Valentine's Day Keepsake

Roses on Valentine's Day are such a nice romantic gesture, but cut flowers have such a short life in a vase!

One way to extend the life of your roses is to dry them and create a little Valentine's Day keepsake. Here's a simple project that's pretty and easy to do.

What you need to make this project:

• 12 dried sweetheart roses

• 9 x 9" shadowbox (I got mine at Michael's)

• pencil

• cardboard heart to trace (optional-you can always draw a heart, if you prefer. I bought a package of hearts at Michael's that were already on clearance)

• linen card stock (optional- the frame I purchased had a beige linen back that could be used instead)

• scissors

• glue gun and glue sticks

How to dry your Sweetheart Roses:

Hanging roses to dry is really easy to do. 

Gather your roses into a bunch and secure then together with a rubber band. The stems will shrink a little as they dry. The rubber band will adjust nicely to the shrinking size of your rose stems.

Hang your roses to dry almost anywhere as long as it is out of the full sun (sunlight will cause the color to fade). I like to attach my roses to a doorknob. Use a loop of the elastic band to hang them with the roses facing downward.

Depending on humidity levels in your home, a bunch of roses may take a week to a week and a half to dry. Dried correctly, the stems of your roses will be stiff and hard. The roses themselves should be somewhat crisp to the touch.

Once your roses are dry, use a sharp pair of scissors to cut the roses from the stems. Make your cut as close as possible to the base of the flower. A short stem will help the rose sit flat on the linen card stock.

Don't discard the green leaves and stems. They come in handy later.

To help me with placement of my heart on the linen card stock, I traced the outline of the back of my 9" x 9" shadowbox with a pencil. 

Then I placed my heart in the centre and traced its outline as well. 

Optional: If you are making this for yourself or even someone else, you can add names, the occasion and the date to the centre of the heart in your very best script: 

Katherine & Heathcliff, 

Valentine's Day, 

February 2018

I was worried about getting my roses evenly spaced, so I put the first rose at the centre top of the heart and the next rose just below it at the bottom of the heart. 

To attach the roses I used a glue gun. A couple of pointers: my shadowbox was an inch and a half deep. To make sure the roses weren't going to be crushed and flattened by the frame's glass, I attached them on a very slight angle (rather than absolutely upright). I also flattened out the small green petals at the base of the flower and pressed the roses down firmly.

You will probably notice there is some variation in the size and shape of your roses. Alternating bigger buds with smaller roses is one way to compensate.

Again to ensure even spacing, I took the ten remaining roses put them all into place and made any little adjustments. When I was happy with the arrangement, I glued them into place.

Next, return to your pile of leaves and stems. Remove as many of the smaller leaves as you think you'll require to fill in the gaps between the roses.

Hot glue the leaves into position.

Cut the linen card stock down to the size of the inside of your frame and insert the finished heart into the shadowbox. 

The shadowbox will keep your dried roses dust free. Hang your finished project out of direct sunlight and the roses should keep their color for a year or so.