big thumbs up love that all right you
know I don't know about you but I
absolutely love love love flowers and
you know when I'm lucky enough to get
them whether it's a special occasion or
for whatever reason um sometimes I want
to keep them as momento and I don't I
don't really know how to do that well
actually I do and I'm going to show you
how to do that I'm show you how to
preserve your own flowers several
different ways you can do it you can
press them or you can actually preserve
them in in their entirety let me give
you an idea here here this flower right
here this is what it looked like and
then I pressed it I pressed this one
with a tool called micr Flor in the
microwave this one right here this
little Daisy right here press this in a
phone book Y and this one right here it
the flower originally looked like this
and I actually preserved these in what's
called silica gel and there are lots of
different ways to go about it and some
take a little bit longer than others but
know this your flowers are always going
to change color some some more so than
others so let's start with the easy one
first that takes a long long time and
that's pressing your flower in a good
old foam book okay and here's how it
works let me just show you what I did I
took a phone book here boy they've
gotten smaller these days and I just T
took some wax paper and I laid uh a
sheet of wax paper fold it in half same
thing with a paper towel and then laid
my flowers in and just like this you
what you want to do is you want to cause
pressure so I'm going to leave this like
this probably it's going to take weeks
and weeks and weeks for them to
completely dry out but a lot of pressure
on that um you can check them every once
in a while you might need to change the
paper towel out but you know what in a
couple weeks you're going to have some
beautiful pressed flowers okay that's
one way another way of doing it is this
little tool right here it's called the
micr Flor and it's a tool that you
actually use in your microwave and you
can lay your flow out on the little
sheet like this and what this does in
the microwave it absorbs the moisture
out of the flour but this is a press
it's not going to preserve it you know
in its natural state and then what you
do is you pop this in the microwave I
use it in like 30 second increments okay
you want to do it every 30 seconds so
that it doesn't burn and then you want
to check it see if it's still wet then
do it again so then you might want to go
15 seconds you got to keep an eye on it
but eventually it's going to come out
and it's going to look just like that
there is another technique that you can
use to preserve your flowers in its
entirety I've seen it on the website and
I tried it and guess what didn't like it
it's you preserve you put a flour in
like a little bowl and then you put it
in the microwave with a cup of water and
once again 30 second increments you know
what I did this one and it's still wet
and stuff underneath and and it turned
brown and you know what it was beautiful
when I put it in and look at it now and
I I just don't like it so not not my
favorite but you know what you can give
it a try the other other easy way is
just to take some flowers and simply
when they're fresh tie a string around
them and hang them upside down down and
they will come out just like this and if
you want to spray them with some uh
clear lacquer then they'll last a long
time and they won't crumble and fall one
more technique that really I like the
best is this one right here and it's
using silica gel and here's how it works
you pour some silica gel I put it in the
bottom of a tupperware thing this will
preserve the flour in its entirety
that's how I preserve this rose right
here believe it or not okay so I set it
in there cut the stems off set it in and
then what you do is you gently pour the
silica gel you want to pour it around it
so that you're you're supporting all the
petals if you just dump it right on top
then you're going to flatten them you're
going to break them and you're going to
cover it up in its entirety keep it in a
sealed container depending on the flow
there's a little guide that comes inside
the Box depending on the flower it could
take three four five six seven days it
depends okay you're going to cover this
all up and you're just going to let it
sit and how do you know how do you know
when it's finished well take this take a
look at this right here do you see the
silica gel is actually blue I don't know
if you can tell right here but this is
actually kind of a pinky lighter color
the silica gel has a actually absorbed
all of the
moisture
inside the flower look at this and then
when you dump it all out look at that
that is gorgeous look at how beautiful
that is so keep in mind depending on how
quickly you want to do this and what you
want to do with them some take days this
takes you know the microwave takes
seconds but just keep in mind that if
you want to actually put it back into
Arrangement you can also preserve the
stems just like this look at this
preserve the stem and then you can just
use some floral wire wire and reattach
them or if you have a big enough
container you can actually leave the
stems on and let that go but I was
really experimenting Susan I tried I
tried an orchid that's how the Orchid
came out look at the pink rose oh it's
beautiful that came out gorgeous so
depending on the color of your flower
and what you want to do with it that's
the kind of technique that you're want
going to want to use and I have all the
information and some tips and some links
to the websites on how to get and find
all this stuff on our website sonor
living.com oh my goodness George you
know what she is truly the craft
queen I love it I love it and