Friday 17 May 2013

... and a Handmade Flower Press

Now that all the lovely Spring flowers are (finally!) out in bloom, I felt the urge to press them to use in future projects. I had been using a VERY makeshift version of layers of tissue paper and cardboard underneath a heavy book. Although this does the job, it certainly isn't pretty so it was time to make a new one!

When I was younger, I remember having a wooden flower press so thought I would attempt to replicate that. For this I used some plywood offcuts, cut them to size (16cm x 16cm), drilled holes in each corner of the top and bottom pieces and sandpapered any rough edges. For the fastenings, I used 4" threaded bolts, wingnuts and washers - all from the local DIY store.
The wood looked a bit too 'rustic'(!), so to decorate I tried a bit of decoupage with tissue paper and some homemade Modge Podge (water and PVA glue in a 50/50 mix). As the tissue paper was quite thin, I ended up with three layers of the green tissue paper.
Seeing as I had already had some pressed flowers, I thought it would be good use these to decorate as well. Again I used my homemade Modge Podge and finished with a layer of white tissue paper on the top.
The back of each piece of wood was not a pretty sight, so I glued on a piece of felt to give a nicer finish.
The inside of the press is made up of layers of lining paper and cardboard sheets. Traditionally blotting paper is used, but I didn't have any to hand and the lining paper seems work fine.
Once all the pieces are assembled, you have a finished flower press!!
I can't wait to start collecting all sorts of flowers... I feel a Pinterest board on pressed flower projects coming up!!

6 comments:

  1. You've made an excellent press, the decoupage is a particularly good idea. Hopefully you'll soon have an abundance of flowers to pop in it.

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    1. Thanks Naida! Am def going to have start thinking of some pressed flower projects :) x

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  2. Good Evening to you, My oh my, this took me back to when I was a young wife in the 1970's. I loved pressing flowers.... I did not have a flower press so I used to put flowers between two sheets of blotting paper, then place the blotting paper under the carpet.....these were the days before fitted carpets.... then after a month or so, I would check on them and when they were thoroughly pressed and dried I used to make pictures out of them.
    Thank you for resurrecting this lovely forgotten memory.
    I have enjoyed my visit and I have become a new follower.
    I would like to invite you to visit me at Ivy, Phyllis and Me!
    Best Wishes to you,
    Daphne

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    1. Thanks Daphne, I'm glad that this brought back lovely memories for you :) Great to have you as our latest follower. I really enjoyed reading your blog as well! x

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  3. Great idea, especially to decorate the flower press with pressed flowers! :-)
    Greetings from Susann
    tunundtraeumen.wordpress.com

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  4. Thanks Susann! I'm tempted to start decorating everything with pressed flowers now :) x

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