Friday, October 26, 2012

Queen Anne's Lace Pressed Flowers in a Frame

The Queen Anne's Lace Room.
In an earlier post, I explained how I was inspired by Queen Anne's Lace and September colors when re-decorating my oldest daughter's old bedroom.

Queen Anne's Lace happens to be one of her favorite flowers; fortunately they are prolific here on the farm. They will help us fill out her wedding bouquet next summer!

So we gathered an armload of blooms for this project, and on the way back to the house, added some Russian Sage to the mix.
No fancy flower press in sight, I pressed these the same way my Grandmother did: between sheets of wax paper slipped between the pages of several large books. I stacked these on top of each other and stacked on about 20 pounds of weights for good measure.

About a week later they were finely pressed and ready to use.


I drew inspiration from an online "how to". Here's a link



I chose a background paper that would be a good contrast to the white of the flowers, but a more neutral background would have worked also. I played with composition, trying out many ideas. The flowers were not as fragile as I expected, but a pair of tweezers makes handling them much easier.

You can often bend the the stems very gently to get things where you want them to go. I also decided that if there were too many leaves in one place, I would just pinch them off. They are easy to glue back later if you change your mind.

I used Elmer's glue when it was time to fix the design. The final picture is not exactly the design I chose, as a few flowers landed slightly off the intended spot, and once on the paper it is difficult to move them. I just worked around it. This was part of the fun.
The frame was a Goodwill find. It had been water damaged, so it was a challenge, but affordable.
I don't expect this to last for decades. Dried flowers tend to turn brown over time, and I am not going to wait for it to be an eyesore before replacing it with a new creation. In the meantime, I have hung it far from the window where it will be protected from direct sunlight.

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