Pressing Fresh Flowers

June 8, 2025

Hi!

Today I'll be explaining how to easily press fresh flowers at home. It's a great way to make use of Spring or Summer blooms, a fun project to try with kids, and an excellent crafting resource!

This is how I preserve most of the flowers I use in the jewelry I create. It's easy, efficient, and really satisfying to peel your pretty little blooms from the pages when they're ready.

This works best with flowers that are relatively flat to begin with, and that aren't overly "fleshy". I am using hydrangea for my example.

fresh hydrangea in bloom

Hydrangea flowers ready to press (above) and after pressing and drying (below)

Materials:

-fresh flowers I'm using hydrangea from my garden

-clean sheets of paper - I use printer paper (quantity varies depending on how many flowers you're pressing)

-heavy book Today's choice is a Victorian Jewelry reference book

-scissors

Steps:

1- Collect your flowers. I recommend either morning or later in the day when the sun is down, but that's just me. Flowers seem to hold better when they aren't already struggling in the heat. I trimmed this whole head of hydrangea because they had already been scorched and were a bit worse for wear. (But there are still plenty of gorgeous little flowers in there!)

2- Trim the heads of the flowers as close as you can with the scissors or your fingernails. The flatter we get the flowers, the cleaner and easier they press. Also, less stem means less extra moisture in your flowers.

3- Fold your sheet(s) of paper in half ("hamburger style" if you remember that from grade school) :) Tuck the sheet(s) into your heavy book with the folded edge facing the spine of the book. It should look almost like an extra set of pages in the book.

4- Place the flower heads in your sheet of folded paper. Avoid letting the flower petals touch one another- they will become very difficult to separate once they are dry. Once satisfied with the layout, close your book and leave it laying on its side.

5- Place your book somewhere it will not be disturbed for a week or two. If the book doesn't look like it has enough pressure for your flowers, place another book on top. Don't peek for at least a week!

6- After a couple of weeks (more or less, depending on the flower type), your pretty new pressed flowers will be ready! Remember to handle them very gently- while they are preserved, they're still very fragile.

7- Create something beautiful with your new pressed flowers!

Need inspiration? Sounds cool, but don't have time to make your own?

Here are some pieces Ive made.