DIY Pressed Botanical Art

Use flowers and greenery from your yard to create beautiful pressed botanical art!

Posted by Shelley | Crazy Wonderful

1

Gather flowers, pretty weeds (yes, I don't discriminate), leaves. What ever you can find that has a pretty shape, don't worry about color. To press start with a nice flat surface and sandwich the flowers between two sheets of paper towels (don't use the towels that have designs pressed into them because it will show up on your dried flower - found out the hard way) and then place another flat object or book on top. Then weigh everything down by adding more heavy objects on top to press the flower flat. I waited about 2 weeks before pulling the pressed flowers out.
2

Spray paint whatever side of the flower you think looks the best and let it fully dry. I used Krylon's Premium Original Chrome spray paint. The shiny chrome paint really shows off the textures in the flowers.
3

Lay the flower painted side down on the inside of the frame. I used Ikea's RIBBA frame. Make sure you cleaned the frame's glass really well first. Any dirt or smudges will really show against the black mat.
4

Gently place your mat over the flower. For my mat I purchased a large piece of black poster board and cut it down to size. For my sized frames (11.75"x15.75") I got three mats out of one piece of poster board.
5

Place your backer piece and secure it into place. If you feel like your flower isn't staying secure, you could add additional paper between the mat and backer. I didn't have a problem though.
6

Oooh and ahhh over your awesome pressed botanical!