These beauties fluttered out of a re-used envelope I had sandwiched between a stack of books and my nightstand. I'd completely forgotten about doing this last spring and came upon them this past week quite serendipitously as I was cleaning and organizing. A Johnny Jump Up blossom is charming and uplifting to find in the garden but an even greater treasure to "find" as a pressed flower in the still off-season.
I pressed these on a whim one afternoon, with no particular end purpose other than to preserve them. However, there are many crafty things that can be done with pressed flowers and leaves. A couple of crafts that I've done: framed "prints" made with pressed leaves adhered to art paper, as well as greeting cards and gift enclosures made with card stock and pressed blooms. I've also seen more impressive projects, such as pressed flower phone cases, pressed leaf candle lanterns, and lacquered pressed blossom trays.
While pulling weeds from pots, I noticed that I have a nice Johnny Jump Up plant in one of my deck containers. The plant looks healthy and will hopefully provide a lot of blooms for me this spring.
I pressed leaves and flowers every summer growing up. I had almost forgotten about that simple pleasure, then last year I pressed just a couple of blossoms. I'm so glad that I remembered to try this again, as pressing flowers is such a beautiful way to celebrate spring and summer. And I'm equally glad that I found these pressed flowers when I did. Otherwise, I might have forgotten to press more blossoms next month when the Johnny Jump Ups bloom in my area.
How about you? Do you ever press flowers or leaves?
