Pressed Flowers
August 9th, 2007 by CandaceOne of the best things about summer is the flowers, don’t you agree? A fun way to keep them around past the peak bloom point (and for those in cold climates to remember the lovely summer colors) is to press them. You can easily make your own flower press, and here’s how.
Start with 2 squares of wood (approximately 8″ across), 4 bolts (approximately 4″ long), 8 coordinating washers, 4 coordinating wingnuts, and several squares of cardboard and felt, with the corners trimmed. I have 7 cardboard pieces and about 10 pieces of felt – these are used to separate the layers of the flowers you press and to provide cushioning.
You simply drill 4 holes near each corner of each square and assemble: bolt, washer, one square of wood, cardboard, felt, paper, flowers, paper, felt, cardboard (etc), board, washer, wingnut. You add layers of plain white paper around the flowers to prevent them sticking to the felt, and it also allows for easy storage later on — I keep mine either in a folded piece of paper or inside envelopes. Screw the wingnuts on tight to press the layers together and compress your flowers. Then you wait for a week or so to allow the flowers/leaves to dry and flatten.
Pay attention to the layout of your flowers and leaves when you are pressing – you want to make sure that it will look how you want it to when it’s flat. Leaves are easy, but be careful with multiple petal layers – sometimes they bend oddly when you press them, and the result is not pretty.
Simple flowers work well though. Pansies are gorgeous:
I’ve also done marigolds, lilac, roses, several kinds of leaves, irises, even a butterfly. If your garden is large, you can have lots of fun playing around with the press and trying different layouts.
Once you have your array of pressed flowers, you can paste them into a frame:
I just used regular Elmer’s and glued the marigold and the butterfly onto thick white paper (I think mine is designed for painting). Tweezers can be helpful in arranging delicate pieces, such as the butterfly – sometimes your fingers are just too sticky. These flowers would be lovely on cards, too, if you enjoy making your own. Let me know of other fun ways to use them – I’m just beginning my foray into paper crafts 
This guest post comes from Gina – thanks so much for your contribution, Gina!
August 9th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Very pretty indeed
August 9th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
How pretty that’s a fun project.
August 9th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
awesome tutorial! look for it to be featured tomorrow at 10am CST on craftandfound.com!
August 10th, 2007 at 4:02 am
I’ve also glued them to glass, e.g., a small fish bowl from the pet supply store, and then varnished the whole container to protect the flowers.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Very pretty picture.
August 10th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Beautiful picture! If you are in a hurry, the Microfleur microwave flower press great – it presses the flowers in 90 seconds and the flowers retain their brilliant color really well.
August 12th, 2007 at 2:33 am
You can make very pretty wall-hangings, trays, coasters etc. by sticking the flowers between two glass sheets and framing them accordingly.
August 12th, 2007 at 2:35 am
Elizabeth, can you send me in detail how to press using microwave?
[email protected]
August 12th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
[...] it’s a craft that even us somewhat craft-impaired folks can manage to make look fantastic. Pressed Flowers [Crafty [...]
August 12th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I like both this and your crayon tutorial, thank you for sharing both!
August 12th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
That seems like an easy enough task. It also seems a lot more planned out than the way that I’ve done it with just putting a flower somewhere and stacking heavy books on top. Very nice!
August 13th, 2007 at 1:37 am
[...] it’s a craft that even us somewhat craft-impaired folks can manage to make look fantastic. Pressed Flowers [Crafty [...]
August 13th, 2007 at 6:08 am
Back in the day, I used telephone books.
It worked pretty well.
August 20th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
That press looks great! Will certainly have to try and make one someday. Pressing flowers is a lot of fun! I never thought of pressing readymade layouts of them though, as you did. And a butterfly! How did you manage to do that?! :-O It looks grand though!
August 30th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
this was very precise, some sites are very limited to info. would you please tell me how you do your roses, small buds seems to turn out fine, but unable to do large rose without taking off petal for petal. would like to press a full size rose closed, rather than open, if that makes sense…as they would come from a florist . thanx so beautiful. paula
October 25th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
I might just try this one out, thanks!
October 26th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
do you hang it for 2 days?
October 29th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
I have been pressing flowers for quite a while in a terra cotta press in the micro wave but I sometimes have to finish drying them flat in books and your very simple to make press is just what I need. Thank you for sharing. And for Paula I take rose buds and very carefully slice (with a very sharp knife) the back half of the bud off and then press. It comes out beautifully, it’s not too thick and dries quickly.
November 9th, 2007 at 9:17 am
i think it is pretty but you need to get a new hobby that is ugly kind of like me
January 27th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Hi!
I’m really new at this flower-pressing thing and I need some help.
I’ve tried to press some beautiful frangipani flowers in a notebook with a heavy bookstack on top, but at the end of the week, the flowers have all turned brown. Why is that and how do I retain the colour of the flowers? Please help!
April 17th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
hi, i have made some greeting cards using cogon grass (handmade paper) and pressed flowers as design. look it up at MY SPACE ([email protected]).
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Thank you
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December 18th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Thank you
January 26th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
I would like to get your permission to use the image of the pansies (three of them, the first image under the presses) as an element in a competition I am entering for designing a scrapbooking kit. I will not be using the image commercially; it will only be used one time in the competitions. If you are agreeable, can you please contact me by email? Thank you so much.
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I would like to get your permission to use the image of the pansies (three of them, the first image under the presses) as an element in a competition I am entering for designing a scrapbooking kit. I will not be using the image commercially; it will only be used one time in the competitions. If you are agreeable, can you please contact me by email? Thank you so much.
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Beautiful picture! If you are in a hurry, the Microfleur microwave flower press great – it presses the flowers in 90 seconds and the flowers retain their brilliant color really well.