Home Décor
How to Make Botanical Artwork Using Dried Flowers
Dried flowers are a wonderful way to bring nature into our homes so that it can be enjoyed year-round. I’ve seen some lovely larger botanical wall hangings, but I opted to use smaller frames to make things easier for first timers (like me!).
I gathered most of these botanicals on a nature walk last summer. Don’t ignore the weeds. Some of them are pretty in their own right and I used some weed leaves and stems to help fill in my own pictures.
How to Dry Flowers
I dried my flowers and leaves the old-fashioned way; between the pages of a book. However, there are many ways to dry flowers that don’t take two to three weeks. This website describes different methods that will help you choose a quicker way, if you don’t have time to wait or are simply eager to start.
You will need:
- one or more 4 x 6 frames (I used three to make a grouping)
- plain material or cardstock
- assortment of dried flowers
- scissors
- liquid glue
- tweezers
- toothpick
- Gorilla Glue(optional)
Cut the material or cardstock so it fits inside your frame. I’ve used some plain beige-coloured material that I had in my stash. Place your dried flowers on top of your chosen backing and arrange them into a pleasing design. Tweezers are useful for moving the flowers to prevent the oils on your hands from damaging them.
The larger flowers should be placed near the center of the picture, with the smaller and lighter leaves and flowers around the edges.
Once you’re happy with the design you’ve created, use a toothpick to apply a dot of glue on the back of each flower where the stems were. Avoid getting glue on the petals as this could cause discolouration. Set each piece back on the fabric and lightly press into place.
The frames I used had an insert with a border. . .
…which I used as a guide to centered my arrangement. Use a bit of glue at each corner to hold the fabric in place. Insert into frame and replace the backing. Your botanical wall hanging is finished!
I created three small pictures with the dried flowers and leaves I had on hand. Here’s what the other two looked like:
You can make as many of these smaller pieces as you like. I chose to make a grouping of three. They look nice hung together as a set.
As long as the frames you chose have flat edges, you could also glue them together for hanging. I used Gorilla Glue.
For added security, I ran a strip of duct tape down each of the seams. You can remove the stands from the back of the frames for hanging but I found that they didn’t interfere with the frames sitting flat on the wall, so I left them on.
Each frame has a hanger, but I only used the middle one to hang this botanical wall hanging on a nail. 3M Command picture hanging strips could also be used.
