Whether you dry your own flowers or buy packages of pre-pressed blooms, the embellishments lend vibrant color and a feminine touch to handmade greeting cards and craft projects. The thin, brittle flowers require cautious handling to ensure all of the petals and leaves remain intact. Use a careful technique and the proper adhesive to attach fragile pressed flowers to cardstock. This will not only create a secure bond, but also prevent the flowers from sticking to the envelope, which may cause them to crack or tear.
Things You'll Need:
- Scissors Or Paper Trimmer
- Wax Paper
- Cardstock
- Old Newspaper Or Scrap Paper
- Paper Plate
- White Glue
- Tweezers
- Blank Card
- Double-Stick Tape Or Glue Stick
- Wood Or Plastic Toothpick
Cover your work table with an old newspaper or pieces of scrap paper to protect the surface from glue spills and to simplify clean up.
Use scissors or a paper trimmer to cut a piece of cardstock to affix to the center of your blank card base. The cardstock will serve as the mat for the pressed flowers, so ensure the cardstock coordinates with the card base and the colorful blooms.
Pick the dried flowers up carefully with a pair of tweezers and situate them on the cardstock to create an eye-catching arrangement.
Pour a quarter-sized dollop of white glue on a paper plate. Pick up one of the dried flowers from the arrangement with tweezers and place it face down on a piece of scrap paper. Dip the tip of a wood or plastic toothpick into the glue and use the tip of the toothpick to gently apply tiny drops of glue to the back of the flower center and the tips of each petal.
Lift the flower with the tweezers and place it on the cardstock. Use a piece of wax paper to gently press the flower down and hold it for 30 seconds to keep the petals from curling. Repeat the gluing process with each pressed flower until the arrangement is complete.
Attach the cardstock featuring the pressed flower embellishment to the blank card with double-stick tape or a glue stick.
Tip
If the flower petals curl despite the fact that you’ve held the flower down with wax paper after affixing it to the cardstock, consider pressing the handmade card beneath a layer of wax paper in a book overnight. If the petals bubble or stick to the wax paper, you’ve applied too much glue to the petals.
When you want the look of pressed flowers on your homemade cards but have trouble affixing the blooms without damaging them, consider using pressed flower stickers sold at scrapbook, rubber stamping and craft stores. The embellishments feature real, dried flowers encapsulated under a layer of flexible sticker paper that you can simply peel and stick to your blank card.
Affix dried blooms to your pressed flower cards with spray adhesive if you’d rather not apply glue with a toothpick. Hold the flower down with a pencil or skewer to prevent it from flying away with the force of the spray. Position the adhesive can one foot away from the flower and apply only a light coat because the liquid can quickly saturate the delicate flower petals.
Resources
Writer Bio
Drea Christopher is a freelance writer with a bachelor's degree in English. She has more than 10 years of experience producing features and SEO articles for national consumer publications, trade magazines and industry leading Web content providers. She has a particular interest in craft, entertaining, education, home and garden and health-related topics.
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