Pressed Flower Votive Candle Holder Gift Idea

Flower pressing friends, here's a cool Christmas idea gift idea for you to make, that's unbelievable easy.  

1.  Glue a pressed flower of your choice onto each side of a triangle or square votive candle holder.  I tend to prefer Perfect Paper Adhesive for gluing, but in this case any white glue should be fine. I also recommend using flowers pressed in a Microfleur microwave flower press since they tend to retain more of their color.

2.  Tear a piece of white/translucent tissue paper into a square that will cover each flower by at least 1/8".  You could also cut the square, but the torn edges give a much nicer, "artsy" look.

3.  Cover one of the flowers plus an extra 1/8" of an inch around it with either matte Modge Podge, or Perfect Paper Adhesive.  Place a tissue paper square on top, press out any air bubbles, and then carefully apply another coat of either Modge Podge or PPA over the tissue paper.  Make sure to cover the edges of the tissue paper, but avoid getting excess on the glass. Repeat for each flower.  Allow to dry.

There you have it!  The tissue paper lends a certain whimsical look to the pressed flowers, and also helps protect the flowers.  Avoid using greens since they readily fade unless you add some kind of pigment - with either water color, or markers such as Prismacolors. 

For the candle holder above I used osteospermum flowers (a type of African Daisy) in several shades of purple. Which ever flowers you choose to use, be sure to have plenty on hand - everyone you know will want one of these!

Aerogarden update

For those of you who follow me on twitter, you may recall that I recently received an Aerogarden for my birthday. Basically it's an indoor hydroponics garden, and I inserted the "seed pods" and plugged it in two weeks ago.

So far, as you can see, the italian basil and purple basil are going strong. To the right of the green italian basil there is a thin frond of dill that's about 3" tall, but because it's so thin and delicate it barely shows up against the dark background.
To the left of the purple basil there is mint sprouting, and on the right you can see a sprig of thyme, which is about 2" tall.

There are two sluggards on either end of the back row, chives and parsley. The chives should have sprouted 4 days ago, and the parsley is 2 days late. I called aerogarden, and after being on hold for a long time I was assured that two new seed pods will soon be on their way to me. Unfortunately by the time I get the new pods and germination finally occurs, they will be well behind the other plants. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Gifts for Gardeners

I am thrilled and honored to be among the Botanical Art sites chosen in Kathy Purdy’s article on “Gifts for Gardeners”

Kathy writes the very informative “Cold weather Gardening Blog” as well as a new blog entitled “Blogging Art and Practice which contains good information for those of us still trying to get the hang of blogging.

Kathy is also an accomplished photographer and the beautiful flower pictures on her gardening blog transport me right back to my garden in July. That’s a great place to be this time of year in Wisconsin!