One of the most beautiful craft supplies you can use is available to you in your own back yard. That’s right-you don’t have to look any farther than your garden for pretty flowers that can be pressed or dried to use in a variety of fun craft projects. Flowers are inexpensive and give your crafts that special earthy touch for little cost to you. Drying and pressing flowers is not difficult, so you can begin the process today.

The easiest way to preserve your flowers is by hanging them to dry. This works well for bouquets from your garden, as well as for arrangements you may give as a gift. First, remove any parts of the flower you don’t

wish to keep, such as excess leaves. Divied the flowers into small bunches so there is ample room for them to dry, and then tie the miniature bouquets together with ribbon or band them together with rubber bands. Hang them upside down somewhere that is dry so that your flowers don’t rot, and make sure the place is also dark, since light can fade your flowers. Check on your flowers every few days and they should be ready to use in your craft projects after just two weeks!

If you want to use the flowers for a different use, however, such as decoupage, you can press them. This is not a good way to keep densely-petaled flowers, like marigolds, but

it works well for rose petals, violets, leaves, and other flowers that are already semi-flat. To do this project, you’ll need cardboard, newspaper, and tissue paper. Lay a piece of each down, in that order, and then arrange your flowers to be pressed. Make sure that they are not touching one another. Cover with another piece of tissue paper, another piece of newspaper, and another piece of cardboard. You can repeat the process again now if you have more flowers to press than would fit on one layer. Once you finish with the last piece of cardboard, set a heavy book, like an encyclopedia book or large dictionary on top of the whole thing, and bricks or heavy rocks on top of that. After about 4 weeks, your flowers will be pressed and ready to use in craft projects.

How you use your dried and pressed flowers is up to you. They’re great for making everything from gifts to greeting cards! Don’t overlook this great craft supply when you’re designing new projects.

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