Learn how to make a bookmark for pressed flowers

If you’re anything like me, you love the satisfying process of carefully storing flowers in an old sketchbook, but then you have no idea what to do with them afterward, leaving you with more and more pressed flowers that stay hidden. still in her notebooks. Enter the bookmark for pressed flowers!

This is the perfect solution for book lovers to finally show off the beautiful pressed flowers you are collecting while preserving them at the same time. I describe how to make one in this post, but if you’d rather just buy one, check out these gorgeous ones to buy.

How to make a bookmark for pressed flowers

First you will need some pressed flowers. I honestly had just finished pressing flowers because I’m that person, but if you’re starting from scratch I recommend that you take a notebook with you everywhere so you can grab flowers that you see!

Always make sure they are not privately owned or in a nature reserve. However, when you find a flower to squeeze, choose it carefully and place it in your notebook or book. This is the time when you want to arrange the petals and leave them exactly how you want them to be laid. I think it can be fun to let it be a surprise too!

1. Squeeze your flowers

Close the flower in the book. When you get home, place the book on a flat surface and put some weight on it. (I used about eight hardcover books.) Then comes the waiting game! My flowers have been sitting since last summer, so about six months, but if you want to speed up the process, here are some different methods for quickly pressing flowers.

Once you’ve pressed your flowers, it’s time to make your own bookmark!

2. Get creative with placement

I wanted to make different types of bookmarks for pressed flowers so I pulled out all of my paper ephemera and got to work.

My first plan was to make a bookmark with just the flower to itself to act as a kind of pressed flower bookmark that looked like a real pressed flower found in a book. I kept the stems I wanted to use for this bookmark in the sketchbook until I was ready to laminate it.

I wanted the other bookmarks I had in mind to be a little different and more like traditional bookmarks. I used washi tape and some scraps of paper that I had at home (this is one of my favorite places to get nice pieces of paper) to arrange the flowers on a paper background.

One of my flowers had petals falling off when I opened the book – if this happens to you, don’t panic! Instead of using the whole flower, I knew I could use the petals in a very nice way to still create a pressed flower bookmark that looked a little different.

3. Set up your support

Carefully arrange your pressed flowers or petals on a sheet of paper. I didn’t measure my paper at all; I just cut it to the size I wanted for my bookmark to make sure it was bigger than the flowers themselves. I used a library card for one too! Get creative! Newspapers, old book pages, and other random scraps of paper can lead to beautiful upcycling bookmarks.

Use tape or glue (I recommend acid-free) to make sure all of your items stick together if you can. For my thinner flowers, I used washi tape instead to hold them in place instead of using glue.

4. Laminating!

After arranging all of my flowers and pieces of paper exactly how I wanted them, it was time to laminate! The lamination allows your flowers to still be seen and protect them from bending and breaking.

I don’t have a laminator at home so I put my bookmarks back in my sketchbook for safe keeping and went to my local library (thanks to your librarians, everyone!). There they helped me put each bookmark in a laminating pouch and run it through the machine.

Note that some leaves, stems, or petals may shift when laminating pressed flowers alone or even on paper! That happened to one of me, but I’m still very happy with the result. Go slowly and patiently as you swipe your bookmarks through the device to reduce the chances of this happening.

The final step is to cut your flowers or your paper for your bookmark. I left about an inch on all edges to make sure the lamination stayed intact.

And voilà! You have made your own bookmark for pressed flowers!

This is a great rainy day, a quarantine activity for everyone. So go outside, find flowers and press!