Going outdoors to collect art materials is an exciting sensory experience that create the kind of memories that last a lifetime! Kids love picking flowers and leaves, so make a day of it collecting and filling a flower press or book. Here are my kids pressed flower art ideas, take a read then go on a flower hunt for your own. After gathering and pressing flower heads, petals, stems, and leaves, use them as ‘craft materials’ for your beautiful works of art!
Works of art can be made completely out of flowers, or you can draw some shapes to add flowers to, whilst your flowers are pressing!
Brainstorm and see what ideas you can come up with by looking at the flower parts below. This will give you more ideas on what to pick and how to lay them out in the flower press. For ideas on which flowers are easy to dry and the best way to press flowers, check out the Best Flowers To Press blog post, if its spring, 10 Best Pressed Daffodils and Spring Flowers and for free wild flowers, The Best Wildflowers UK To Press.
Floral Craft Materials
1. Dried Flower Heads
Picking the heads off flowers is the most obvious way to collect and press flowers. How could you use the flower heads below in your picture? Look at the different outlines that the flowers create!
Could they be people’s faces, animal faces, footballs, car wheels, tree tops, sunshine, windows, apples, oranges, washing machine doors, dinner plates, clouds, balloons, worlds, buttons, pizzas, bike wheels, lollipops or planets? Those flower heads were all quite big; others I used were tiny, like buddleia flowers taken from a buddleia bush below. I shook off the flowers from a whole branch, they did turn brown when pressed, but that is fine.
Every paint box needs a good brown! Tiny flowers are great for finer details and outlines. Look how we used them in the little car picture below. They are the little brown flowers used to make the outline of the car shape!
2. Dried Leaves
The beauty of leaves is that you can find them all year round; they come in many different shapes and sizes. What could you use leaves for?
The human body, human legs, human arms, human feet, animal bodies, animal legs, octopus legs, alien bodies, animal ears, building bricks, or outlines for shapes.
3. Dried Petals
Taking the petals off flowers and pressing them is a great idea. They are great for filling in more oversized shapes with finer details, similar to leaves.
4. Dried Flowers On Stems
Leaving flowers on their stems is another way of pressing flowers. Thin stems press quicker and better because they have less water. It’s more difficult to think of ideas for flowers on stems: do you have any? My ideas range from umbrellas, buildings, trees, people’s bodies with arms, plants for pots, and flowers for vases.
Never overlook weeds; they are plentiful and come in incredible, twisty shapes and sizes. Could they be atoms, swords, make-up letters for your initials, or simply a beautiful page of patterns?
5. Dried Grasses
Grasses will add a different kind of texture to your picture. They may not press as flat as flowers but are great for playing with. They also make good outlines to build more complicated shapes and for arms and legs, stitch bodies, hair, fur, magic wands, tree branches, fishing rods, cricket bats, lightening, and furry winter coats.
What To Do With Dried Pressed Flowers
Mix all the different groups of flowers to create pictures using big flower heads, tiny flower heads, flowers on stems and weeds.
Children’s Flower Press
There are many flower presses available aimed specifically at children but here are two of my favourites:
Blue Brontide make the most dreamy hand-painted heirloom flower presses for children.
Kidly also sell the most charming children’s flower press kit by Tender Leaf Toys perfect for little adventurers!
Collecting Flowers To Press
I hope you have come up with lots of dried flower ideas. Now you need to get out collecting flowers! Do you have any front or back gardens? Check out what you have growing there. Even if you don’t maintain them as traditional gardens, you may have some great wildflowers that press incredibly well!
Ask neighbours if they have anything they wouldn’t mind you picking. Look on pieces of waste ground, alleyways, and curbsides for wildflowers. Wildflowers are often the easiest to press because they grow with very little water and generally have thin stems or stems that hold very little water and flatten and dry quickly.
How Long Do Pressed Flowers Take To Dry?
If you want your flowers to press quickly, flowers like daisies and buttercups can press in a few days. Most flowers take about three weeks, and chunkier flower heads are longer.
Arranging Pressed Flower Pictures
Have Fun playing with your ideas, moving your flowers and leaves around until you have shapes and a picture you are happy with. These can be carefully stuck down to a sheet of paper with glue.
Which Glue To Use On Flowers?
Using acid-free glue is the best for sticking down pressed flower pictures you want to last. However, if I was gluing with children I would use PVA glue.
What Flowers Never To Pick
Always wash your hands after picking flowers before touching your face or food. Two widespread plants to avoid are stinging nettles which can irritate the skin, and foxgloves which are poisonous despite looking magical. Nettles are everywhere; you can spot them from their frilly-shaped leaves! They will irritate your skin if you touch them, so avoid them when on your hunt!
When picking flowers, try not to pull them out from the roots as they won’t be able to grow back again. Likewise, don’t pick the whole lot when picking from a clump.
Pressed Flower Art Ideas
For more pressed flower art ideas, check out the following for inspiration:
Embroidering leaves COMING SOON
Don’t Miss A Thing
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Contempfleury
Contempfleury is an art studio run by Leah Nikolaou from her home and garden in Somerset. She works extensively with pressed flowers to create her one-of-a-kind artworks, pressed flower prints and pressed flower embroidery kits. Her kids pressed flower art ideas were inspired by an activity she did with her own daughter.
