DIY Pressed Flower Art

DIY Pressed Flower Art: an easy tutorial for how to press flowers and how to make pressed flower wall art, including free printables for the backgrounds!

Sometimes it’s hard to get your creative juices flowing. Life gets in the way and there either isn’t enough time or you have more important things to do. This DIY Pressed Flower Art can be done in stages and it’s not the least bit stressful. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. To get started, you don’t even have to go shopping. All you need are flowers and a newspaper. I actually pressed these flowers last spring, but never got around to doing anything with them. It was such a delight to finally open the newspaper sections and see what I had. You know what they say…simple pleasures are the best.

So let’s get going. First I’m going to show you how to press the flowers and then we’ll make the wall art.

How To Press Flowers

First thing to do is harvest your flowers. Any flower with a thin stem will work. I did this in the spring, so I used pansies and coreopsis. Other blooms that press well are daisies, black-eyed Susans, cosmos, larkspur, marigolds, or zinnias with small blooms. They don’t have to be from a garden. Flowers from a florist or grocery store work beautifully.
Gather a few sections of newspaper. Fold the sections in half, and then in half again. Carefully lay your flowers in the newspaper as show in the picture below.

Fold the left side of the newspaper section over the flower blooms. Make sure that the petals are flat.
Carefully place the folded up newspaper sections in a large book. Stack a few more books on top so there is plenty of weight.
Wait four weeks. At the end of the four weeks, your flowers will be dried and ready to make your DIY Pressed Flower Art!

It’s best not to peak at the flowers while they are drying. Until they are completely dry, there is a chance they could stick to the newspaper and then tear when you tried to look.

Fast forward four weeks. Your flowers are dry and it’s time to get creative!

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Supplies Needed:

Pressed flowers
Background paper (download links below)
Glue or glue pen
Matte Sealer
Mat and Frame

The first thing to do is print your background paper. I’ve included links to three choices at the end of the post. Then place your flowers on the paper. Move them around until you are happy with the way they look. Sort of a dry run.

The Gluing Process

If you are using the glue pen, depress the tip until the glue is running smoothly. One at a time, lift each flower and apply the glue TO THE PAPER and then gently place the flower on the glue. If a petal comes off, just glue it back on. Same with the stems. Two of mine broke, but I just glued them together on the paper. Regular Elmer’s Glue could also be used, but take care not to use too much. A very small paint brush would be helpful. I liked the control I got with the glue pen. I had no smeared glue at all. Once you have all your flowers glued, let them dry for 30 minutes.

If you are framing your art under glass, there is really no need to apply the matte sealer. I used it just to see how it would work. Be careful when choosing a sealer. This particular sealer goes on dry and very matte. It did not discolor the flowers or the paper. Another option for this wall art would be to Mod Podge the background papers on art canvases and then apply the flowers. You would definitely want to use the matte sealer for a piece of art that is not protected by glass.

Since I already had the mats and frames, the only cost was for the glue pen and sealer. So for around $15.00, I got three pieces of custom, DIY Pressed Flower Art for my entry walls.