Easy Homemade Mother’s Day Gift: Pressed Flower Art

Every time a holiday rolls around, I end up spending so much time scrolling through websites looking for gift ideas. Sometimes I’ll get lucky and come upon the perfect gift, but this year for Mother’s Day, nothing really sparked inspiration or resonated with me. 

That is, until I saw something that finally gave me inspiration: pressed flower art. Such a cute, heartfelt, and easy DIY. After watching a few YouTube videos and reading several different methods of pressing flowers, I found one that seemed the quickest and easiest. Everything we needed was right inside the house (except the flowers and frames), so we didn’t need to make any special trips to the craft store for this!

Below, I’m going to lay out the instructions for doing your own pressed flower art at home. This is a great gift idea for when you’re in a time crunch- and also perfect for if you want cute DIY art pieces for your home!

 

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

• Picture frames

  • We used floating glass frames, but you can use any frame that has a glass front! Pressed glass frames also look awesome with this DIY.

• Flowers

  • These can be wildflowers found in your yard, or flowers bought from the store if you don’t have any wildflowers accessible to you.

• Parchment paper 

• Microwaveable Dinner plate

• Clear acid-free glue

That’s it! Five simple items are all that you need. Now, onto the process of pressing the flowers.

 

HOW TO CREATE PRESSED FLOWER ART

 

Step one: acquire your flowers. 

• • This was my absolute favorite step! I had my son come outside and help me find pretty flowers (mostly weeds… still gorgeous, though!) that were in our backyard. We walked around with a tray and picked tons of different flowers. If you don’t have any flowers around your home, you can always buy a small bouquet at your local grocery store.

Step two: lay them out on half a piece of parchment paper.

• • • We used a piece that was about 10 inches long by 10 inches wide, folded in half. Put flowers on one half of the paper, and then fold the other half on top of the flowers.

 

Step three: microwave the flowers.

• • Lay the folded piece of parchment paper in the microwave, then place a dinner plate on top of it to press the flowers flat. Microwave for 30 seconds, then check the flowers. If they’re not dry and crispy, microwave them again for 30 seconds until they’re completely dried out. On average, my flowers took about 3 times, or 90 seconds total, to dry out completely. You may need more time for bigger flowers. (Keep in mind the plate will get hotter the more you microwave it- you may need a towel or oven mitt to pick the plate up after a while.)

Step four: place in frame.

• • Now you’re onto the last step! If you’re using a frame with paper, glue the flowers to the paper background or a plain piece of paper and let dry. If you’re using the floating glass frames, just place the flowers inside the frame in whatever arrangement you would like them to be in, and then secure them with little dots of clear, acid-free glue. Press the glass on top of your arrangement and close the frame. Voila! All done. ♥

 

Four simple steps, five simple items, and you have a cute, heartfelt, homemade gift. This is also perfect for cute simple home decor that you can make yourself!

 

(If you enjoyed this DIY, please share it with someone else you think may like it or someone that needs a last-minute gift idea!)