Pressing Flowers

A couple of weeks ago Princess needed something to do. I also wanted to preserve some of my favorite cute little flowers.

What you'll need:

A very cute assistant.


Check!!

A cute basket (if you're going to take pictures) or whatever you want for carrying the flowers and keeping your assistant occupied and helpful.

Scissors for clipping the flowers.


Flowers that will flatten well. I used pansies, but you can use almost anything that will lay flat and allow a book to close on them. Make sure the flowers aren't wet, or you could end up with moldy flowers rather than dried, flattened ones.

A phone book or other book that you don't mind getting some possible staining on. Or you can be fancy and use some blotting paper. Newspaper between books works well, too. Just don't use paper towels. They leave bumpy marks all over the flower petals. Lay the flowers as flat as you can get them and be careful as you close them in to make sure they stay the way you've placed them.


Lots of big heavy books to put on top of it all.


Two weeks or so to wait depending on how thick your flowers are.

Check on them and when they are completely dry, take them out of the phone book. Be careful of how much you handle them. They will be fragile.

These are dry, though in the picture they don't look all that different from the just picked ones.


Now you are ready to get creative! I got out my laminator.


I made little bookmarks for myself and a few people who I have yet to decide on. I also made a larger card for Princess to play with. Now, she can play with flowers when the ones outside are covered with snow!


Have fun! I'm excited for spring, so I can do this again when I have more flowers to choose from!

Nativity Blocks Instructions

I got so many comments about the Nativity blocks that I posted about, that I thought I'd write a post about how to make them. I have to start with a disclaimer: I can't find my instructions, so I have to go make them up.

We started with blocks that were already cut, so I measured them and you'll need:

From a 2X3:

5 blocks cut 2 inches long and 7 blocks cut 3 1/2 inches long.

From a 2X4:

3 blocks cut 3 inches long.

Either bevel or sand the edges and any other rough spots.

Next, you paint the blocks with a cream acrylic paint. (Make sure it isn't a washable one, since it takes FOREVER to dry...we found that out the hard way.) Let the paint dry. Sand the edges a little if you'd like a bit of a worn look.

Either stain them or thin some brown acrylic paint. Paint it on and rub it off as if it were stain. (I used paint and I really like the effect. Plus, I didn't have to deal with an oil-based stain all over my hands...though you could use gloves.)

Our instructions had us put the stickers on before staining, but that makes it so that there isn't stain under them, only white. And, some stain creeps under them. It looks a lot better if you stain them first.

After the paint/stain dries, apply the stickers. Some of the blocks will have to be turned on their sides to fit the larger stickers. The camels and the horse will go on the blocks made from the 2X4. The baby Jesus sticker just barely fits, so you may need to make sure the edges are down and around the block before you seal it.

The last step is to coat the blocks with a clear protectant.

The manger is made from a CD crate that's made to be customized. Michael's sells them.

The stickers are called "Nativity Kids" by Me & My Big Ideas. The only website I can find them at is Treasured Memories. I know there are others.

I hope that helps! If you have any questions, just ask!!