by Teresa Austringer

Created on: January 13, 2009

The ephemeral beauty of flowers can be captured and used for home craft projects by simply pressing them, which draws the moisture out of the flower but preserves its form and color.

it is such an easy craft that I started as a child, pressing flowers in between sheets of paper towels, pressing them in books and placing the books under the legs of my bed. For years after my mom would come across a flower that I had forgotten, sometimes in surprisingly good condition. Good results can be obtained from techniques that are only slightly more sophisticated than that.

For a method that requires little monetary investment, you need only a few items. A phone book is the perfect book to use. They're absorbent, can be quite large depending on where you live, and someone puts a new one on your door step every year. A gallon milk carton, rinsed out and filled with water, adds additional weight. Printing paper or blotting paper, backed up by newspaper, are good for putting the flowers in before placing them between the pages of the phone book. You don't want to have the flowers touching newsprint, because of discoloration, or a paper that is so fragile that the flower will stick to it.

When picking the flowers, be sure to use fresh flowers and refrigerate them if you aren't pressing them right away. Fresher flowers make better pressed flowers. There are many flowers in your garden, in the wild, and even at the florists that press very well. Flowers that are naturally smaller and less thick press better. A large fleshy flower can be too damp or become too deformed when pressing, although they can be pressed when taken apart. Small daisies, forget me nots, morning glories (although they can be very thin) violets, pansies and buttercups work well.

Don't forget to press greenery as well. Leaves and stems are essential parts of the design. You might want to mix and match, choosing stems and leaves that press well, instead of those that come with the flower. Remember to leave stems in a curving shape for a natural look, instead of trying to make them all straight.

Flowers can be arranged in a profile, semi-profile, or full face. With a thick flower, you can cut off the petals and clean out the calyx to make it thinner. After the flower petals are dried, they can be reassembled to make a profile or full-faced flower.

Flowers will be ready in about a week. They should be flat and stiff when dry. it will cause less damage if you handle them with tweezers at this point. Sometimes they stick to the paper, and can be released by scratching on the opposite side with a fingernail. Always press more flowers and flower petals than you need for your project, because some flowers will not come out as well as others.

Commercial flower presses can be purchased, are not very expensive, and can shorten the drying time.

Now you have beautiful pressed flowers and can use them for cards, made easily with a little white glue and card stock. Other projects can be pictures, with or without poetry, scrap books, homemade candles and decoupage projects. When you're not using them, store them in paper sleeves in dry phone books. Just don't forget that they're there!

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