On long winter afternoons, how do you hold onto the memory of sun, color, and flowers? In our workshop, friends learned a simple method to create small framed compositions using pressed flowers.
1. Arrange leaves and flowers between pairs of absorbent paper. Place cardboard between the pairs and leave under a press or under heavy books.
2. Once fully pressed and completely dried, lift them gently away with tweezers.
3. Separate flowers and leaves into different containers by type or color, making the next steps easier.
4. Find your container vase in the pages of home décor magazines: there are endless styles to choose from!
5. Cut out the vases you've selected, starting with rougher cuts...
6. ...then refine them with greater precision.
7. On the cardstock for your composition, draw a baseline to fix the vase's position.
8. Glue the cut-out vase along the baseline. Important: leave the rim of the vase slightly unglued so you can slip a few stems underneath.
9. Arrange flowers and leaves on the cardstock with tweezers until the composition looks right. Then glue them in place.
10. Lift each flower and leaf one at a time and apply a drop of white glue underneath using a toothpick or cotton swab, depending on size.
11. Disassemble the purchased frame into its parts: frame, glass, backing board. Clean the glass.
12. Reassemble the frame, inserting the cardstock with your finished composition.
13. Glue the backing paper to the rear of the frame.
14. Your framed composition is ready to display!
Created by Tea Cabras and Bice Dinale, 2000