Flower pressing is a fun filled yet creative activity, which most of us must have tried in childhood. At that time it was sheer useless and the sole purpose was to admire its beauty. However, pressed flowers can prove to be quite helpful as they can be used to decorate a number of things. They can be used on note cards, pictures, bookmarks, or anything that you would want to decorate. This way you cannot only preserve the natural beauty of the flowers, once they have withered but can also spruce certain things in a creative manner. To know how to press flowers, read the tips given below.
Tips on Pressing Flowers
- Collect flowers after they have dried, but before they get wilted. Usually only flowers are pressed and not the stem, but you can press some foliage as well. For this pick only those plants, which have neat and useful root systems.
- The next step is to make the flowers flat. Remove the petals from the thick center core. You can press the flowers flat with your fingers, if necessary.
- Make use of a heavy book for pressing flowers. It can be a telephone directory or yellow pages diary. Weight is required for pressing the flowers down.
- Spread the pages and insert a folded facial tissue. Place petals and flowers on the tissue inside the fold. You can skip a few pages and then repeat the process for some flowers. The tissue is used so that the flowers are easy to transfer after they dry.
- Transfer the tissue along with the flower to another book. The main purpose behind this exercise is to remove moisture from the plant. After the third transfer, leave the flowers alone until they are completely dry.
- After this, remove them from the tissue and place on an acid free paper.
