Nature craft: flower pressing

Oh this flower pressing nature craft has taken me right back to being seven years old :)  We’ve been finding beautiful flowers and petals in nature, then preserving them using a flower press, just like I did when I was little.  How have I not done this with the kids until now?!

We didn’t over-complicate this nature craft; we just worked with what we found in the garden.  It was an absolute joy to watch these two exploring nature, getting inspired, and sharing their favourite finds with each other.

Here’s our collection, ready for pressing.  No prizes for guessing that purple is a certain little girl’s favourite colour!

We had a chat about the best way to position the flowers and petals on the blotting paper, and decided that giving them plenty of space would stop them crushing each other.  We also tried to open up some of the flowers, so that we can see the inside of the petals more once they have been pressed; this was quite tricky, so we will probably get a mixture of effects.

Once all the flowers were laid out, we added another sheet of blotting paper – this came with our press, but once it has ran out we will need to buy more and cut it to size, or try using kitchen roll and standard paper instead, which is how I did it as a child.

We then closed the press nice and tight, and popped it on a shelf out of the way to work it’s magic.  I really don’t know how long we should wait before opening it, so if you’re a flower pressing pro do let me know in the comments!

Once our flowers are pressed, we’re going to turn them into pictures – I can’t wait to see what they look like :)

Head this way for lots more flower crafts and activities. And if you’d like some more craft ideas head over to my heart nature crafts, spring nature crafts and autumn nature crafts posts.  

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