Earth Day Craft: Pressed Flowers

Your favorite blooms can live forever in a frame or on stationery thanks to the simple art of flower pressing.

There are several methods you can use to press flowers, but the most common (and the easiest!) is to use heavy books. The actual DIY part of the project is super simple, but it does require some patience since flowers need to remain pressed between the pages of the book for several days.

What you'll need:

• Flowers collected from a walk
• Waxed paper
• Large, heavy books
• Tweezers

If you don't have access to fresh flowers, you can order Pressed Flowers (pictured above) to create your own DIY project.

Instructions:

1. After you've collected flowers, tear off two sheets of waxed paper that are approximately the same size as the book. For example, if your book is 8" by 10", then tear the waxed sheet to approximately that size, too.

2. Open one of the heavy books to a page near the middle. Place one sheet of wax paper on top of the page, then arrange flowers on the waxed paper. Be sure to space the flowers apart to give them plenty of room. This will also help avoid moisture moving from one flower to another.

3. Once the flowers are in place, add the second waxed paper sheet on top.

4. Close the book, then weigh the book down with other heavy objects. You can add more books on top, or add heavy objects you have around your home.

5. After 2-3 days, open the book to check on the flowers. If they appear dry, use tweezers to remove the flowers from the waxed paper. (The flowers will be very delicate, so use care when removing them.)

If they do not appear dry, replace the old waxed paper with fresh sheets to absorb more moisture. Check on the flowers again in 2-3 days.

6. When all your pressed flowers are dry, you can glue them to stationery as greeting cards or just add them to a pretty frame for new wall art.

Top image credit: Silver J Pressed Flowers via Amazon