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. 

How to Dry Roses & Make a Rose Wreath

Many years ago now, I spent a good part of a year working for a florist. Valentine's Day was one of the craziest, most stressful days of the year. 

Smart, organized guys ordered their roses in advance and had them delivered to their wife or girlfriend's place of business causing a flurry of excitement and a good measure of envy. Who got the roses? Oh, isn't she lucky! 

The procrastinators paid for their folly by waiting in long lineups on the big day with the other anxious men, who felt they dare not show up for dinner empty-handed. It didn't seem to matter that the price of roses had been inflated and was ridiculously expensive. The line of romantics stretched almost to the small shop's door. 

I remember standing in the back of the shop cleaning buckets of roses by the hundred. The pressure to be fast was intense. I'd pluck a rose from the water, run down the stem with the knife on one side and down the stem on the other. The surplus leaves fell to the ground like confetti. Then it was into the long, white boxes with a few stems of fern, and if he was willing to pay extra, a handful of babies breath. 

Almost always it had to be roses and the roses most certainly had to be red. Other beautiful flowers would languish in the walk-in cooler in favour of the classic red long-stemmed rose.

Times have changed. These days a guy can stroll into a Walmart at the last second and walk out victorious with a bouquet of sweetheart roses for twelve dollars. The requisite expression of love- now at a bargain price.

If I sound a bit cynical, I am sorry. Part of me resents the commercialization of this celebration of love.  On the other hand, I feel that there is a certain democracy in roses anyone can afford, and even if the romantic gesture comes at the eleventh hour, isn't it the thought that counts? 

I really do believe in love even after thirty-plus years of marriage. 

Roses in the dead of winter are such a lovely treat. If only they weren't so fleeting! 

Generally, the roses you buy at this time a year have travelled a long way and are weary after the miles and miles of travel. Four or five days in a vase and then they hang their heads in an exhausted slump.

One way to give Valentine's Day roses a second life is to dry them.

Drying roses is easy to do. Gather your roses into a bunch and secure them together with a rubber band. (The stems shrink a little as they dry and rubber bands adjust to the changing size of your rose stems better than string.)

Use a loop of the elastic band to hang your roses with the flower facing down to dry.

If you are drying more than one bunch of roses, allow space between them so the air can circulate.

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

Roses don't dry entirely true to color. There is always a bit of a shift. Cool pink roses, for instance, become a soft mauve.

Red roses turn a burnt shade of burgundy.

White roses become cream, and then more beige as they age. 

Yellow roses become a beige shade as well.

Coral or orange roses turn peach. 

As you might expect, multicolored roses turn an interesting mix of shades.

Dried roses are nice just as they are. You can also take the petals and make a sachet, fill a jar or even make a wreath.

I took a dozen sweetheart roses and made a wreath. You can find instructions over on the home page of the blog.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Simple Projects with Dried Hydrangeas

Now is the perfect time to bring some of those glorious fall colors indoors! I have some simple arrangements, using dried hydrangeas, that I think you are going to love to try.

You can dry hydrangeas a number of ways. The best and most popular method is to put them in a jar or vase with about an inch of water. By the time the water disappears, the flowers are dry.

Another easy way is to hang bunches to dry. Simply secure your flowers with an elastic band and hang them in a cool, dry place that out of direct sunlight.

This certainly works, but based on my experiments, I am not sure it is always necessary to dry the flowers first before you use them. Dried hydrangeas are brittle and fall to pieces easily. 

Fresh flowers harvested at this time of year are often much easier to work with. With the cool fall temperatures, hydrangeas are already somewhat dry and papery. Fresh stems are strong and woody making them easier to use.

My first project was to fill a basket with hydrangeas and dried roses.

It's standard practice for dried arrangements of this type to use a piece of florist's foam to hold the flowers in place. 

Florist's foam is full of chemicals and isn't biodegradable, so I opted instead to use an old fashioned flower frog. (Note: If you are doing a basket up as a gift, you may want to resort to using the florist's foam. It will make the arrangement more transportable.)

The mix of flowers I used include:

Hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit' (seen above on the left as they looked earlier in the summer. This Proven Winner's cultivar has flowers that are smaller and finer than many other varieties of hydrangea. Unfortunately, the stems aren't super sturdy)

 Hydrangea paniculata 'Little Lime' (seen above on the right).

Here's how to make your own basket arrangement:

Go out to your yard and pick a generous armful of hydrangea flowers. 

Remove all the leaves and trim the hydrangea flowers to a length appropriate to your basket (as shown above). 

Place the metal frog in the bottom of your basket.  Insert the woody stems into the metal frog. 

Put the basket aside while the hydrangea flowers dry enough for you to move on to the next step, which is adding the dried roses. 

Roses must be hung to dry. Fasten bunches of roses together with an elastic band and then hang them, upside down, in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight. It will take a little over a week to dry roses. When the rose stems are stiff, they are usually ready to use.

Trim the dried roses to a length appropriate to your basket (mine were about 8 inches). 

Gently poke the roses in amongst the hydrangeas and allow them to catch in the maze of flower stems. (If you opt to use foam, secure the roses into the florist's foam inside the basket.)

This is my finished basket filled with dried hydrangeas and roses.

This hydrangea wreath was another project where I used fresh flowers. Once assembled the wreath dried perfectly.

To keep this post a reasonable length, I have posted instructions separately here.

How to make a dried hydrangea arrangement for a vase or urn:

Cut your hydrangea flowers to a length appropriate to your container. Remove all the green foliage.

Gather the flowers into a pleasing bouquet and fasten the flower stems together with an elastic band. 

To double-check your arrangement is pleasing, place the tied flowers into the urn or vase. Remove the elastic, if necessary, and make any minor adjustments. Gather the flowers back up and refasten the elastic band when you are happy with the arrangement. 

Hang the flowers in a cool, dry place out of the direct sun. 

Before you know it the flowers will be dry enough to place right side up in your vase or urn. 

I left the elastic in place to hold the flowers in position. Another arrangement done!

Even individual hydrangea flowers have a decorative potential. 

I used a few of the dried flowers along with some dried purple Gomphrena to pretty up this bird's nest.

Purple Gomphrena (see my post on Simple Techniques for Drying Flowers)

Often I collect things I like with no intended purpose in mind and group objects together later. 

This is a perfect example. The silver pedestal dish came from a charity shop ($5). The bell-shaped glass cloche was purchased from a home decor store a few years back ($8-10). The straw nest is from the craft store ($8). The speckled eggs and ceramic bird are tiny treasures I picked up somewhere or other in my travels. 

I like to think that, grouped together, my random collection of things becomes rather charming. 

In behind is another bunch of dried hydrangeas in a white pitcher. (Yes, I do have loads of hydrangeas in my garden!)

If you have hydrangeas in your garden, it's not too late to think about drying some of them!