Children’s Flower Press Crafts | toucanBox
Pressing flowers is the perfect craft activity for getting kids out and about in the natural world. Foraging for beautiful leaves and petals to press is so much fun for kids and is a great way of enjoying family time outdoors. There are plenty of beautiful crafts to create with pressed flowers too, and little ones will love to proudly display their springtime artwork.
That’s why the clever folk at the toucanBox lab decided a children’s flower press would be the perfect craft to include in your toucanBox! There’s everything you need to build your own flower press, plus an awesome decorative activity included too.
We are so excited to present the Flower Press & Nature Banners craft, not only because it’s great fun that we know our toucaneers will love, but because it’s also one of our most eco-friendly crafts yet and an important step in our new eco-crafting range with significantly reduced plastic.
This craft includes a wooden base and top, wax paper and cardboard for your child to press flowers between. After a few days they can fill in animal templates with their pressed flowers, to make beautiful decorations to hang in the window. As always, easy-to-read illustrated instructions are included and feature scientific fun facts and foraging top tips.
What flower craft to do with the pressed flowers?
One of the great things about our Flower Press craft is that your child can enjoy it for a long time after they have made their nature banners. There are so many exciting pressed flower crafts that you and your child can continue to make and enjoy.
We asked our master crafter Hannah to rustle up an extra pressed flower craft for you and your child to try once you have finished your nature banners.
Let’s Make A Pressed Flower Lantern!
You Will Need
- toucanBox Flower Press
- An empty jar
- PVA glue
- Paint brush
- Battery powered tea light
- 15ml water
- Pressed flowers/leaves
If you don't have the toucanBox Flower Press you can press flowers using sheets of paper and pressing the flowers with the weight of a heavy book. Piling up more books on top will make the pressing process quicker.
How To Make The Pressed Flower Lantern:
1 Forage wildflowers and leaves to place in your flower press. Construct the toucanBox Flower Press craft, following the illustrated instructions included with the kit. Leave the flowers and leaves for four days, tightening the straps of the flower press when possible.
2 Mix the PVA glue and 15ml of water.
3 Use a brush to coat the jar in the water and glue mixture.
4 Stick your pressed flowers and leaves onto the jar.
5 Once you have stuck on all your leaves and flowers, allow to dry for 2-3 hours.
6 Brush another layer of glue and water over your leaves and flowers and leave to dry overnight.
7 Place your tea light into the jar and watch as your pressed flowers are illuminated!
What are the best flowers to press?
It’s important that you don’t overfill your flower press. You should avoid picking any particularly thick plants or flowers, taking care to avoid chunky stems or particularly coarse textures.
We found that daisies worked very well, these delicate flowers are easy to fit in the press and common enough that you won’t need to forage for hours on end!
Rose petals are also easily pressed and keep their beautiful, bold colours even after drying out. Snowdrops and daffodils will also make very pretty pressed flower creations!
Responsible foraging
When foraging for flowers to press it’s important to respect the environment you are foraging in, and a great opportunity to teach your child about sustainability.
Remember to use the “one in twenty rule”. This means that if there are more than twenty plants in one area then it is okay to pick from one of them. Pick some petals or leaves from the plant but make sure you leave plenty for the plant to survive and for others to enjoy.
Reminding your child of this rule will help to prompt further discussion about how our actions affect the environment around us and the responsibility each of us have to not take more than we need.
What is the best paper to press flowers with?
We recommend using wax paper to press your flowers in. Flowers need to be pressed in paper that will absorb the flower’s moisture, taking away this moisture stops the flowers from decaying. This is a great talking point to discuss with your child, you can talk about how flowers need water to survive and how plants store water in their leaves.
The toucanBox flower press includes wax paper sheets to press your flowers with. So you’ll be able to create artwork with perfectly pressed flowers!
If you’re inspired to try flower pressing with your child then add the Flower Press and Nature Banners to your first toucanBox! Save 50% on your first toucanBox and get your Flower Press and Nature Banners, plus Spring Pin Bowling Alley, toucanBox Magazine and sticker sheet, all for just £5.95!
Each toucanBox is also personalised with your child’s name, so they will be so excited when something addressed to them personally comes through the letterbox!
Already a toucanBox subscriber? We make sure all our existing subscribers get our best and newest crafts, so keep an eye out for The Flower Press & Nature Banners appearing in your box soon!
HAVE FUN AND SHARE YOUR CREATIONS WITH US
We’d love to see your creations, so why not share them on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #toucanBox. Our favourite snaps could feature in the next issue of toucanBox Magazine!
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