Project Planner: Fun With Florals
Art Project Idea: Create Altered Objects With Pressed Flowers
The ideas explored here do not have to with dried flower buds or potpourri type materials. Instead, explorations with pressed flowers are made.
Pressing flowers can be as simple as using a very thick and heavy book, or by purchasing an actual flower press. You can also make a flower press by following the tutorial outline on Flower Pressing Secrets. However you do it is completely up to you and on what you have on hand.
What can you do with pressed flowers when it comes to mixed media art?
- Add them to altered books: using pressed flowers on altered book covers, and within page spread gives the project a very light and airy feel. Not only that, but you are able to incorporate something from nature in with your theme. If you are working on a wedding theme, a baby shower theme, or a memory about a first date then pressed flowers will help you capture that moment. This is true especially if it is a flower from that specific event.
- Add them to altered objects: if you have an altered art project involving the alteration of an old wooden box, a serving tray, a picture frame, or a basket, the addition of pressed flowers will give another layer of dimension to the piece. For example, layers of ephemera, decorative papers, and paint do give these pieces beauty, but the pressed flowers give it that added personal touch. Because you are pressing the flowers yourself, you are adding your personal tastes.
- Handmade books: even if you are not working on a garden themed handmade book, the addition of pressed flowers to the cover (and sprinkled on various pages) is another way to put your personal stamp on the creation. These pressed flowers can be incorporated into many art journal projects (a memory of playing outside when you were a child, feelings associated with spring, miscellaneous collage work, and more) with or without a theme.
Choose many different species of flowers when you decide to sit down and start pressing. Be sure to choose a wide variety of colors, as well. There are also opportunities to press leaves, ferns, clovers, and grasses. The only limit is what you have time and space for. Do not be afraid to explore.
As a note, be sure to lift small press flowers with tweezers so they do not become damaged. This is also true for setting them into the area brushed with adhesive. If you are working with delicate flowers, affix them to the adhesive carefully and allow them to dry in place completely before sealing with another layer.
