How to press flowers and leaves

Today we are going to learn how to press flowers. Pressed leaves and flowers are good for cards and crafts because if you press them properly, most flowers and leaves will keep their color for some time.

The first step to pressing flowers and leaves, is to (obviously) choose your leaves/flowers.

FUN FACT! You can press more than just flowers and leaves, but today I’m gonna show you how to press these. …..haha, get it? 🙂

The time in the day you pick your leaves and flowers is important. Make sure when you take your leaves/flowers, they are dry. Like after the sun has evaporated the morning dew, but before the evening rain shower. Also the leaves or flowers you take, should be relatively thin and not super thick. It’s OK if the flowers or leaves are thin and they’re in a 3-D shape, but the big, thick. Leaves and flowers just do not press well.

Once you have your things to press, take a heavy, thick book that is not important to you, (you can use multiple) and open up to the very last pages. Then, grab two tissues and place the first one on the page that you’ve opened up to. Once you’ve done that, you can take your flowers and leaves that you’ve decided to press and arrange them on the tissue in the way that you would like them to be dried. FUN FACT! Once they are pressed, most leaves and flowers are as thin, or thinner than paper! Here is how I laid my flowers out. The way you lay them out is how they are going to look once they’re finished pressing.

After you’ve laid out all of your flowers and leaves, gently place your second tissue on top of them and quickly close the book. If you have more heavy books, immediately put them on top of the book that you have your leaves or flowers in.

Most leaves and flowers take up to two weeks to a month to dry. It’s best to check on your leaves and flowers every week by opening the book and gently peeling them off the tissue to make sure they don’t stick. Once your flowers and or leaves are paper dry and paper thin, they are finished pressing! Here is how some of my flowers looked once they were pressed.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post! Keep a lookout for my herb drying rack tips and tricks coming soon!