Mother’s day gift Ideas Resurfaced

 

So, I’ve noticed a new trend surfacing or, on second thought I think it’s probably an old trend resurfacing! 😁 Pressed flowers!! They’re everywhere!! On sheer blouses, embroidered onto jeans, phone cases, tulle skirts, nylons, embroidery hoops , and the list goes on.  I’m sure the ones on clothing aren’t real pressed flowers but they sure mimic the real ones. We won’t be making clothing for this gift idea but, as you can see I am pretty inspired by it. When I was trying to think of what to make my mom for mother’s day I wanted to incorporate flowers.  Don’t get me wrong fresh flowers are always the best but, I hate that they eventually wilt and get thrown into the bin.

 

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Framed Flowers

 

As I was saying. After searching pinterest I came across framed leaf art and I thought,😲 oh my gosh this would be perfect for flowers! So, I carefully filled up a book full of flowers 3 weeks in advance and patiently waited on them to dry and flatten out. I remember doing this in school and from what I remembered the flowers were supposed to dry beautifully. After three weeks I pulled my flowers out and UUUGGHH! I don’t know where I went wrong. They weren’t very thin and lost all their color. I’m sure this is probably normal but, I was expecting pretty vivid colors and paper thin flowers. I can’t fit 1/2″ thick flowers between two pieces of glass and make it look good. Plus the more I thought about the 3 weeks dry time the more I cringed. I started to wonder how many people actually have the patients to wait three weeks. HAHA😂 I like to get stuff done quick if I have an idea!

 

Pressed Flower Trick

 

So the pink flower on the left (photo below) was dried in a book. YES I put a heavy brick on top! The purple flower on the right was dried with my quick method that I’ll be sharing. I know a lot of you were pretty excited about this flower drying method when I shared it on Instagram and to be honest I was super stoked that the flower got that paper thin! I MEAN WOW😍!! Wasn’t expecting it at all! And talk about color preservation!! Both flowers were white to start off with (photo below) . The one on the left was dried with my quick method and the one on the right was dried in a book! Are you starting to see why😄👏👏 I’m ssssso excited about this! OH the possibilities are endless!

 

 

How I came up with this idea

 

Are you wondering where on earth I came up with this idea? Okay Okay I’ll tell you my little story behind it! Since I was trying to think of a way to dry flowers quick I started thinking what would be the fasted way. After much thought I realized the microwave always dries the bajeebeez out of my food. HAHA😂 So I figured it would probably do the same with flowers. That’s when I remembered reading a thread a while back and they were talking about terracotta and flower drying in the microwave. So, I made a trip to our shed because I wasn’t about to go buy some terracotta and found these flat bricks. Okay honestly! I had no idea what they were until I asked my hubby and he said they were firebricks! HAHA SCORE What a coincidence! PERFECT! In the microwave they went and it was a fail the first time around because I didn’t put fabric in between and the flowers got stuck to the bricks. Once I figured out to put the fabric in their I felt like a 😁genius! HAHA😂 Funny thing is, I told  my hubby I had this idea of drying flowers and he looked at me weird. I was so excited it worked I even stopped by his shop and had to share! 😬 LOL. “He was like oooooh I see what you mean and dang those are thin! ” YEP! That’s how this method came to life!  (PS. Turns out I’m not a genius😆 I googled microwaved flowers and someone already came up with the idea…I knew it! Shoulda just googled it.. would of saved me some brain cells coming up with the idea😂😂)

 

What you’ll need

 

  • Frames (I did one 8″x10″ and two 5″x7″) (you’ll need two of each because you’ll be needing two pieces of glass to display the flowers in between)
  • 2 Fire bricks (you can get away with using one if you use your microwave tray instead. This was easier for me because my microwave is up high and I wouldn’t be able to see how to lay the flowers out)
  • Cotton fabric or paper towel (if using fabric stay away from polyester fabric it might melt)
  • Flowers (I picked mine from the yard and my friends yard.LOL😁 Weeds look great as well)
  • Hot glue

 

Here is what bricks I used. You can also use tile I’m just not sure if it let’s out any toxins when heated in the microwave from all the treatment it has on it.  The firebricks are made to go in the woodstove as insulation to keep the heat in for longer.

 

 

OOH also this cute copper frame is a great option if you want an elegant look. Already comes with two pieces of glass. It’s see through glass with slim copper edges and a copper stand in the back!

 

 

Or a more modern copper frame featuring a beautiful geometrical pattern. Gosh they have the coolest frames on amazon! I wish I could have one of each! 😀

 

 

Instructions: Okay so for the steps the following photos say it all. But, just in case I’ll tell you whats going on. Step one. Lay your fabric onto your brick. Step two. Lay your flowers onto your fabric.Mother's day craft ideas Step three.  Lay more fabric over your flowers. Mother's day craft ideas Step four.  Finish it off with another brick! PRETTY EASY EHH?!! 😬 Like making a sandwich!Mother's day craft ideas And step 5 is to nuke it in the microwave! TA DA!!!! You should have flat colorful little flowers! OH man almost forgot! Whatever you do DO NOT and I’m saying this again DO NOT press down onto your bricks once your flowers are sandwiched in their. It will break your flowers. Trust me I learned the hard way thinking I would help them flatten out. HAHA😂 Don’t worry about them flattening out. They will do it on it’s own. The heat will cause the water to evaporate from the flower and the weight of the brick will flatten it down as the water evaporates.

 

How long to Microwave them

 

Oh yes how long should you nuke them for? I held mine in the microwave from 1-3 minutes.  The bigger or thicker flowers definitely took longer. For the smaller or white ones I did one minute then removed the top brick left the top fabric and did another minute or two.  I feel like leaving the brick on top all three minutes keeps bringing back the moisture into the flower. That said, either way any flower needs to be microwaved for at least 30 seconds without the top brick to completely dry it out.  (note: don’t microwave without the top fabric. It helps keep the flower flat and ripples at bay. Also white flowers burn super quick so, check every 10 seconds if you have to until you get your time down)

 

This is how the layers look from the side before going in the microwave! 😀

 

Here’s more Mother’s day gift ideas ..

Make some concrete garden planters! Get the full tutorial here..

 

 

 

Or some faux agate cheese boards using food safe resin. Get the tutorial here.

Putting it together

I spray painted my frames white. Don’t know why I wasn’t feeling the black. Mother's day craft ideas Then I displayed my flowers in the glass frame. Gosh those flowers look so pretty! Mother's day craft ideas I installed my other piece of glass on top and hot glued it! Okay here’s a tip you won’t want to miss. If you want your flowers to move between the glass use something lightweight (like a soda pop or your phone) to lay on your glass while the glue is drying. If you want no movement use your bricks! YEP. Just make sure you don’t use to many your glass might break. LOL.  I used 2 bricks for the 5×7 frames and 4 for the 8×10. Mother's day craft ideas   And that’s it!! I displayed them on the window and wall just to show you how they look on both. You can also write a message to your mom with a sharpie. They sell white sharpies here.  ( I’ve tried this sharpie and loved it! ) 🙂

Ok I’ve been thinking about making this for a while now. Wouldn’t it be ssso cute to frame butterflies too. Another DIY added to my list 😁👏👏.

TA DA!!

Here’s how they look on the window. I love that the colors or so bright and really pop!! Mother's day craft ideaspressed flowers   Mother's day craft ideas Mother's day craft ideas Honestly I think I like them on the window more. Just because the colors pop so much but, they look just as cute on the walls. Mother's day craft ideas pressed flowers Press Flowers

 

Oh the many faces of Oleg! 😃 he’s always such a goof..😊 So every time we have a photo session we agree to do photos that we need and then he gets to do a few photos where he goofs off and I let him make faces at the camera.  HAHA 😂 He always says ” did you get it? Let me see!” 😂👌

Mother's day craft

Here’s one of him goofing off..

Mother's day craft ideas That’s it for now! I hope you got inspired to nuke some flowers! HAHA 😂 Happy Mother’s day! All you mama’s are the BEST and the world couldn’t do without you! Have a great day because, YOU DESERVE IT

Here’s more Mother’s day gift ideas ..

Make her some concrete garden planters! Get the full tutorial here..

Or some faux agate cheese boards using food safe resin . Get the tutorial here.