Valentine's Day Cards

(Photo by Nathan Gatten)

The KidzGrow sessions are very much hands-on. Thank you to all of our volunteers for making this session such a great success. For this session we created Valentine's Day cards using pressed flowers from the Guelph Enabling Garden. Making personalized cards in this way is very easy and often very much appreciated by those who receive them.

(photo by Nathan Gatten)

It requires a bit of patience as the pressed flowers are very delicate. Working at a slow pace and being able to carefully observe the little details of the flowers and how they look in relation to other flowers in a design is very interesting.

Making a press is very easy. If you can get your hands on a couple of plywood boards, all you need to do is drill holes in each corner that would fit bolts and wing nuts. The length of the bolt should be fairly long so that you can fit a good number of layers of flowers into the press (more on this below).





You will need an even number of blotting paper (or newspaper - something that will absorb moisture from the plants) and the same number of corrugated cardboard cut to a size that will fit nicely into your press. When arranging fresh flowers into your press, try to make sure none of the plants are touching each other (Otherwise they tend to dry and stick together).
You would layer the plants in between 2 sheets of the blotting paper and then again in between 2 sheets of cardboard (like a sandwich).
The next time you see a flower or leaf that catches your fancy, appreciate it, and you can silently thank it if you decide to include it in your collection.