Make Your Own Botanical Art
Sage Advice for Flower Pressing
If you enjoy design, scrapbooking, or making art of any kind, working with pressed flowers needs to be your next frontier! The process and journey is both educational, meditative —even therapeutic—and the results are so abundantly different. In the end, it will be all you can do to tear yourself away from your work. Further, it is a practical and valuable hobby. In no time you can create one-of-a-kind notecards, bookmarks, ornaments, and gifts with unique floral designs. And they can be sent through the mail!
Flowers could take as many as 14 days to dry, so plan ahead.
Here are some recommendations from our expert botanical artist out of Denver, Colorado...
When Selecting Flowers:
Always use very fresh flowers without dew or dampness on them
Leaves and flowers with flat blooms are best, such as violets, daisies, leaves, and ferns, but you can cut a larger flower in half, such as peonies or roses
Avoid flowers that are thick with moisture such as impatiens and begonias
Trim stems to a length you like, leaving a few leaves, or trim them after they are dry to fit the size of your project.
When Pressing Flowers:
Place flowers—not overlapping—between absorbent paper, such as paper towels, and use a wooden press or large hardcover book and stack more books on top to create more pressure. (presses can be found at most craft stores)
When Setting Up Your Workspace:
Put Elmer’s white glue in a small dish with a little water
Acquire a small paintbrush to apply the glue to the back of the flowers
Have handy scissors for precise cutting; we recommend pointed tip manicure scissors
Toothpicks are a nice option for applying glue and manipulating the delicate materials
Reading glasses or a magnifying glass if you are working with fine details
Paper, notecards, or whatever you wish to decorate
When Creating Your Masterpiece:
Dry flowers are very fragile; handle with care, using tweezers if necessary
Layout and decide on your arrangement before gluing
Apply a light layer of glue to the backside of the dried flower, and then gently press it into place.
