The sun has got his hat on and these cute little dried flower birds are coming out to play!
I pressed some Germini flowers a few days a go using a microwave oven flower press and couldn’t resist having some fun making this round fluffy bird (if you want to see how the flower press works in detail have a look at my review here).
I’m still learning what the best settings are when drying out Germini, but I tend to do a couple of 20 second blasts on high heat followed by a couple of 20 second medium heat blasts and then a few 10 second high heat blasts. The main issue is making sure the petals don’t start to burn around the edges especially with the yellow Germini so you need to check and air the flower after each microwave session.
The center of the flower takes the longest time to dry (it is pretty dense and thick) and the microwave press won’t manage to do this on it’s own without burning the petals. So I do the final drying on top of a radiator or in a sunny window for approximately an hour. Still that’s not bad considering how big the flower head is at the start.
Anyway, when making your flower art position all the pieces on your paper first before gluing them in place. This allows you to make some adjustments, try out different colours and petal sizes etc.
If you’re putting your dried flower craft in a picture frame use the frame mount to ensure that your final piece of art is centered properly.
Once your happy with the position of everything use some tacky pva glue to carefully secure everything in place. Although PVA glue will dry clear it will leave a slight shine so try not to use and excessive amount.
I like to use a paint brush to apply the glue. The petals will soften a bit with until the glue dries which allows you to tweak the final position a little which is handy if some of the petals have curled. Leave it to competely dry before moving inot your picture frame
Deep Ribba frames from Ikea are perfect for this kind of craft because the deep box keeps the glass away from the delicate dried flowers.
Oh and don’t despair if any of your flowers curl slightly. You can flatten them by gently dampening the center again or you can use them just as they are!
This is so cute! My daughters will love it! We will definitely make it together! Thank you for the inspirational idea!
Oh that is so cute. A great activity for me to do with my nephew too. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Oh my goodness that is so cute, it is amazing the things you can do with dried flowers. x
I always wondered why anyone would press flowers but this is such an artistic thing to do with them. Very cute, love it! x
Stephanie | http://www.ouistephanie.com
These are fantastic! Me and my son made some leaf art animals once which he loved so we will definitely be giving these a go sometime! x
This is so cute, I’d never have thought of doing something like this with a dried flower! x
That is so creative and beautiful Anthea! Well done on a lovely picture!
I think this is brilliant – what a fantastic and unique present it would make too. It’s super cute.
That is really adorable! I love that you framed it.
That picture is so adorable and so easy to make. These would make great gifts.
Adorable! Would make a gorgeous card for someone special too! 🙂
Those look so creative. Really eye catching and attractive yet fairly easy to make with children.
Love this! I used to enjoy pressing flowers when I was younger but never created anything like this it is lovely xxq
How creative, it looks so good in a frame and it’s incredibly cute. I’ve not pressed flowers myself since I was a child.
That’s adorable! What a clever craft idea, think my boys would find this fun x
What a cute way to use a dried and pressed flower!
I LOVE this and have pinned it. I loved pressing flowers when I was younger. I used to find them in books the year after!
Wow! This is just so cute. And certainly very creative.
The character you have created is adorable. That is a great tip that you can’t do the whole thing in the microwave. Hopefully we can keep radiators on now if the sun stays out and this rain goes away, then you can finish them on a sunny windowsill.
I am so impressed with how artistic this is and the colours.
Liska xx
I love this – the end result is so cute and would look great on the wall here x x
That is SOOOOO cute! My youngest has a thing for googly eyes so I know he would love making one of these!
I used to love doing dried / pressed flower art as a child – this looks really effective
what a gorgeous idea, my girls would enjoy making those
This is so cute, what a lovely idea!