Thursday, May 21, 2015

BLOOM: Pressed Hydrangeas


Hydrangeas are definitely one of my favorite flowers but I’ve never been able to successfully get mine to bloom in blue. I know it depends on factors in the soil but whatever I do, I get bright pink blooms. They’re still gorgeous but I do love the look of the blue hydrangeas.





Pressed Hydrangeas via homework (6)I decided to try pressing some hydrangeas and I couldn’t be happier with the results. Do you know why?


Pressed Hydrangeas via homework (4)Once I pressed the hydrangeas, my pink blooms had dried purple-blue. Amazing!


Blog Pressed Flowers-001Pressing and drying flowers is super easy. You just need to be patient and you can’t expect to use the flowers right away. My flowers were in the press for a week. Here are the steps to get perfectly pressed flowers.
  1. You’ll get the best results with flat, delicate flowers. Pansies, hydrangeas and small wild flowers look great pressed. Roses… not so much.
  2. Pick your flowers and lay them carefully in between the pressing blotting papers.
  3. Place cardboard below and above the blotting papers.
  4. Place all of the above in your press and cinch the straps as tight as you can.
  5. I’ve found placing heavy books or a weight on top of the press gives you even better results.
  6. Don’t have a flower press? Two pieces of wood work just as well. Use coffee filters as blotting paper. Just don’t use bumpy or textured paper like paper towels. The texture will press into your flower.

Pressed Hydrangeas via homework (10)Once your flowers are pressed and completely dried, glue or Mod Podge them onto your paper. To preserve the flower, I added a layer of Mod Podge over the flower.


Pressed Hydrangeas via homework (9)Aren’t they pretty? I can’t wait to press some more!




Thanks so much for stopping by.




9 comments :

  1. These are so pretty and delicate looking! They dried into such a lovely shade of purple-blue.
    Thanks for the inspiration,
    Suzanne
    Pieced Pastimes

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks for the tip ! I was curieus about how you glued them ! maybe I try it too one day !

    ReplyDelete
  3. I used to love pressing flowers as a kid, I even had a lovely press for a birthday one year - I wonder if we still have it? I used to cover them with clear sticky basked plastic but it always felt a bit heavy, I love the idea of mod podge to protect them. I love the delicate look your got with them, (and the blue tones). It's all to do with acid levels in the soil isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  4. These are lovely - now I just need to wait for my hydrangea to bloom!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very pretty. I don't have hydrangeas, but I may try this with some of my other blooms.

    ReplyDelete
  6. So simple and yet so lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  7. These are so sophisticated and simple. Love it. Definitely pinning.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Carolyn.
    I'd like to use an image from this post and link to it. Would that be okay?

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment. I enjoy reading and responding to your comments. If you do not hear back from me via email your profile is most likely defaulted to no reply-comment or anonymous and I am unable to respond.