Preserve Your Garden!

With summer upon us, your garden probably looks just grand. With the brilliance of your various flowers and plants, have you ever wished you could have that look all year round?

If you have wanted to try preserving and displaying your flowers before but thought it was a lot of work, give it a try, it's easy! You will only need a few items such as:

plants and flowers from your garden
tweezers
blotting paper
newspaper
flat heavy objects
patience

First of all, select a good number of flowers and greenery from your garden, cut the stems long as you can trim them later.

Then gently squeeze each flower in the middle to flatten it as much as you can. Don't use a lot of pressure or you will break your flower in pieces.

Lay out some newspaper and then lay a piece of blotter paper on top of that. Use the tweezers to arrange your flowers so they are close but not touching. When you are done arranging your flowers, cover with another piece of blotter paper and then with another few sheets of newspaper.

Put a very heavy object on top of your flowers. You can use stacks of books, phone books, heavy glass blocks and let sit for two weeks without looking. At the end of two weeks, take out your pressed flowers and gently peel back the blotter paper. You should have perfectly flat flowers and plants ready to be displayed.

For a real impact statement in a room, use a display method like a black pedestal frame that is two clear sheets of glass. You simply arrange your pressed plant life on a pane of glass - lay the other pane on top to seal and hold the materials in place and gently slip into the pedestal frame. They come in sizes from the demure 4inches by 4inches up to 8inches by 10inches and they look awesome when mixed and matched in groups!

Now that you know the ropes, press and preserve your favorite roses, lavenders and zinnias from your garden with outstanding results!
 posted by Home Decor Experts - Iron Accents