So you received some flowers by post from someone special and you want to keep those with you even after the flowers have dried up. This can be done if you learn techniques of preserving dried flowers. After drying the flowers up, you can use them as ornaments (yes, floral ornaments!) or make unique gift cards with them. So let us get into it.
Dried or Fresh ?
Some of the methods that I am about to share with you here cannot be accomplished with dried flowers. For instance, if you want to smell like the flower bouquet, then you need the flowers to be fresh, because you cannot make perfume out of dried flowers. We will get more into perfume making a little later, but for now make sure that you condition the flowers according to the purpose. Flowers by post arrive fresh, so you would not have to worry about making them fresher than they already are, you can however put them in a vase of fresh water just to make sure that get enough water to remain hydrated.
However, drying flowers properly is a long and tedious process unless you want to let the flowers rot! There are many guides on the internet that will teach you more about drying cut flowers, which you can use in processing your bouquet. So now that you have the flowers dry or fresh as per the demand of the situation, let us proceed further and see how flowers received by post can be used for make useful things.
Perfume from Gift Flowers
Flowers by post takes no more than a few weeks to reach their destination, if you have ever received flowers by post, you should have noticed that they remain considerably fresh, if not garden fresh, and that much of freshness is enough to extract the biochemical oils that add make flowers smell the way they do. The fresher the flowers are the easier it becomes to extract them.
First get about cup full of the petals from the bouquet and soak them in a pan full filled with about litre of distilled water. Normal tap water has impurities that will overpower the true smell of the flower petals, hence distilled water. You can buy some for cheap at any chemists shop. Next, immerse the petals in the water and bring it to a simmer, by this time the oil will be released. Remove the vessel from heat and let it stand for a while. When it has cooled, enough drain the petals with a fine cloth and use the water as perfume.
One caveat we wish to issue here is that perfume made solely from the petals of fresh flowers will have a weak silage and very feeble projection. So apply the perfume in liberal amounts.
Jewellery from Fresh Flowers
What better way of increasing the longevity of flowers than to convert them into lacquered flower ornaments for the ear or the neck! Take your bouquet, untie it and separate large groups in their own bunch, wash them with distilled water and hang them nimbly by a clothesline in a place where the humidity is low. After about a week (5 days in average under dry conditions) your flowers will be ready to proceed to the next step, which is lacquering. Take the flowers out to a place where you can spray lacquer without harming anything around. Apply a mild layer of lacquer on the dried flowers, and then let it dry for a while before applying another gentle layer atop the first. When everything has dried, cut pieces (petals) apart in any shape you want and wear them on your neck or ears anyways you want.
Dried Floral Cards
You probably have seen dried flowers being used as gifts quite often. It is not a bad idea to dry flowers and then use them to make a reciprocating gift on an appropriate occasion. For instance, you make cards with the dried flowers laid in the middle of the card or paste it at the very beginning of the card and write a note explaining the specialty of the dried flowers.
Thus, we have seen three very easy ways of putting flowers by post to good use, there are many others, if you happen to know some share a comment below.
Dried or Fresh ?
Some of the methods that I am about to share with you here cannot be accomplished with dried flowers. For instance, if you want to smell like the flower bouquet, then you need the flowers to be fresh, because you cannot make perfume out of dried flowers. We will get more into perfume making a little later, but for now make sure that you condition the flowers according to the purpose. Flowers by post arrive fresh, so you would not have to worry about making them fresher than they already are, you can however put them in a vase of fresh water just to make sure that get enough water to remain hydrated.
However, drying flowers properly is a long and tedious process unless you want to let the flowers rot! There are many guides on the internet that will teach you more about drying cut flowers, which you can use in processing your bouquet. So now that you have the flowers dry or fresh as per the demand of the situation, let us proceed further and see how flowers received by post can be used for make useful things.
Perfume from Gift Flowers
Flowers by post takes no more than a few weeks to reach their destination, if you have ever received flowers by post, you should have noticed that they remain considerably fresh, if not garden fresh, and that much of freshness is enough to extract the biochemical oils that add make flowers smell the way they do. The fresher the flowers are the easier it becomes to extract them.
First get about cup full of the petals from the bouquet and soak them in a pan full filled with about litre of distilled water. Normal tap water has impurities that will overpower the true smell of the flower petals, hence distilled water. You can buy some for cheap at any chemists shop. Next, immerse the petals in the water and bring it to a simmer, by this time the oil will be released. Remove the vessel from heat and let it stand for a while. When it has cooled, enough drain the petals with a fine cloth and use the water as perfume.
One caveat we wish to issue here is that perfume made solely from the petals of fresh flowers will have a weak silage and very feeble projection. So apply the perfume in liberal amounts.
Jewellery from Fresh Flowers
What better way of increasing the longevity of flowers than to convert them into lacquered flower ornaments for the ear or the neck! Take your bouquet, untie it and separate large groups in their own bunch, wash them with distilled water and hang them nimbly by a clothesline in a place where the humidity is low. After about a week (5 days in average under dry conditions) your flowers will be ready to proceed to the next step, which is lacquering. Take the flowers out to a place where you can spray lacquer without harming anything around. Apply a mild layer of lacquer on the dried flowers, and then let it dry for a while before applying another gentle layer atop the first. When everything has dried, cut pieces (petals) apart in any shape you want and wear them on your neck or ears anyways you want.
Dried Floral Cards
You probably have seen dried flowers being used as gifts quite often. It is not a bad idea to dry flowers and then use them to make a reciprocating gift on an appropriate occasion. For instance, you make cards with the dried flowers laid in the middle of the card or paste it at the very beginning of the card and write a note explaining the specialty of the dried flowers.
Thus, we have seen three very easy ways of putting flowers by post to good use, there are many others, if you happen to know some share a comment below.
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