Pressing Flowers

Today, the teddy bears have been given a flower press to use. It's a kit that lets you dry and press flowers flat so that you can use them to decorate cards, or paste onto boxes, files or books to make them look pretty.

Crackers wanted to try it out straight away, and suggested that they all went out into the garden to each find a flower to press.

The flowers had to be quite small as the press isn't very big - so, no, Tommy, you can't pick a hydrangea flower!! They are way too big!

Teddy chose a sweet pea, Scary chose a little alyssum, Edward chose a geranium, Crackers chose a viola, as did Boo (although they were different colours so that they would be able to tell them apart), James chose a fuchsia and, in the end, Tommy chose a marigold.

That made seven layers already! And the press wouldn't hold too many so Crackers suggested that all the other bears should choose a flower when these first seven had been pressed. The other bears were a bit upset at that but they cheered up a little when Crackers explained that it would give them some extra time to choose exactly which ones they liked best, and in a few weeks there might well be lots of different flowers to pick from.

Then Crackers started to layer the flowers in the press. The bottom layer was a sheet of corrugated card, then the first flower was placed between two sheets of absorbent paper (similar to blotting paper), then there was another layer of corrugated card, then the next flower between two more sheets of absorbent paper, and so on, until all the flowers were used, ending with a layer of corrugated card.

These layers were then all placed between two wooden boards - you can see that the top board had a pretty picture painted on it (in the photo at the top). At the corners of the boards there were screws with nuts on the end. The screws went through all the layers and the boards and then were screwed down as tightly as possible. Scary had to help Crackers at this stage!!

Now the press needs to be left for several weeks to allow the flowers to dry out thoroughly. The screws will need to be tightened every few days as the flowers dry.

The bears will be letting you know how they get on in a few weeks' time!! They're all looking forward to the results and planning what they are going to do with their pressed flowers. They don't know if the flowers will lose some colour, or if they will still have a scent, but they can't wait to find out!!

Perhaps you could try pressing some flowers too? You don't really need a press like the one the bears used. You can achieve similar results by putting your flowers between pieces of blotting paper and corrugated card and then slipping them between the pages of a big, heavy book, and then putting more heavy books on top of that.

Or you can put single flowers between paper and tuck them under the carpet where people often walk - their weight will help to press the flowers. Then check the results in a few weeks' time and you can compare them with the ones the bears have done! Perhaps use them to make a pretty picture for someone's birthday card. Happy pressing!!