Turn your "Special Occasion" flowers into a keepsake!

Angela A
by Angela A
Do you ever wish you could keep the beautiful flowers you received forever and ever? Here's a great way to do it! I can't take credit for this, as a very dear friend of mine taught me how to do this last year as I made some of these for Christmas gifts for my family out of the flowers from my brother's funeral. (that was a sad occasion I know, but very appreciated by my family and something we will all cherish forever). These are flowers that my mother sent to me at work in June, so I dried them, and put them in a jar to keep.
Basically, the steps are:
1) hang the flowers upside to dry, (I like to hang them in front of a window, I think they dry a little faster that way) depending on the type of flowers, some may take longer than others, and I put a box underneath to catch any petals that may drop as they dry.
2)Pick out the type of container/jar you want to use to display your flowers in. A jar that seals tightly is good, preferably with the liner type seal like you see in canisters. (this helps keep moisture from getting inside the jar.)
3)Separate the flowers, greenery from the actually flowers
3.a) ***If you have a card that came with the flowers and want to put it in with the flowers you can, I like to keep my cards. You can put it in anyway you want. You can see in the pictures how I did mine***
4)Start layering your flowers and greenery into the jar. You will want to put the greenery more in the middle of the jar and the colored flowers around the edges of the jar that will show through the sides. Keep filling in the jar in layers.
5)When you get to the top and are ready to put the lid on, you will want to fill it as far to the top as you can, as the flower are going to settle a bit over time. Almost to the point that you are squishing them down when you put the lid on.
6)This step is NOT necessary, but I like to do this as an added step to keep moisture out AND in the event that I move my jar so that the lid doesnt accidentally fall off and my flower spill out. I put super glue around the seal before putting the lid on for the final closing seal.
7)Take the ribbon that came on the vase of the flowers and tie it around the container as a bow for added decoration and voilà! You have a keepsake for you flowers to keep them forever in! I hope you enjoy as much as I do!
Beautiful flowers my mom sent me to work one day when I was having a bad day just because....just bc my mommy wuvs me!!! ;-)
dried flowers
separated greenery
separated blooming flowers
start layering flowers
showing layers
finished product! ;-)
This is the keepsake from the flowers from my brother's funeral. I made several of these, but this is the one I made for myself. I incorporated the ribbons inside the jars as well just because I wanted to use as much as I could.
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 2 comments
  • Janice jenkins Janice jenkins on Feb 25, 2013
    <3 this idea I have so many flowers from different ones but never thouht to do this great Idea
  • Katherine T Katherine T on Feb 25, 2013
    When my husband died in October, we received so many flowers. My daughter and I dried the roses and greenery and other flowers, put them in clear glass Christmas ornaments, decorated my tree, then gave everyone one of the ornaments on Dec 24.
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