CALIFORNIA GROWN
Pressing flowers is a time old practice that generations have enjoyed helping preserve and reuse cut flowers after they have been plucked from their garden.
Pressing flowers can be easy, using only a few supplies from around your home. And pressed flowers are excellent for placing in a frame or gluing to a handmade card or even an autumn pumpkin.
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The best flowers for pressing include ones with a single layer of petals such as pansies, violas, geraniums, and cosmos, all grown in California.
You can press flowers in varying stages of development that are blooming to give your designs a natural feel.
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To press the flowers first gather all your supplies. Then create a sandwich with your bottom cardboard layer, your paper, flowers, more paper, and finally a top layer of cardboard.
Pressing flowers can tend to take approximately three weeks to a month, depending on the thickness and overall moisture content of the plant or flower.
If you don’t want to buy a flower press, you really can just “sandwich” your flowers in the middle of a heavy book.
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Use flowers with no blemishes, dark spots, or wilting. Select flowers with no water/dew, in the morning or evening when temperatures are cooler.
Flowers should be completely dry. Make sure flowers aren’t too thick, and if you have larger flowers, consider deconstructing the flower, and reconstructing the flower later Maintain your flower press regularly.
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Carefully remove them from the press, and store in a dark, dry location for later use in a glass frame, or attached to lovely handmade cardstock as a greeting card. I love to decorate cakes and pumpkins with pressed flowers.