Thursday, April 30, 2009

How to Save Flowers From a Funeral?

My Grandmas funeral was today, i would love to keep the flowers I received, how can i save them forever

How to Save Flowers From a Funeral?
The degree of preservation will vary - some flowers dry beautifully, others dry poorly. Take a picture first, since you can use some silk flowers to replace the most fragile ones if you want to preserve an arrangement.


You can press some flowers in some old phone books - though the shape will suffer.


Others flowers you commonly see dried can be hun unside down in a cool dry place and they should be OK. To maintain the shape better, you can get a large plastic box and put a bunch of dry play sand in it - hold the bloom in your hand and let sand run down into it - do not let the petals get pushed off by the weight, though. Then gently arrange the flower in the sand and place more sand around it until it is held in place. Placing them face down is the most useful, but keeping the sand in them or not letting is crush them is more difficult in that position. Afterwards, arrange the flowers that turned out well back into an arrangement like in the photo (if you like) and add sinks if needed - keep the arrangement out of sun and moisture - under a glass lid is best to keep dust off of it. Of you can keep it in a box to look at when you are in the mood to remember her - like something in a scrapbook. You can put them in an inverted fish bowl or terrarium to keep them dust-free also. You can also find flower drying kits in craft stores - they can be pricey but they do a good job of preserving the colors with the chemicals in them.
Reply:You can dry the flowers by pressing them in a book. Lay out the flowers on the page of a book, leaving 20 pages or so between pages of flowers. Stack something heavy on top of the book or books containing the flowers, to press them flat. Smaller flowers work best, but you can press many and save the ones that look best after drying. You can also buy specially designed presses for drying flowers. After drying you can laminate some of the flowers in plastic. You can also save clippings of an obituary or pictures that can be laminated with the flowers. These make wonderful (inexpensive) mementos as book marks for a bible, or as family gifts in remembrance of a loved one.
Reply:I'm sorry for your loss.





The variety of flower will affect how you dry them.


Flowers with many petals such as roses are better dried using either the hanging method mentioned earlier or using sand/kitty litter/silica gel to actually dry them out.





Flatter blooms such as pansies and daisies will press beautifully. I place them between a couple layers of white paper towel and set them atop a book and then place a heavy book on top . Once they are pressed you can frame them using tacky glue or spray adhesive.





I saved the roses and baby's breath from my mom's funeral by hanging them upside down and letting them dry. I keep them in a vase in my dining room.
Reply:I use kitty litter and it works really well and is inexpensive. I just fill a plastic container with the flowers to be preserved on a layer of kitty litter and then fill the rest of the container to the top. Leave it for a few weeks until all of the moisture is absorbed from the flowers.
Reply:the best way is to dry them. you can get the stuff you need from a craft store. if not drying them, then press them. you could use them for a memory card to send to others next year or you could make a whole picture using the dried flowers.

Fillings

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