Spring is a good time to make a DIY Flower press from recycled materials as wildflowers are in bloom! May’s theme for Nature Book Club is wildflowers but we also have a HUGE resource post all about parts of a flower from a few years ago!
One thing I have come to appreciate about having four children over a decade is that the younger ones haven’t done everything that the big kids have. This means that I get to relive and share activities over again. This is especially fun for me and nature activities.
Lil’ Red loves nature and looking at our flowers both cultivated and wildflowers. He is more then happy to collect flowers or leaves for homemade medicine. It just occurred to me that he had never pressed leaves or flowers. Since he is my hands-on learner I knew he would enjoy this activity.
We own a couple of books about wildflowers that are fun to use to identify plants that we do not know. One called Spring Wildflowers of Ohio is free from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and can be viewed online or saved as a pdf! You can also check out the Wildflower Bloom report for Ohio.
Supplies Needed for DIY Flower Press:
Cardboard (recycled Amazon box)
3-4 Rubber bands (ours came from grandparents)
Stickers or Markers for decorations (given to us by relative)
Paper for inside as “blotter” (regular printer paper)
Instructions for DIY Flower Press:
- Find two pieces of cardboard the same length. We get orders from Amazon all the time so I just grabbed a box that had short end flaps that looked to be 1/3 of a letter sized sheet of paper.
- Cut ends off the box with a box knife while child is not nearby. I do not like using sharp blades around children so I did this before Lil’ Red woke up.
- Gather the rubber bands, stickers, and paper.
- Fold the paper to fit between the cardboard
- Decorate the cardboard. Let your child spend time decorating their flower press. Lil’ Red loves stickers so he was given an entire sheet of flower stickers which he used every single sticker on his flower press!
- Pick flowers to put between the pages of your press.
- Secure rubber bands around your press.
If you follow these simple instructions you will have your own DIY flower press in no time! The really good thing about this flower press besides it’s essentially free is that it doesn’t take much time and you can make one for each child, scout or student.
If you discover that you or your child has a real interest in using a flower press then you may want to buy a sturdier kit like the 4M Pressed Flower Art Kit or Toysmith Flower Press Kit or 7 X 9 Nature Press for yourself or classroom use.
Welcome to Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 5.
Nature Book Club is a monthly link up beginning on the 20th day of each month.
It’s a monthly book club devoted to connecting children to nature. There is a theme for each month and June will be Nature Hike and Discovery! We welcome your nature book and activity related links!
May’s theme for #NatureBookClub is WILDFLOWERS
which happen to be blooming all over our area in Ohio!
Be sure to check out the other Co-hosts as they share some wildlfower crafts and projects!
Miss Rumphius Mixed Media Art from Emily at Table Life Blog
Wildflower Walk and Pressing Flowers from Barbara at Handbook of Nature Study
Wildflowers Nature Study from Jenny at Faith and Good Works
Oregon Nature Study Quiz: Wildflower Edition from Eva at Eva Varga
Wildflower Fairy Poetry & Art Activity from Melanie at Wind in a Letterbox
Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms Online Book Club from Dachelle at Hide the Chocolate
Wildflowers Unit Study & Lapbook from Tina at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Fingerprint Painting on Canvas Activity from Katrina at Rule This Roost
Dandelion Life Cycle Learning Activities from Karyn at Teach Beside Me
Link Up Guidelines
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- Choose an engaging nature book, do a craft or activity, and add your post to our monthly link up.
- The link up party goes live at 9:00 a.m. EST on the 20th of each month and stays open until the last day of the month. Hurry to add your links!
- You can link up to 3 posts. Please do not link up advertising posts, advertise other link up parties, your store, or non-related blog posts. They will be removed.
- By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course if we feature posts.
- Also, join our new Nature Book Club Facebook Group!
Welcome to Nature Book Club!
May Theme: Wildflowers
Nature Book Club theme for June: Nature Hike & Discovery
This is amazing!!! Can’t wait to do this with my kids!!!
My daughter is going to love this flower press… I can see us trying to make our own this week. 🙂
I always enjoyed pressing flowers with my kids when they were small. Now I have great-grandkids to do it with one day! 🙂
Wonderful! My children and I have enjoyed pressing flowers over the years. I still use the one they made for me over 25 years ago – and we’ve created some really fun and beautiful projects with the flowers we’ve pressed.
It’s so fun to see the joy they get out of discover, collecting, gathering. Thank you for sharing with us last week at our Encouraging Hearts & Home blog hop 🙂