Travel Flower Press Tutorial
The wildflowers are in full bloom in our neighborhood and favorite hiking trails. While we are cautious to not pick flowers in protected areas, not pick too many, and never trek off the trail: we do on occasion bring home flowers to press and put in Nora’s wildflower journal.
In Charlotte Mason’s “Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of 6” she states that children should,
“to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.”
On longer hikes, flowers tend to wilt, get crushed, or forgotten. It has bothered me in the past to have flowers picked and then end up wasted because we weren’t able to have them pressed quickly enough to preserve.
This weekend my daughter and I created a lightweight flower press that will fit in her backpack for hikes.
Supplies:
2 pieces of balsa wood cut to 8 inches by 6 inches
4 pieces of cardboard cut 7 inches by 5 inches
2 pieces of 1.2 cm cotton twill ribbon cut to 21 inches
2 pieces of velcro (hook side and loop side) cut 1/2 inch by 4 inches, peal and stick work well.
6 pieces of paper (white, recycle brown bag, newspaper) cut 6 inches by 4 inches
Super glue
Instructions:
After cutting all the materials to the appropriate size: make a mark on one of the horizontal side of the balsa wood at 2 inches and 6 inches, draw a faint line down the center.
Use the super glue to glue a thin line, place the cotton twill ribbon on the glue and press firmly.
Glue one side of a piece of cardboard and place it over the balsa wood with the ribbon attached to cover the ribbon. This is the inside of the front cover of the flower press.
Glue a second piece of wood to the other piece of balsa wood
Layer 2 pieces of paper between each piece of cardboard and stack everything together like a book.
Wrap the ribbon over the top of the press and wrap around the bottom leaving the tails of the ribbon off to the side.
On the top of the flower press, secure the hook side of the velcro to the ribbon. On the tails, secure the loop side of the velcro.
Pull the ribbons and press the velcro to close.
This press is meant to be used on walks or hiking until you are able to press the flowers more efficiently at home. You can however use it to press flowers for several weeks until they are dry.
