Children love flowers, but sometimes they want them to last for longer than is truly realistic! These simple pressed flowers for children can withstand hours of play and are easy to make. You might also enjoy this spring blossom sensory activity.

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How to Make Pressed Flowers with Children
When my daughter Emma was small, she loved to help me press flowers in dictionaries and other heavy books.
She would gently help me lay each flower inside a folded sheet of paper. We would then place the paper in a dictionary, leaving it there until the flower dried completely.
There was only one problem. Once the flowers were dry, she would pick them up. No matter how gentle she was, the flowers would fall apart, and then she would cry.
Because she didn’t want the fragile dried flowers to fall apart, we decided to laminate them. These days I would use my trusty laminator, but back then I didn’t have one. So we used packing tape, and it worked great! Clear contact paper makes another great laminating material. using some packing tape.
The laminated flowers were sturdy enough for Emma to play to her heart’s content without worrying about crushing them!
Note: you do want to make sure that the flowers are completely dry before laminating them, since otherwise they could mold.
Have you ever made pressed flowers with your children?
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
I love it! Thanks for this idea :)
Looks so beautiful. I love how you used packaging tape to laminate them… very clever!
I know what Keeling means. If I don't see an update on your blog, I can't help but think… "Ooooo.. maybe she had the baby???" Hee hee!!
what a great idea! So lovely!
@Quadmama – for this activity I picked the dried flowers up off of the paper using the tape, and then stuck a second piece of tape over. Since the flowers went directly onto the tape (instead of being handled on the way), they didn't disintegrate. You just have to be careful not to stick the tape onto the paper…
That is a neat idea!
Fun! That reminds me about the post that Journal Into Unschooling made about making a Life Sized Field Guide. She did it by xeroxing plants and laminating them, but pressing them and laminating them would be fun too!
I've never had much luck with dried flowers… eventually they end up disintegrating. Any tips?
@Keeling – I'm hoping for a baby post soon! :)
That's a really good idea! I'm going to try that one…I keep checking your blog daily hoping there's a baby post :)
oh cool idea, Will would like that he loves picking flowers out of my garden.