Pressed flowers for beginners

Pressing flowers is such an easy and rewarding pastime, the results can be used in numerous craft projects. The easiest flowers to press are the often the most overlooked wild flowers that pop up everywhere like daisies and buttercups. Easy flowers to grow in your garden and then press are violas, cosmos, calendula, forget me nots and geums.
The above flowers can successfully be pressed whole with stems and leaves intact if preferred. For juicer varieties of flower like roses, you will get best results by separating the flower (pressing the petals seperately from the stem).

Begin by picking your flowers or leaves on a dry day, not too early in the morning when dew might still be lingering. If using books to press your flowers rather than a press, make sure to have some blotting paper to sandwich the flowers between, extra layers of paper/newspaper to absorb extra moisture is always useful.

Place a sheet of blotting paper down and lay your flower onto it. Gently spread the petals and leaves out to how you would like them to look. With flowers I like to have a mixture of front facing flowers and seeing them side on. For front facing, I sometimes lay the flower face down as it can make the process of spreading out the petals easier. Carefully lay another sheet of blotting paper over the flowers and press down carefully, closing the book or adding another layer of card to your press. If using a book you will need to add more books or something heavy on top for extra weight.

Leave flowers pressing for 3 weeks to make sure they are super dry. Check them at weekly intervals to make sure they are not too damp, as they can go mouldy. Fresh sheets of paper swapped in helps with avoiding dampness.

Once pressed use your flowers and foliage to make gift cards, mount in frames or create your own herbarium journal.