how to dry & preserve flowers

I think I'm done with you. Hello everyone! So you guys know how much I use dried flowers in so many of my projects and I finally put together a video showing you how I dry them. And before we get started, I would just like to thank Squarespace for sponsoring this video. Squarespace is the place to go to build the website, domain, or online shop of your dreams. I'll explain more at the end, but follow the link below or use my code JORDANCLARK to try them free for 14 days and then get 10% off your first purchase. So to begin, you can dry and preserve almost any flower or plant. I haven't really come across one yet that doesn't work. And where to find your flowers? You could pick them from your garden or buy them from a florist. And you can also check your local farmer's market or grocery store. The two ways that I preserve my flowers are by pressing or by hanging them to dry. And we will begin with pressing. So first, cut the stems up into the sizes that you want and place them between sheets of paper. And this is going to absorb their moisture. And then put that paper between the pages of a heavy book and stack some more heavy books on top and then leave it to dry for a week or two. Some flowers dry pretty quickly and some take a bit longer so just keep checking on them. Now, the other way that I dry my flowers is by hanging them to preserve their shape. This is how I dry the flowers that you always see me use as props in my videos. This method of drying is great for the flowers that are too big to be pressed, like roses. This method is pretty self-explanatory. All you need to do is take your stem and tie it upside down somewhere to dry. I hung mine from my window, but you can also hang them from a shelf, a cabinet, or anything that just gives them room to hang freely upside down. I let both my pressed and hanging flowers dry for a few weeks until I was sure they were completely dry and then they are ready to use in any projects. I love putting the flowers that I hung in vases around my room and like I said earlier, I use them all the time as props in my videos and photos. I really like how they retain their shape whenever you hang them to dry. For the pressed flowers, I either use washi tape or glue to attach them to my projects and I add them to everything, like my journal, penpal letters, my planner, and all my other notebooks. Now that it's fall, I feel like these dried flowers look so good as decorations because they go really well with the autumn theme. Next, I want to try pressing some autumn leaves and start adding those to my projects. I think that will be really cool. I hope this little tutorial was helpful for you guys and I'm so excited for you to start drawing some flowers and using them in all of your crafts. And one more thing, I'd like to tell you guys a little bit more about Squarespace since they are sponsoring this video. Like I said in the beginning, Squarespace is perfect for building a website, a domain, or an online shop. So basically, anything you want to do online, Squarespace is the place to go. I love using Squarespace because their website templates are so easy to customize and I was able to build the website that I was envisioning in my mind just by customizing the templates. They also have great customer service, so anytime you have a problem, they are so quick to get back to you and super helpful. If you're interested in trying them out, you can follow the link below or use my code JORDANCLARK to try them free for 14 days and then get 10% off your first purchase. I have loved my experience with Squarespace and if you guys try them out, I really hope you love them as much as I do. Thank you guys for watching and until next time, I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are.