Flower Power

Flower Power

Lynn set down her glue stick, turning to answer the knock on her door. It was her sister Susan, armed with a box from the bakery down the street.

“Ooh, something smells wonderful! What are you tempting me with today?”

“I couldn’t resist the delicious aromas floating on the air when I walked by “Sweet Treats,” so we get to pig out on cheese croissants, still warm from the oven! How about a cup of coffee to go with them, or are you too busy?”

“Are you kidding? I’m never too busy for coffee and goodies. Wait a minute till I move these pressed flowers over, so they don’t get damaged.”

She moved the dried flowers to the far end of the table, which was set in an alcove in front of the bay window, with the morning sunshine pouring in through the lace café curtains.

“What are you doing with all these, and what are they anyway?”

“I’ve pressed the most beautiful blooms from the flowers in my hanging baskets.” Lynn replied. “I’m not sure yet how these will turn out, but I’ve been making some special bookmarks. Let’s take a coffee break, then I’ll show you what I’ve been doing so far.”

While Lynn made coffee, Susan got a plate to set the croissants on. She carefully looked over the array of pressed blossoms on the other end of the table, noting the deep purple, white, yellow and pink petunia blooms, the vivid orange and gold nasturtiums, tiny deep blue lobelias and the dainty moss green ferns. They looked very life-like; the only thing missing was the fragrance.

“I’ve never tried to press flowers, but these are impressive. How do you keep the colors from fading?”

“Years ago, a lady showed me how to press them in a phone book. The texture of the pages and the weight of the phone book work to help them dry out without losing their fresh colors. I’ve been saving flowers for several summers, and am just now starting to do something with them.”

As the coffee maker burbled its message that the brewing was completed, Lynn set two large floral china mugs on the table. She drank her coffee black, but she provided cream, sugar and a spoon for Susan. For several minutes, conversation was interrupted as sipping coffee and munching croissants took center stage.

After the coffee cups were cleared away and the table wiped, Lynn got three more old phone books and showed Susan the many pages full of flowers, saved over the years. The quantity and variety were amazing, and Lynn hurried to tell her friend that these represented many summers.

“With this cold weather and shorter days, I need something cheery to brighten my life. The idea came to me, that as a romance author, I should make lovely book marks of my own, instead of paying to have them made for me.

“The first step was to use the outline of an old bookmark for size, and then I started making “Love” sayings on the computer, leaving spaces for the flowers, and repeating them to fill a page.

Like, “Love is” at the top, then a space for flowers and, “Even/almost better than chocolate!” at the bottom of the bookmark. That one would be done in brown print, and would incorporate flowers in colors that would compliment the brown.

“Altogether, I made a dozen pages full of bookmarks, printed on card stock, each page with different sayings in various colors, and am now deciding which flowers to enhance them with. Some are really romantic, like “Love is ……Sweet and Tender,” and others are silly, like “Love is blind…..but the neighbors aren’t!”

“I can see what you’re doing, and I think it’s a great idea, but with my big clumsy hands, I’d never be able to make something so fragile without ruining it.”

“Sure, you could, Susan! This isn’t something that you have to hurry with; just take your time and place them on the paper where you think they look nice and move them around until they look perfect to your eye. Then use the glue stick to hold them until you can paint the edges of the flowers with clear nail polish to set them, and let them dry.

“They are still very fragile, so the next step is to take them downtown to an office supply shop to get them laminated. The clear covering will protect them indefinitely, and that’s all there is to it. It cost less than a dollar each, and you end up with a beautiful keepsake. Here, I had a dozen done last week, and you can see how durable they are, yet they still look fragile and dainty.”

“You’ve almost got me convinced to try some. But I don’t have any flowers, Lynn.”

“I’ve got books full of them, Susan. Why don’t you choose one of these old phone books full of flowers to call your own, and you can make some too. Yours might have different sayings, since you don’t write romance. You could sell them at craft shows, maybe even on line. It’s a lot of fun, once you get started, and it helps to lighten up these gray winter days. Just looking at the flowers makes me think of summer and sunshine.

“Take one of these blank forms, and look through the flowers until you see a few that would look nice together. Some of the petunias are so large that they fill the whole width of the bookmark, and there’s only room for something tiny like lobelias or individual petals from the geraniums around them. But they still look nice, and the first one I sold had a huge dark purple petunia. The lady who chose it is known to love that color; she wears purple a lot. She couldn’t look past that one!”

“You’ve even got some colored leaves here, Lynn. Where did you find these tiny scarlet leaves?”

“On the trails in the bush where I walk my dog, there were these little bushes, not even as tall as my knees, but they were loaded with bright red leaves. I also have some golden poplar leaves and some red maple leaves and bronze oak leaves too, in one of the books. The ferns come from the bush trails too. When I see some just too nice to leave, they end up in my pockets!

“Last summer, I picked some daisies, and I haven’t looked yet to see how well they dried. Their yellow centers are thicker, sort of like little pincushions. I pressed a few buttercups and tiny white flowers that grew near them last summer too. I’ll leave that book till next year, to make sure they are all dried thoroughly.”

“Now you’ve whetted my imagination, and I’d like to give it a try.”

“How about we work on one each right now, Susan? I’ll be able to answer any questions you have while I’m working on my own. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it; it’s more fun than doing crosswords puzzles or jigsaw puzzles. Being an artist, you have such a good eye for color, you will end up with beautiful bookmarks.

“I’ve even been thinking of using this technique for book covers. I could glue the flowers in places where they wouldn’t interfere with the title. That idea needs some more thought, but some of Jodi Thomas’s earlier books had flowers on the covers. Not real ones like this, but painted ones, and they look really nice.”

You’re so full of good ideas, Lynn. No wonder you’re an author. My only imagination goes to painting and blending colors to reproduce what my eye sees. Maybe we should collaborate: you do the writing and I’ll design the covers. I’m choosing this form that says, “Love us sweeter than candy,” and I’m going to put sweet peas on it, along with one sprig of cedar. How does that look, Lynn?”

“I like it a lot. Just think, you now have a hobby that will make the winter go by faster. Next summer, you could press some of your own flowers and incorporate them into your paintings. The sky is the limit when you use your imagination.