressing:

• Let the children pick their own flowers
• Let the children check the flowers and put them in the refrigerator
• Let the children arrange the flowers how they want
• Encourage the children to come back and check their flowers, easily getting distracted.. remind them... bring a glow on how pretty their flowers will be when they are done!
• HAVE FUN. It will be a terrible experience for the both of you if you don't... let them know how to do the craft and why things need to be how they need to be. Tell them WHY the flowers can't go straight onto the book, tell them WHY the flowers can't touch each other.

Giving children a REASON why will result in a better time for both of you and they will know how to do it on their own later on, without making the common mistakes of flower pressing!