Make This Pretty Pressed Flower Art Quickly With An Iron

When I was younger I remember pressing flowers by sticking them inside a heavy book, then putting them in the airing cupboard for 3-4 weeks. I've only recently found out you can actually press flowers really quickly using an iron!

I brought one of those cute brass and glass hanging frames in the January sales and I wanted to put pressed flowers inside. I decided to give the iron trick a go, and it totally worked!

First off I went into the garden to check out what winter flowers were available to press. You want to have typically 'flat' flowers like pansies as these press better, so I picked a few winter pansies, a little purple number (no idea on the name, but it was alive in January - good enough for me), and a small leaf off a fern. Make sure you pick your flowers later in the day so there is no dew on them, and don't pick the flowers if there has recently been rain - the key to pressed flowers is making sure there is no moisture in the flower.

If you want to press larger headed flowers, cut them straight down the middle and only press one side.

*This HOST bowl is by LSA International. You can buy gold scissors from Create and Craft.*

Once I'd cut and collected my flowers in my LSA International HOST bowl, I set about laying them out spaciously on a plain piece of paper, smoothing them out as much as possible so no petals were folded over and the stalks were straight. I'd advise pressing more that you need as some flowers will come out pressed better than others.

I then delicately placed another plain sheet of paper on top of the flowers, then put a heavy book on top and pressed down so the flowers get squished. Remove the book, then using a dried out iron (the iron should contain no water - if you have water in your iron empty it out and then leave it on for a while) gently press down on the top paper for 10 second intervals. What's important is not to move the iron, so essentially don't iron like you would clothes! Just press the iron down in one place for 10 seconds, hold, remove, then press again. Do this about 7 times.

Once finished with the iron, very gently prize the two pieces of paper apart.

Using tweezers and a steady hand, gently lift the pressed flowers away from the paper and place them on a smooth surface.

You can now take your brass and glass frame and arrange the pressed flowers inside, using tweezers to lift the flowers and push them into place.

Once the design was finished, I closed the frame and the two pieces of glass kept the flowers in place, I didn't need to do anything else! The frame was now ready to be hung in my home.