And start a profitable home business.

If you're looking for an inspiring and creative hobby that you can really enjoy - then look no further! Flower pressing will bring out your creativity, reduce your stress and allow you to earn money at the same time.

Ideas for Using Your Pressed Flowers

You'll be surprised to discover how quickly you can learn to press flowers; and once you know how, you'll be able to make all kinds of lovely articles.

Pressed flowers are used for decorating greeting cards, pictures, telephone directories and Photo albums. Even school bags, candles and lampshades can be decorated with sprays of pressed flowers. There is no end to the variety of ways in which you can use them.

What You'll Need to Get Started

Fortunately, the tools you'll need are simple and easy to obtain. You'll probably find that you have most of the equipment for flower pressing in your home already. For example you will need a few flat wooden boards, newspaper, bricks or some large heavy books, paper glue, a blunt knife for removing the pressed flowers from the pressing papers and a number of other easily obtainable items.

What Plants Can be Pressed?

You'll soon discover that flower pressing is not only limited to flowers. You can use :

Leaves
Grasses
Tendrils
Ferns
Stamens
Fennel Seeds
Even Carrot Tops

Fine seed heads of ordinary lawn grasses will give a touch of finesse while bits of bark and little patches of lichen will give your designs originality.

And don't spurn the different types of weeds lurking in your back yard. You'll be amazed to see how well some of them press. Many of them are quite pretty so you just need a good eye and a bit of imagination.

When picking greenery it's important to take note of the individual stages of growth of the plant as well as the different seasons. For example, the gently curving tendrils and new leaves of the Virginia creeper are best picked in spring. And tender maple leaves picked in spring are completely different from the red and gold leaves harvested in autumn or fall.

Designing with Pressed Flowers

Because pressed flowers are flat and two-dimensional you should aim for a flowing, graceful appearance. You can easily accomplish the desired effect if you work cleverly with curves. Try to use elegantly curved tendrils and curled leaves in your flower designs as this will give them the natural flowing look you need. You can even give a straight stem a gentle curve if you bend it gently by running it between your thumb and the back end of a pair of scissors. But remember to do this before you press the stem as once it is pressed it will be dry and brittle.

Of course there's a lot of scope for experimentation too and that's half the fun. Just remember that flowers in a pressed flower collage should never look stiff but should always look natural and appealing.

There is so much you can do with leaves and flowers. You'll find that flower pressing is not only a creative hobby - you can easily turn into a work from home business too. More on Preserving Flowers < Foliage

Steps

• Collect plants when they are dry, but preferably before the heat of the day has wilted them. Usually you only want the flower, not the stem, but you will want to gather some foliage. Some root systems are neat and useful.
• Flatten flowers - even remove the petals from a thick center core. Press some foliage at the same time so you can have a record (even if you don't use the foliage). Press flat with fingers if necessary.
• Pansies and violas are particularly easy to press and tend to hold color. If in the field (as on a road trip), use any absorbent paper directory (like the ones you can get which advertise rental/sale properties). Ask the motel/hotel for a Yellow Pages phone book. When you get home, you can transfer to a large phone book. Adding weight on top helps flatten.
• Spread pages and insert a folded facial tissue. Place petals/flowers inside the fold. Close the pages, skip a few and repeat. The tissue makes it easy to transfer...
• Transfer tissue containing the flower to another book. The idea is to remove moisture from the plant.After the third transfer, leave it alone until it is completely dry.
• Remove from tissue and place on acid free paper (my computer paper supplier tells me that all of their paper is now acid free). There are pens that you can buy to test acidity (probably less than $10).

Tips

• You probably can get Yellow Pages from the motel/hotel...ask, don't just take.
• Yellow Page books are sometimes set out at drug/grocery stores. If you get hooked, you will need quite a few.
• If you can't get a phone book, using a big Merriam Webster Dicionary will help.
• Don't pick too many flowers at one time.... they take a while to process.
• Make a note of the name of the flower, and the time and place you got it. You can do this on the tissue, then paper.
• Leaves can be dried in the same manner. Don't expect their color to hold.
• Maple leaves are great, as are gingkos that are picked when golden in the fall.
• White flowers may not be your best choice.
• A skewer can be helpful in placing your flower or petals.
• If you pick a pansy and place it face down on paper or plastic, it will shrink. Then you can press it. It will hold its color and provide variety. Violas make very tiny flowers, which are especially good for miniature pictures.
• Don't just pull or pick something and toss it in a phone book. You've wasted your time.
• If you havent got a flower presser you can use a heavy book.

Warnings

• Many flower growers are glad to share, but don't pick without asking. (If you gather many flowers from someone, consider making a card or bookmark for them.)
• Watch your step. Fire ants can sting in a hurry.
• Never collect from State or National Parks, or even local garden parks. It's illegal.
• Be aware of the flowers you're picking! Native wildflowers are great, but many might be endangered or threatened, or live in fragile habitats. Some are protected by law in many countries (such as the California Golden Poppy or the Canberra Bluebell) and you can be slapped with a fine if you are caught picking them.
• If you don't know the leaf or flowers, beware....some can sting you, and some are poisonous. Remember the rule of thumb for Poison Oak and Poison Ivy: Leaves of three, let it be.

Things You'll Need

• Lots of heavy phone books
• Facial tissue - preferably single folds. Any lines/wrinkles on the tissue will transfer to the pressed flower. (The ones with three folds don't work well.)
• A skewer (like those used to skewer food for outdoor cooking).
• A pencil for making notations.