“Hallmark call me!”Card by Sarah Boutwell

By Sarah Boutwell

Staff Writer

Spring is here.

“Oh, look at the flowers! Aren’t they — ”

And then you sneeze from all the pollen. But this happens to be perfect weather for crafting.

It doesn’t seem like too many people collect flowers and leaves to preserve between their favorite novel’s pages or within their letters home anymore. It’s sort of a lost art. Yet it was such a unique way to keep a little bit of nature around.

Remember those dried flowers that would fall out of your grandma’s photo album as you flipped through it?

Pressed flowers make nice little organic memories and they’re also lovely to look at. You can even get creative with the arrangement (bouquets), container (bottles of perfume or oil) and format (framed, not framed). This is vintage crafting at it’s best.

With Savannah in full bloom, there’s bound to be a bush, tree or garden nearby that’s full of flowers. So stop and pick a few. And then do this:

What you need:

 Newspaper, journal, cardboard, or paper

 Heavy books

 Your choice of flora

 Step 1: Pick your flowers. Stop and smell the roses. But don’t pick them; they’re sort of hard to press.

Note: As tempting as it is, don’t steal from your neighbor’s garden. They may want those flowers for daily viewing purposes.

Step 2: Place flowers between newspaper, paper, or in journal/book. As long as they are not all smushed on top of each other, you’re good.

Protip: Separating petals from the actual flower and adding some of its leaves is a nice touch.

 Step 3: Get those old textbooks from your art history class. Grab the phone book or the Encyclopedia Britannica if you’re old enough to have the last print version they’ll ever make. Now pile them on top of the pages/book your flowers are in.

Step 4: You should leave the books on top of the flowers for about a week. That’s enough time for the moisture to evaporate and for them to get flat.

Step 5: When your flowers are dry and pancake-like, you can sit and look at them.

Or make something cool, like a Mother’s Day card, which is coming up by the way. Some ideas for cards: cut up your old magazines to make a collage, draw your own cartoons, or just glue them right on.

Be creative, have fun.