Nature Crafts: How To Make Your Own Flower Press

I received some questions

about the flower and leaf press

I made for my

"Make your own Nature Explorer Kit"

I don't want to deprive any mini-naturalists

(or their mommies)

of summer fun so here are the super easy directions...

Cut scraps of cardboard

(I re-used a box from our garage)

into squares or rectangles (pick one, not both!).

You will need them to all be the same size.

I used my metal yard stick and a box cutter

on my big self-healing mat.

I cut one set to be 7" x 5" for the Frog Princess

and the other set to be 5" square for Mini- Saurus.

I cut 7 sheets of cardboard for each press.

You can cut more if you want to...

but my hand got tired

and I ran out of cardboard!

Then I let the girls decorate the cardboard

that would serve as the front and back covers

with my nature stamps and colored ink pads.

I then raided newsprint from

one of my college sketch pads

and trimmed it all

to the same size as the cardboard.

Allow several sheets to be sandwiched

between the cardboard layers.

I'm assuming you could use a newspaper

but I did not know if the ink would smudge off on the the flowers.

Stack them all up, lasagna-style with

layers of newsprint and cardboard serving as

the noodles and sauce!

Bundle it all up

with rubber bands running

horizontally and vertically

for equal pressure.

Ta-da!!

Easy Peasy flower (and leaf) press!

By the way, if you want to be super simple

you can just use a phone book

and sandwich the flowers/leaves

in pieces of waxed paper.

Mark your pages with tabs (like mini colored post-it notes)

so you'll know where to find your hidden treasures in a few days.