How to Make Wedding Gifts With Dried Flowers

Dried roses form a candle ring

Every bride wishes her bridal bouquet would last and last as a permanent remembrance of her wedding day. To make a meaningful gift she will treasure forever, bring her bouquet home to dry the flowers.Then, you can use them to create a keepsake wreath or candle ring. The candle itself can be part of the gift, with the wedding invitation, or a scripture from the service, printed out and bonded to the candle.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Flowers from the bouquet
• Flower drying kit or silica gel
• Microwave safe container
• Grapevine wreath
• Pillar candle
• Florist’s wire
• Hot glue gun
• ModPodge Lustre waterbased sealer
• Wide and narrow ribbon
• Paper or fabric to match candle

1. 

   To dry the flowers, first fill the microwave-safe container with silica gel. Experiment with one flower first. Cut off all but a short stem and insert the flower stem down into the silica gel crystals. Cover it gently with spoonfuls of silica, getting some between the petals. Microwave for one minute. Adjust your drying time according to the resulting color and texture of the dried flower. In the gift shown, white and pink roses were dried, one or two at a time for a minute or a minute and a half in the microwave, then left in the microwave for at least an hour. The big white roses took longer, although if left too long, they turned brown. The smaller pink roses took only one minute and kept their color well. The silica gel microwave method is used because it does a better job of preserving color and shape than plain drying. Approximately 20 flowers were used to make this candle ring.

2. As flowers are dried, remove them gently from the silica gel and turn upside down to remove any crystals left between petals. Set aside upright, in an egg carton, or in silica gel, so they hold their shape, and let them continue to dry for a day or two.

3. Scatter the bigger blossoms around a grapevine wreath. Run florist's wire through the stems and poke through grapevines. Fill in with smaller and mid-size blossoms. Sometimes the stem will be stiff enough to poke through the grapevine without florist's wire. When you're happy with the arrangement of the flowers, carefully shoot in hot glue at the stems. Glue satin bows in one or two places. Loop narrow ribbon loosely around the blossoms and glue just once or twice.

4. Create a base or platform for the wreath. Here an upside-down glass pie plate covered with pink fabric goes under the wreath.

5. 

   Add a message to the candle. Use part of the wedding invitation, or print out a quotation from the wedding service on fine paper to match the candle. Coat the inside of the paper with ModPodge and wrap it around the candle. You may need to hot glue the corners as well. This quotation is: "A man and his wife are heirs together of this life of grace" from I Peter 7b.

6. 

   Cover the edges of the paper or invitation with ribbon or fabric that matches the candle. The sheen of the ribbon and the detail of its design adds to the candle's beauty. Coat the inside of the ribbon with ModPodge and hold it in place over the paper. Use one strip of ribbon above, and one below the paper with the message. Depending on the ribbon, you may have to hot glue it in places.

7. 

   Carefully insert candle in the center of the wreath, holding back flower petals with one finger if necessary to avoid crushing them. Your keepsake candle ring is ready to give.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep flowers in water in your refrigerator until you're ready to dry them. Use them before they open completely. Don't worry if some of the flowers don't dry well. Check out your grocery's floral department at the end of the week for clearance flowers similar to those that were in the bouquet. You can always dry those to fill in the wreath.

• Be careful not to burn fingers with the hot glue gun.

• Remember, the candle ring will be delicate. Get a big cake box from a bakery to transport it, and put stiff cardboard in the bottom. Hold it upright. .