Make a flower press and dried flower arrangement

Heres a project that should inspire your creativity. This is a very old-fashioned way to press flowers and requires the fresh-cut blossoms to be under pressure for at least a couple weeks, so why not decorate the press itself and make it a conversation piece while it is working.

To make the design on the front of the top plate, I cut some foliage and spray-painted over it like a stencil. It worked fairly well, but I think it might work better using just leaves rather than blossoms too.
To press the flowers, I sandwiched them between layers of cardboard (blotting paper would be better) and tightened them down between the two plywood boards using wing nuts.
Once that was set aside, I painted a vague scene on a scrap board using acrylic paints and a sponge. I am not much of a painter, but its easy to dab on a few colors and hint at a landscape. You could get very artistic on this part!
After the flowers spent two weeks in the press, I arranged them on the painting and squashed a piece of plexiglass over them. The only trick here is to hold it tight so that the flowers dont slip when you put it into a picture frame. I held it all firmly in place with brads.
Have fun!

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