Fun Things to Do with Flowers from Your Boyfriend.

Lunaria in Epoxy. Simple and great for home decor with meaning.

We all love getting flowers from our significant other. But as the flowers start to fade, what can we do to keep them from going to waste?

There are more than few fun things to do with flowers from your boyfriend. Our favorites are: hang them upside down to dry, make a dried flower arrangement, make a dried floral resin home decor item, and finally, press your flowers, then frame them.

Read on to find out more about which is best for you.

Credit: Storiès

Hang Your Flowers Upside Down to Dry.

Drying flowers is easy. All you really need to do is hang them upside down in a cool dry place and wait. It should take a week or two for them to fully dry out. It may take longers depending on the conditions in the room where they are drying.

*This step when done right will help to lend itself to some of the other projects listed in this article.

My favorite place is in the garage. I hang them off the very edge of the garage door track with string. (The garage is only suitable if you live in a dry climate. If you live in a humid environment, we recommend a cool, dry, and dark location in your home.)

The best way to figure out where to put them on the garage track is to open the garage door. That will show you how much track is left that the door doesn’t use. Simply tie one end of the string to a hole in the track that the garage door doesn’t actually use when it is rolled up. Tie the free end of the string to your bouquet where stems are. Tying it to the middle of stems will work great.

Credit: Anne Nygård

Make sure your bouquet is hanging upside down. This will help them dry out straight and retain the beauty of the petals as much as possible.

If your Garage gets humid, you will want to consider hanging them in a cool dry place inside your house. Use the same method as described above. You can hang them from anything, as long as the flowers aren’t in contact with anything. 

Once dry you can...

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Make a Dried Flower Arrangement.

Now that you have dried your flowers, you can place them back into the vessel they came in. If you want more detailed instructions on how to arrange the florals, please consider signing up for our newsletter. We will give you a free copy of our book “How to Make an Arrangement with Grocery Store Flowers”.

Included in this book is how to set up your vase for success, flower choice, and flower design tips. We give out some great information on how to arrange flowers. The same techniques that we discuss in the book apply to dried flowers. Sign up at the bottom of this article and get your copy today.

Make a Dried Floral Resin Home Decor Piece.

This one is definitely the most complicated on the list. Resin is made when you mix an epoxy liquid together and then pour it into a mold. You have to make sure you use dried flowers for this as they can mold inside of the epoxy casing. If you want your flowers to look fresh in the resin, you can dry them out with silica gel crystals. It looks like sand. Simply fully cover your flowers in silica gel crystals in a container for a few days. The silica gel will dry them out but keep that fresh look.

Now for the resin, you are going to need the epoxy resin, the molds, toothpicks, gloves, and a respirator (As an option you can get a heat gun to help get the bubbles out of your layers). You can get them all at Amazon. Also, make sure you do this in a well-ventilated room with some windows open.

It’s time to fill up your mold. This happens in stages.

First, you mix the epoxy resin together in equal parts. Next, you are going to fill up your mold 30% of the way. Then place your dried flowers into the epoxy in the mold. They usually float up to the top so that’s why we are going to only fill them a third of the way. Use a toothpick to push the flowers down to where you want them to sit. If you are finding that the flowers are starting to float to the top wait a little for the epoxy to harden. Check back every 30 minutes or so. Then try to place the flowers where you would like them with a toothpick. Let this fully harden overnight. 

Once you get this first layer complete, you are going to repeat the process. But this time fill it up another 30%. This will mean you have finished 60% of your resin. Remember to push the florals down to where you want them to go with a toothpick. Once they are placed, wait for it to set overnight.

Do this one more time for the last portion.

Now that you have filled your mold completely and it is fully set. Remove it from the mold and enjoy!

Pro tip: If you have a heat gun. You can use it during each stage after you pour your epoxy to get any bubbles out. Do this each time you pour; after you set your flowers. Just point the heat gun at the epoxy and wave it in a continuous motion till all of the bubbles are gone. This happens very quickly. Keep it moving, don’t hold it in one spot for too long. 

Credit: Cary Baits

Press Your Flowers, then Frame Them.

If you don’t want to wait to dry them before you use them, you can simply snip the ones you like from the bouquet or arrangement and then press them. Pressing flowers is easy. We are going to explain the most simple method in this article. There are other ways, but this will give great results without having to worry about loss of color or other things that might happen when rushing the process. 

The things you will need to press your flowers are:

• 1-2 heavy books, like a textbook.

• Four sheets of paper

• Your flowers

First, open the book to the middle. Next place two sheets of paper in the book. Place your flowers on top of the sheets of paper. Then place your last two sheets of paper on top of the flowers.

We use two sheets of paper on top and bottom to protect the book from the pigment of the flowers that can seep through and stain.

Finally, close the book and place it facing up somewhere where it won’t be disturbed for two to four weeks. Place the second book on top of it to add some extra weight.

After two weeks check the flowers. They should feel like paper. If they are not papery, then wait another week and check again. Once they are as dry as a sheet of paper, you know they are ready for use.

A simple and effective method to press your flowers.

Next, we are going to arrange them. You can grab any type of picture frame for this. We would use this one (Affiliate Link to Amazon). We love how this type of frame looks and we feel it really highlights the flowers. It also will allow light to come in through the back and illuminate your dried flowers.

When arranging the flowers in the frame, we suggest you pull a couple of the large main flowers and place those first. All flowers will dry differently so these florals will take on a little bit of shape of their own. These will be the focal point of the frame.

Then once those are placed, add some of the next sizes smaller. Make sure to leave some space in between the florals. Repeat this process as you continue to work your way down to the smallest flowers and you fill the frame. 

There are really no rules with this. If you don’t like what you create using this suggested method, just have fun and go wild. 

Check out this cool video with @framedflorals for more information on pressing and arranging.

You can find a similar flowers press like the one she was using in the video here (Affiliate Link to Amazon). 

If you have a microwave and would like to speed up the process. You can try a microwave flower press. You can press and frame your flowers on the same day.

Hopefully, you enjoyed this article. Check out some more below.

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