flower pressings

Good Morning!

I have a treat for you all today.  Remember this post, when I told you all that Josh is literally the nicest person on the planet?  Well, today he is being not just a sweet, loving husband...he is being really, really, really nice to me as well.  Today is day 2 of a 4 day event, so posting new material was not going to be in the cards for me today.  BUT, in addition to helping me survive the week, Josh agreed to write a "guest post" about how he made me a set of flower pressings (seen here.)  A huge thank you to Josh and I hope you all enjoy!

Hi Ann Elliott Readers,

I will be the first and loudest to say that I should not be the one to write this post.  Luck and trial and error made the pressings turn out the way they did, and there are hundreds of ways I did it incorrectly I’m sure.  Most of the pressings I do for AB are just small flowers from places we’ve been together, which means they’ve got to be small enough to fit in a book.  Then Annie discovered Lauren Lachance, and I had to up my game.  Here’s what I do…

1.  Pick the Flower:  Flat flowers like Oakleaf Hydrangea (see picture above) and Dogwoods are the easiest.  Flowers like clover and lavender that can be pressed from the side are a good place to start too.   Roses and flowers that require you to open up the entire blossom to press are a pain and don’t try daisies, they just fall apart.  The quicker you can move from step one to two and three the better your final product will be. 
2.  Set up the Flower:  Lay the flower face up on a sheet of paper.  Arrange the petals, leaves, stamen, stigma, and stem (I just got that off of Wikipedia) how you want them, and try to keep them from overlapping too much.  Then carefully lay a second sheet of paper down on top.  If you picked a flower that has a stamen you’ll need to either 1) cut them off or 2) cut a small hole in another sheet of paper to stick the stamen through otherwise they will stain the petals.
3. Press the Flower: Lay the flower in the wax paper on top of a board or hardcover book.  Then lay another board or hardcover book (Annie prefers to use her collection of Fifty Shades of Gray...this is a test to see if she checked my work) on top of the flower.  Finally, find all the heavy books, unused barbells, or paint cans you have and lay them down on top. 
4.  Wait:  If you check the pressing too soon it might mess everything up, so wait.  Someone told me to microwave the flower in 30 second increments while it’s being pressed to speed up the process, but that seems like much work.  After a day or two, you can check the flower to make sure it’s pressed correctly, but it needs to stay in the press for another couple of weeks.  Once the flower is thoroughly dried and flat, you are ready to go.  

I hope you like this and that you do not share this with your husband or boyfriend or men in your life.  Next week I’ll be back with another riveting post on the art of designing a centerpiece that will make any guest feel welcome…

A huge thank you to Josh.  Please show him some love and leave him a comment to let him know how much you like his post!

xo,