Making Birthday Cards

The teddy bears were walking round their garden this week, looking at all the pretty flowers growing. They were thinking that it would be nice to have a way of capturing just how lovely the flowers looked before they invariably died away for another year.

Bubbles said that he would go and get his camera and then they could take lots of pictures that they could look at in the middle of Winter to remind them just how nice the flowers had been. Suddenly, Teddy exclaimed "No, you don't have to do that, Bubbles. Remember how we spent time pressing flowers ages ago so we could keep them forever?"

Bubbles couldn't quite remember that, but it seems that it was actually a very long time ago and the bears had forgotten all about their pressed flowers. They ran inside straight away and scampered all over the house, trying to find the flower press they had used. Teddy bears aren't generally known for their memory prowess (unless of course it is something to do with food or playing games!) so it took them a while to come across the press they had used months ago.

The bears were very excited about what their pressed flowers would look like now.

They all gathered round while Scary loosened the bolts on the flower press and then Teddy very carefully lifted up the sheets of paper to see what the flowers looked like now.

What a surprise! The flowers looked really beautiful. They had kept a lot of their colour and they were very flat and dry and delicate.

The bears had to be very careful handling them so that they didn't break apart. Some were more delicate than others.

The violas seemed easy to handle and were still a lovely deep purple. The leaves they had dried were also quite firm. But an occasional fuchsia flower was very, very fragile and sadly fell apart.

Although they all looked lovely just lying on the table, Bubbles wanted to do something with them so that he could enjoy them even longer. So he decided he could use some of the flowers and leaves to perhaps decorate a birthday card or two. Teddy thought that was a great idea and wanted to help.

So they found some pieces of thick, coloured paper, which they would be able to fold to make into cards. And they found a bottle of glue. Then they very, very gently designed where the flowers would go on their cards for the best effect, and then stuck them down with the glue. Of course, they were very careful not to get glue all over their paws and start sticking themselves to things!

Voila! Beautiful cards to give to their friends. They were very pleased with the results. The rest of the bears saw the finished cards and thought they were exceptionally pretty. They all wanted to make cards too!

If you tried pressing flowers when the teddy bears did last year, did you remember to check on them, unlike the bears? Maybe now is the time to have a quick peek at them to see if they are thoroughly dry. Try making cards with them. Your family and friends will be very impressed to receive a beautiful hand-made card from you!!

And if you didn't try pressing flowers last year, then why not have a go now? There should be lots of colourful flowers around - just remember to ask permission before picking them. If you need some extra information and instructions, then you can re-visit the teddy bears' original story here.