Flower Prints

My kids love being outside to explore nature.  One of their favorite things to do is cut and collect flowers from our gardens, so I thought we would give flower prints a try. 

The only supplies you need are light colored paper, a hammer, and scissors to cut your flowers.

We started by collecting 6 different flowers and trimming the stem as close to the head of the flower as possible.  Our paper was cut and folded in half, about the size of a greeting card.  We placed the flower inside the folded paper, then gently tapped the paper with the hammer.

Tapping gently breaks down the flower and the color comes through the paper, creating the print.  Some flowers worked better than others.  A flower with a defined center and petals seemed to work the best.  Very fragile flowers were nearly destroyed, even with the most gentle tapping from the hammer.  And bunches of small flowers, like from our butterfly bush, just didn't transfer well and looked like a big blob after hammering.  Here are a few pics of the prints that turned out the best...

 
We let ours dry for the day on the porch, then stapled the pages together to make little books.

The kids had so much fun with this!  I think I'll be making my own prints to frame...

This activity was featured in the Nature Rocks Spring Activity Guide!

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