How to Dry Flowers Yourself
Flowers come and go along with the seasons, so if you want to enjoy and still see and use them especially in times when they’re off-season, like winter, it would be best if you would just preserve them.
Here are some useful ways and tips on how to make some pressed dried flowers yourself!
- Pressing Flowers
This is probably the most common and most well-known method of drying flowers. This method’s best if you’d like to use your flowers as decorations or embellishments to greeting cards, book marks, or if you’d just like to preserve it inside a frame. There’s actually 4 different ways of Pressing flowers. First;
- Pressing Flowers using books!
This is quite probably the easiest and most well-known method of pressing and drying flowers. To get this done, all you need would be a big, heavy book and some clean piece of paper (office paper, wax paper, and even table napkins will do). First fold your paper, arrange your flowers evenly inside, put it inside the pages of your book and wait for up to 2-3 weeks (depending on how your flowers are) until your flowers are all nicely flat and dry inside. Once your flowers are dry, just place them inside a Ziploc bag, or in an envelope, or inside a clear book for safe keeping until such time that you’re ready to use them for your pressed flower crafts. You read more about this on this tutorial (Read: How to Press Flowers).
- Pressing flowers with an Iron
If you’d like to get your flowers pressed and dried the quickest way, this is method is for you! Just make sure that your iron has no water in it (in case you’re using a steam iron) before starting to do this. First, make your flowers flat (by pressing it first in a book or cutting off its stalks) so that your iron can sit evenly on it. Once done, fold a piece of paper (i.e., parchment paper) and place your flowers on one side with enough spaces in between them. Next, close your paper, turn your iron on to a medium heat setting, and let your iron sit over your paper and flowers for a period of 10-15 seconds at a time. Repeat the process again (only if you have to); until you get your flowers nice and dry. Read more about this here: (Read: How to Press Flowers).
- Pressing flowers with a Microwave Oven
This is also another way of making pressed flowers fast. The steps are basically the same as the Iron Method, only this time, you will use your kitchen’s microwave oven. In order to sort of bake your flowers (without getting them burnt of course), you would first have to make a “makeshift flower press”. You would just either need 2 identical pieces of floor tiles or cut illustration boards of the same sizes for this one. First, fold a piece of paper and arrange your flowers on one side. Then, Place your paper in between the 2 tiles or pieces of illustration boards. The purpose of this “flower press” is solely to get your flowers pressed and flat while it’s getting dried in your oven. Just make sure your tiles and illustration boards fit nicely inside your oven. Repeat the process again until you’re satisfied with your flowers. Read more about this here: (Read: How to Press Flowers).
- Pressing flowers with a Flower Press
Now if you want to go pro in making pressed flowers, you would definitely need to make your own flower press. A flower press is a simple device that presses or squeezes your flowers or foliage so that they can get to dry while still maintaining their natural form, shape and color. Though old books work the same way as a real flower press, you can definitely make a simple flower press yourself that works well and effective by checking out this tutorial (link for article: “How to make a flower press in 5 Easy Steps!”). One reason why you would need to make your own flower is that it can make your work a lot more organized and efficient, especially if you will be pressing quite a number of flowers.
- Air-drying flowers
Air-drying is also one great way of drying flowers. This method works well for flowers that are quite firm and thick such as Roses, Lavenders, Tulips, etc. All you need to do this would be a cool, dry place, a piece of twine, a pair of scissors and some rubber bands. First, strip or cut away any excess foliage such as leaves or droopy petals from your flowers. Then, tie your flowers together in bunches, preferably of the same kind. Then hang the bunches upside-down by tying them with a piece of twine in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight with some good air circulation, like inside a cupboard or a cabinet. Let your flowers to dry for a couple of weeks (2-3 weeks would be great) and once you’re done, you can either store your dried flowers in a box or if you dried in roses and lavenders, you can make your own homemade rose petal and lavender potpourri!
- Drying flowers with Silica Gel
Silica Gel is actually a synthetic compound that is usually used as a desiccant to absorb in moisture in textiles, food products, and even medicines to deter the growth of molds and other microorganisms. Other than that, Silica gel is also a very useful agent that can be used in drying flowers! If you might ask where you can buy some silica gel, they’re usually available on supermarkets or on crafts and hardware stores everywhere so it would not really be a problem finding some. Silica Gel is actually quite a hard substance and because of its hardness, it does not easily lose its usefulness easily so you can use it again and again for your flower drying projects. All you need to do for this one is first, cut of your flowers stems and any other part of your flowers that seems to be wilting already, then once you’re done, bury your flower entirely in silica gel inside a jar or in a box and let it sit for a period of about 3 to 5 days. Using a silica gel is probably one of the most effective way of drying flowers because as a desiccant, the silica gel will just only absorbs in the moisture that’s in your flowers, leaving your flower’s delicate form and colors intact.
Well, If you seem to not have the time to give all these flower drying techniques a try to your flowers yourself, you can still definitely have some pressed dried flowers, all in excellent quality, right here at Greetings of Grace! We boast the largest and finest collection of pressed and dried flowers for sale elsewhere, everywhere! Check out our Shop and get thrilled with our set of gorgeously pressed and dry flowers for sale, that you can certainly use for all your pressed flower art and crafts needs for all seasons and occasions!
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