Learn how to make a pressed flower suncatcher with leaves and flowers from your own garden and picture frames from the dollar store.
Making crafts, gifts and pretty home decor items with flowers pressed from your own backyard is so rewarding because they are almost guaranteed to come out beautiful.
Today I’m sharing a simple tutorial on how to make some beautiful pressed flower art.
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Pressed Flower Suncatcher
The easiest way to press flowers involves using an old phone book. Hopefully, you haven’t thrown them all out.
If you don’t have an old phone book you can buy a flower press online
It takes a few weeks to a month for flowers to dry out in the phone book, so it’s a good idea to collect flowers and leaves all season long and press them for future projects.
Of course, you can also buy pressed flowers
For this project, I used the glass from picture frames bought at the dollar store.
After cleaning one side of the glass, mark them with a piece of tape so that you can keep track.
Once the flower or leaf is inside there is no way to clean the panes of glass.
Place your flowers and leaves between the glass.
If necessary you can use a tiny bit of glue stick to keep them in place.
Then use something to elevate the glass while you place metallic tape
Then, burnish the edges with your fingers to make sure the tape is secure.
Clean up the outside glass and use one or two pretty binder clips to hang up your masterpiece.
The binder clips
You could remove the part of the binder clip on the front side if you want to.
For smaller pieces of glass, you can use a single clip.
I like these leaves from a hardy begonia, because they have pretty dark veins.
They show really well in the window. Even though the window itself needs to be cleaned. 😐
This is why I titled this post “pressed flower suncatcher”, however, they would look beautiful hanging on a wall too.
P.S. I have a whole post dedicated to crafting with pressed flowers where you can find tons of inspiration. For more general craft tutorials and DIYs check out this Project Page.
Leah says
September 19, 2018 at 1:09 pmHi,
these are so lovely and such a fun idea. about how long do the pressed leaves last in a frame would you say?
thanks!
Patti Estep says
September 19, 2018 at 1:44 pmThey should last a long time. It’s possible that they may fade if there is direct sun shining on them for a long time but so far mine still look great.
Jakeen says
July 19, 2017 at 11:46 pmThese are just lovely! Just wanting to verify that the width of the metallic tape you used is 1/4 inch? Didn’t want to order it and not have it stick the two glass pieces together!
Patti Estep says
July 20, 2017 at 5:34 amHi Jakeen,
Yes, the tape measures 1/4 inch but to be safe you may want to buy your glass first. Just in case they are not the same as the ones I used. I bought my frames at Dollar Tree which is a nation wide store but you never know.
Hope the helps and thanks for stopping by,
Patti
Jeanne says
July 19, 2017 at 4:45 pmUsing dollar store frames for the glass is genius…love the finished look…so pretty.
Patti Estep says
July 19, 2017 at 5:54 pmHi Jeanne,
Thanks for the kind comment. You may even have some old beat up frame laying around that will work but for $2.00 +tax it’s not a bad price.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!
Patti
Pat Schwab says
July 19, 2017 at 12:28 pmPatti, These look so pretty. Thanks for a great idea.
Patti Estep says
July 19, 2017 at 12:59 pmHi Pat,
I’m so glad you like it. Thanks for the nice comment.
Have a great week!
Patti
Karen says
July 19, 2017 at 8:57 amThese are lovely, Patti, and I really appreciate how easily they come together.
Patti Estep says
July 19, 2017 at 9:33 amHi Karen,
Thanks. It’s great when the beauty of nature does most of the work.
Thanks for stopping by,
Patti
Carole says
July 19, 2017 at 8:04 amI don’t even get a telephone book anymore if you can believe it. I use to dry flowers all the time when I was a kid and make book markers, I used encyclopedias and the sears catalog. I love this was just simple fun in the summer. That metallic tape you used is really neat, don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. If I ever get a greenhouse these would look awesome hanging in the windows. Love the simplicity and clean lines.
Patti Estep says
July 19, 2017 at 8:40 amHi Carole,
I’ve been doing this as a kid too. We always used phone books and sadly they still deliver them to us whether we want them on not. Catalogs and books are other great ideas too. I also agree that a greenhouse would be perfect for these. I don’t know if I’ll ever get one, though I’d love it. My daughter is having one built. Maybe I’ll send a couple her way.
Thanks for stopping by Carole and have a great week,
Patti
Sandi says
July 19, 2017 at 7:22 amPatti, These are so pretty. Cutting flowers today to press so I can look at them when it’s cold and blah outside. Thanks for the idea!
Patti Estep says
July 19, 2017 at 7:32 amHi Sandi,
I’m so glad you liked them. I think they will be perfect for winter too. May end up making some for Christmas gifts.
Thanks for stopping by,
Patti