Materials:
· Fresh flowers from your garden
· sheets of clean, white paper
· some large, heavy books (phone books work well)
· heavy paper, decorative paper or pre-made blank greeting cards
· self-adhesive, clear plastic
· scissors
· pencil
· craft glue
Drying the flowers
First, you need to dry the flowers. Make sure that the flowers you pick are dry (don't pick them early in the morning or on a rainy day).
Open a heavy book somewhere near the back of the book. Place one sheet of clean white paper in the book to protect it. Place some flowers on the paper - don't overlap them or they won't dry nicely. Place a second piece of paper over top of the flowers. Close the book slowly, a few pages at a time.
Don't put more that one page of flowers in any book at one time. Stack the books that you're using on top of one another. Then stack some more books on top of those. The heavier the stack, the flatter the flowers - but don't stack them too high, you don't want to create a dangerous pile of books that might fall on someone.
Check your flowers after one week. If they are still damp or if they stick to the white paper, they need to be dried longer. Once the flowers are dry, you can create cards with them.
Making the cards
You can use store-bought blank greeting cards, or make cards by folding some heavy paper in half.
Place the folded card on the backing of the self-adhesive plastic. Use the pencil to trace the outline of the card onto the backing.
Cut the plastic along the pencil mark that you've made. It will be just the right size to cover the front of your card.
Use some white glue (don't use too much), to attach the dried flowers to the front of your card. Let the glue dry completely.
Once the glue is dry, peel the backing off of the self-adhesive plastic and cover the front of your card with the plastic.
Now your card is done - just write your message inside. You can use a pen, a pencil or a colored marker.
Use your imagination to create other dried flower projects. You could cut a small rectangle out of heavy cardboard, glue on flowers and cover with plastic - voila! you have a neat bookmark!
Go to
