craft projects, craft ideas and kids crafts

The dry flower and leaf can be used as plant crafts material. One of drying process to get the dry flower for our craft projects is simple drying method.

In this method, the liquid in material that will be dried will evaporate slowly until dry. This method can be used with hang the material in a room so the environment water level around the material must be lower than water level in the material.

Tips to speed up drying process and get the perfect dry flower:

· Choose the room with good circulation, dry and warm.

· Tie the flower in small bundles with different size of stem, so the flowers aren’t touched each other.

· Reduce or throw away the leaf in stem.

· The air circulation can be made from fan heater and electric fan.

· To keep the color, drying process can be done in dark room.The room with too hot temperature can cause the dry flower get the dark color and the sepal become curly.

Coloring Process in Simple Drying Method

The dry flower that resulted from simple drying will change to light brown or old brown, so we need to do coloring process. Before doing that, the dry material must be bleached with soak it in peroxide solution for 1-2 days. Then lift from solution carefully because that solution is enough danger.Then wash the material with water and dry up with hang it. After that, we can give the color with 2 ways:

· Dyeing

We use textile dye with basic color in the appropriate dose as we want. Dissolve the dye in water then mix and filter it. Boil the solution and enter your craft material into it. Rinse with water and hang it.

· Spraying and painting

For certain flowers, we can use spraying paint like Pylox. If you want gradation color, use water paint that dabbed with small brush. Use the wet cotton to help your work to improve the color.