Pressed flower prints are a great way of preserving summer in your home. All the pressed flower prints I've made today are very quick and easy to make. I even made step by step tutorials for each print so that you can easily make your own dried flower wall arrangements. I've also included a link below to some great pressed and dried flower sources if you don't want to press flowers yourself.
Three Botanical Wall Art Ideas
I made these pressed flower prints as part of a new gallery wall that I'm planning in our dining room. Instead of spending money on generic wall art, I decided I'd rather make something unique to add some interesting texture to this space. If you've read my post 'How to make pressed flower lanterns', you'll already know how much I love using pressed flowers to make beautiful decorations for my home and garden. Pressed flower wall art is even easier to make and just as beautiful.
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Table of contents
DIY Pressed flower prints
Update: I recommend that you look at my step-by-step flower pressing tutorial before you start this project. The tutorial has lots of tips and tricks for beginners in flower pressing.
Supplies needed for pressed flower wall art
You can easily press flowers for this project by placing them between pieces of blotting paper and weighing them down with heavy books. This process takes around two to three weeks depending upon the thickness of the flowers.
If you'd rather get started straight away, you can buy pressed flowers online instead.
Here's what you'll need:
Tissue Paper (I used white)
½ Cup Flour
½ Cup Water
2 teaspoon Salt
Scissors
Bowl
Whisk
Pencil
1 Sheet of printer paper
1 piece of watercolour paper
Parchment paper
Or super glue
Photo frames in a choice of sizes
Here's how to make pressed flower wall art
Pressed Buttercup Paper Mache Prints
First, protect your work surface from moisture by laying a tea towel or parchment paper over the area you intend to work.
Prepare the tissue paper
Cut some pieces of tissue paper to the same size as the inside of the frame you intend to use. I placed the dried buttercups onto several of my photo frames first to see how they looked before I decided on which size photo frame I was going to use.
Make a Paper Mache mixture
Add the flour, water and salt to a bowl and whisk together until there are no lumps and the mixture is completely smooth.
Apply the glue to the paper
Take a piece of printer paper and using a small but stiff paintbrush, brush the flour mixture all over until it is completely covered. It will wrinkle up but that's OK.
Layer glue and tissue paper
Add a layer of tissue paper over the top of the printer paper and gently smooth down.
Keep adding layers of glue and tissue paper until the paper is as thick as you need. I made three layers with tissue paper.
TIP: If you are making more of these pressed flower prints, save some time by making all of the paper backgrounds at the same time. For instance, I made the background for the Pressed Heuchera flower print right after I made this Buttercup print background.
Paste pressed flowers to the paper
Now place your pressed flowers onto the top layer.
Using the paintbrush, gently paste a layer of the glue over the top of the flowers being careful not to break them.
Cover with tissue paper
Take another layer of tissue paper and gently press it down over the top of the flowers.
Continue adding glue and tissue paper for another two layers or more if you don't want the colour of the flowers to be seen once it's dry.
Bear in mind, that even though you can see the flowers quite clearly after adding three layers of tissue paper, once the paper and glue dries, the paper will become more opaque.
Leave to dry
Leave to dry completely before completing the next step.
Drying will take a few hours depending on how many layers you've used. You could also use a hairdryer on a low heat setting to speed things up a little. I let mine sit on a cooling rack to dry for a few hours before finishing off with a hairdryer.
Once the pressed flower print is dry, use the scissors to cut the print to the size of the photo frame (if you have an overlap).
TIP: Don't forget to clean the frame with a damp cloth before using. For a simple and organic glass cleaner just add some white vinegar to a soft cloth and rub over the glass. Swill the pane of glass with fresh water afterwards to remove the vinegar smell. Dry thoroughly.
Frame your print
Insert your pressed flower print to the back of the photo frame. Add the paper print which came with the photo frame to pack out the frame a little. This will help to stop the print from moving around.
Your beautiful pressed flower print is ready to be hung or placed on a shelf in your home.
Doesn't it look beautiful?
Next up, I'll show you how I made the larger pressed flower print using the Heuchera flower stems.
Pressed Heuchera Flower Wall Art
Complete the same steps from the tutorial above to make your background paper and allow it to dry. In this case, I used the paper print which came with the frame, as the base for my backing paper in place of the printer paper.
Decide whether you wish to keep the Passepartout because this will affect where you place the flowers.
Cut the background to size
Once the tissue paper background is dry, turn it over so that the back is facing you and cut away the excess tissue paper. If you used the print which came with the photo frame as your base, this part will be easy and you won't have to measure.
Glue the flowers to the background
use a hot glue gun to add tiny drops of glue to the stem of the Heuchera flower stem.
Press the Heuchera flower stem to the tissue paper background paper.
Clean the photo frame as above and replace the glass.
The last pressed flower print I'm going to be showing you today is made from a collage of various garden flowers including, Nigella 'Love in a mist', and single Hydrangea flowers.
Pressed Flower collage
This lovely collage, is the easiest of all three pressed flower prints and can be made in minutes.
Make the paper background
Cut a piece of watercolour paper to the size of your photo frame. I used the Passepartout which came with my photo frame as a guide.
Make a collage of pressed flowers
Using the tweezers, arrange the delicate flowers into a collage of your liking.
Glue the pressed flowers to the background
Stick the flowers to the paper using the glue gun or some craft glue.
Clean the photo frame
Clean the photo frame as above.
Frame your pressed flower collage
Gently insert the pressed flower collage back into the frame.
Done!
Your pressed flower botanical wall art – finished!
The time needed for this project
It only took a few hours to make all of these lovely pressed flower prints. If you are making all of your wall art with watercolour paper, you could have them all finished in less than thirty minutes. The time it took for the tissue paper backgrounds to dry was what dragged this project out a little and even then, it only took a few hours waiting for the paper to dry before I could finish the project.
If you are looking for some unique botanical wall art for your home, this might be just the thing for you.
I still need to come up with a few more ideas for the rest of the frames for my gallery wall although for now, I'm happy with the progress I've made.
Watch on YouTube
Watch the video tutorial DIY Pressed Flower Wall Art on YouTube.
These posts are good too!
Please leave a comment
I'd love it if you'd leave a comment below letting me know what you think of my pressed flower wall art and if you have any suggestions for the rest of my frames, pop those in there too, I'm all ears!
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By the way, these posts are lovely too:)
Stylish and affordable botanical wall art for your home
How to make beautiful pressed flower lanterns
'A grateful Heart' and 'Thankful', FREE printable wall art
How to make a beautiful trivet from clothespins
This post was shared and/or featured at these link parties.
Donna Reidland says
These are beautiful! What a wonderful homemade gift this would make!
Jayne Westerholt says
Thanks, Donna! To be honest, I never thought about giving them as gifts but you are right, they would make lovely homemade gifts too!
CoCo says
Jayne these are all gorgeous! I love the different varieties of flowers you used and how easy to follow your step by step instructions were too. We're always passing wildflowers on the way to the cabin so I can't wait to stop and pick some now that I know I can frame them as a keepsake. Thank so much! Hugs, CoCo
Jayne Westerholt says
Thanks, CoCo! I love pressing flowers and incorporating them in my decor, it seems to extend summer that little bit more!
Cynthia says
All your flowers turned out lovely. I should show this post to my son, he's six. He's got a few queen anne's lace being pressed right now.
Jayne Westerholt says
Oooh yes, Cynthia, this would be a great project to do with Queen Anne's lace and your son could easily make these!
Paula@SweetPea says
Your pressed flower art is so pretty! Reading your post was like a trip down memory lane for me. My grandmother made lovely pressed flower art and also dried flower arrangements. Every Christmas, she provided gifts for me to give all of my elementary teachers. I still display her framed worked even though the flowers have faded.
Jayne Westerholt says
Your Grandmother must have been very talented in all things flowers, What wonderful memories you have of her! Sounds like those teachers were very lucky indeed!
Richella J Parham says
These are absolutely beautiful! Thank you for explaining exactly how you did this--what a wonderful project.
Thank you for joining the Grace at Home party at Imparting Grace. I'm featuring you this week!
Jayne Westerholt says
Thank you so much Richelle!
April J Harris says
What a lovely craft, and what a fun thing to do as well! Sharing on the Hearth and Soul Facebook page. Thank you for being a part of the Hearth and Soul Community.
Jayne Westerholt says
Glad you like it April and thanks so much for sharing!
Julie says
These are all utterly gorgeous. I've picked them as one of the features at this weeks Handmade monday later today. 😀
Jayne Westerholt says
Thank you so much, Julie! I love sharing at Handmade Monday 🙂
Kim | Shiplap and Shells says
I love this so much Jayne! I tried to pin, bit for some reason I wasn't able to. I did bookmark so I can try this. What a great gift idea! Thank you for sharing!!!
Jayne Westerholt says
Thanks for letting me know about the pin not working Kim, I will look into that today! Glad you liked the project, it was such fun to make 🙂
Jennifer Dynys says
This is so beautiful! My girls would love to do this project with me! I agree with another commenter, these would make perfect gifts! If you have a minute on Friday, we just started a new link party Embracing Home and Family. I would love for you to link up a few of your beautiful projects there! 10:00 central time.
https://www.theeverydayfarmhouse.com
Jayne Westerholt says
Thanks so much Jennifer, I'll come and link up for sure!
Liberty says
Hi Jayne!
I love the color choices. I tried to pin but am not succeeding..... just fyi.
Liberty
B4andAfters.com
Jayne Westerholt says
Thanks for letting me know Liberty, I think I fixed that now - fingers crossed!
Cherelle | The Inspired Prairie says
I love these pressed flower prints, Jayne! I am seriously so inspired to make my own now after reading your tutorial!
I also am featuring this post this week on the Embracing Home and Family link-up party; congrats! Be sure to join us again this Friday with some more great posts.
-Cherelle
Jayne Westerholt says
Thank you so much Cherelle, I'm so glad you liked my pressed flower prints!
Julie says
Love this tutorial! Someone gave us some framed dried flowers as a wedding gift, and it's one of my favorite things on our living room bookshelf. Would love to try to replicate this for some more beautiful art!
Jayne Westerholt says
Oh, what a lovely gift Julie! You could definitely make something similar yourself, it's so easy to do!