pot-pourries.com

If you have a fetish for collecting bottles and jars, then here is a way by which you can add a bit of glamor to your collectibles. All you need to do is add some of your favorite dried flowers to your old vases and bottles, season it with some herbs and spices and you have got yourself a unique dried flower bottle art.

So leaving the introductory words and coming to the action part here is what you will need to make this floral bottle art:

· Dried flowers of your choice.

· Some aromatic leaves, herbs and spices.

· A glass jar or a simple glass bottle.

After you have these materials the first thing you will have to do is clean your glass bottle making it as clean as crystal.

Next, prune the stems of the flowers so that the length of each stem varies. Then place the dried flower with the shortest stems into the jar, first. Likewise arrange the flowers inside the jar according to their length of the stems. The bloom with the longest stem should be the last to go in.

This arrangement of flowers inside the bottle will make the appearance of your craft more interesting.

After the flowers, take leaves, herbs and spices and with them fill the vacant spaces inside the bottle. Then you may put on the lid of the bottle and place it anywhere as a part of your home décor.

Or another interesting thing that you can do with your craft is, make a potpourri out of it. For making the potpourri you will just have to add some drops of your favorite perfume, cologne or the aromatic floral essential oil to your flowers and the other contents of the bottle. Shake the bottle well so that the liquid nicely settles into every nook and cranny of the dried flowers, the leaves and herbs.

After doing with the shaking of the bottle tightly put on the lid of the bottle. Now your old bottle with dried flowers is not just a decorative item but it has also become a potpourri. Take the lid off the bottle once in a while and let its fragrance sooth the air of your home.

Potpourri is a simple way to fill your home with the sweet fragrance of natural flowers and herbs. The common state of the art potpourri one can make with the popular potpourri flowers like the roses and lavender. Whereas for a more complex one you will have to experiment with different flowers and the essence oils. Like colors if you mix two different flowers, herbs and essence oil you will get a whole new aroma.

The rose petals and the lavender flowers forms the basis of the major natural potpourri recipes. Among the many different roses the best to make a potpourri with are the red and the yellow roses. Their colors do not fade after the drying process. So to make a natural potpourri of roses first you will have to pick your roses. The best time for picking of the roses is the early hours of the day, after the blooms are free of the dew. After you have the blooms stripe them off their stems and place them in a kind of netted cloth and hang them in a dark and moisture free place for air-drying. But it is not necessary that you have to cut their stems off before you air-dry them. You may use the stems to bunch the flowers and hang them upside down for air-drying. After the roses are fully dry then you can stripe off the stems.

To the roses you can also other aromatic dried flowers like the jasmine, marigold, honeysuckle, rosemary and other like flowers that you can think of to make your natural potpourri. Mixing and matching of flowers and herbs will make your potpourri more interesting. Apart from the flowers you can also add scented leaves of lemon, bay, verbena and cedar. As for the spices you can use cinnamon sticks, ginger root, cloves and peels of citrus fruits.

After you have your flowers, herbs and the spices you will need the potpourri fixative, the most important ingredient of the natural potpourri making. Among the various types of fixatives the orrisroot is the most common, though some claim that this fixative causes skin irritation. So instead of the orrisroot using the cellulose fiber fixative will be better. Yet another vital ingredient for your natural potpourri is the essential oil. For the rose potpourri naturally you will have to use the rose essential oil, but you can always experiment with other essential oils as well.

 These are the ingredients that you will need to make your natural potpourri of roses. So make one to make your world more aromatic.

The kinds or different recipes of potpourri that you can make are infinite. Potpourri is a device that emanates fragrance and fragrances are like colors, they seem to be few, but each color when mixed with another one, produces a new color. It’s the same with aromas and fragrance, mix and match them and every time you will get a new and more intoxicating fragrance.

Here are some simple potpourri recipes that you can prepare on your own:

Rose Potpourri:

To make a potpourri of rose you will need rose buds and rose petals with the other potpourri making ingredients like the fixative and the essential oil. To start with you will need a bowl to make the potpourri mixture. Fill the quarter length of the cup with fixative; using the cellulose fiber fixative will be the best. Then take a teaspoonful of rose aromatic oil and mix it with the fixative. Stir the two liquids nicely so the fixative fully absorbs the aromatic oil. Leave the mixture for a while so that the absorption of the oil takes place nicely. In the meantime you can mix your rose buds with your rose petals by tossing them together into the bowl. To the roses you can also add some leaves of eucalyptus and some dried blooms of chamomile. After the flowers are ready pour the mixture of the oil and fixative into the bowl. Then mix the flowers and the fixative so that the two blend together nicely.

Holiday Pine Potpourri:

Make this holiday pine potpourri with a botanical mix of miniature pinecones, leaves of rosemary, rose hips and red and green globe flowers. For the fixative use a quarter cup of cellulose fixative with essential oil of pine fragrance.

Lavender Potpourri:

To make a lavender potpourri you will need some sachet bags, you will be able to get one from any of the craft stores. For the liquid mixture blend half a cup of fixative with half a teaspoonful of essential oil with lavender fragrance. Then mix together your lavender buds and chamomile flowers in the sachet bag. Pour the fixative into the sachet and mix all the ingredients well. Tightly tie up your sachet and put the sachet into your closets or your dressers. Your clothes will get ‘lavenderlized’.      

Want to fill your life with the freshness and fragrance of nature, do it with a potpourri. Here are the basic things that you will have to have and do to prepare your own ‘rotten pot’ that is potpourri.

Flowers and Herbs.

First and the foremost comes the choice of the flowers and herbs with which you want to prepare your potpourri. After you have made your mind about the flowers and herbs that you want to use pick them from a nearby floral shop. If your are using the flowers and herbs from your garden then that right time to prune them will be the wee hours of the morning after the evaporation of the dew. Pick flowers that are fresh clean and free of insects and diseases. As for the amount of flowers and herbs, it is always a good idea to have more than enough as the flowers and leaves will naturally shrink after the drying process.

Air-Drying.

Once your flowers and herbs are ready you will have to dry them. This drying will usually take two to three weeks if your use the air-drying method. Apart from the drying method the kind of flowers you are drying affect the drying period. To air dry your flowers, tie your flowers in bunches and hang them upside down in a dark, airy and moisture free room. After the flowers are completely dry and moisture free, place them in airtight sachets or plastic bags until you need them for your potpourri.

Potpourri Making Ingredients.

Once your dry flowers, leaves and herbs are ready you will need the flowing ingredients to make your potpourri:

• Dried Flowers and leaves: You already have them so can go on to the next ingredient.
• Essential Oils: This essential oil forms the most vital ingredient of your potpourri. It is this oil that blends with your dried flowers and herbs and gives your potpourri that refreshing and sweet fragrance. Some of the blends of essential oil that you can use are- lemon, jasmine, orange, ginger, cinnamon and so on and so forth.
• Spices and Herbs: The use and spices and herbs will enhance the fragrance of your potpourri even more.

Fixative: The last but not the least ingredient that you will need for your potpourri is the fixative. The fixative is the ingredient that will absorb the fragrance of the essential oils and release it slowly.

There are two kinds of potpourris that you can make, the dry one and the wet or moist. The common one among the two being the dry potpourri. Dry potpourri is easy and quick to make, but its disadvantage is that it does not last long. The most important ingredient in both the forms of potpourri is the ‘fixative’. The fixative is the ingredient that absorbs the fragrance of the oil and releases it slowly. Without the fixative the your potpourri would not even last for over a day.

For the manufacture of potpourris people use various kinds of fixatives like the non-iodized salt commonly known as the pickling salt, orris root that is the dried rhizome of iris, the calamus root or the sweet flag and the others are ambergris, storax or styax and gum benzoin. Among these fixatives and the others that are not on the list, the fixative that will serve your potpourri the best is the fixative known as the Fiberfix. This fiberfix is a fixative of cellulose fiber chips. They are natural and much safer in comparison to the orris root that can be allergic and which may lead to skin irritations.

Apart from being skin friendly, fiberfix is also highly non-toxic and natural. It does not dissolve in water hence the penetration of the oil in the fixative makes the aroma stay for much longer. The insolubility of the fiberfix also prevents the air moisture from dissipating into the fragrance.

Using fiberfix in your potpourri is real easy just fill an airtight glass with half a cup of fiberfix. Then pour some amount of oil into the glass and stir it mixing the two contents well. After stirring cover the container and leave it for 2 to 4 hours, the time, the fixative will take to absorb the oil. Now the fixative is ready to blend into your potpourri and fill your life with fragrance.

One does not need eyes to see beauty one can feel beauty by its fragrance. The only thing you need to make sure is that you are your olfactory sense is clean and clear.

Right from the ancient times people have had an obsession with aromas, fragrances and perfumes, which lead to the invention of perfumes and other likes that emanate sweet fragrance. The main source to the different fragrances and aromas was nature with its variety of flowers, leaves and herbs. And one of the first inventions of man for storing these delicate aromas for a length of time was the potpourri, which ironically means a rotten pot. Form then on there has been no looking back for the potpourris. Its delicacy, variety and use have grown with time and changes.

Making a potpourri of your own is easy and experimenting with different flowers and essential oils can be fun too. You can start with a bowl to lavenders or a supply of different dried flowers and herbs with their essential or aromatic oils. These starters you will be able to get in any of the floral or craft stores, if you have a garden of your own, better. Here is what you have to do after you get the starters to make your very own potpourri.

• To start with take a container an airtight one big enough for all your dried flowers to fit in.
• Once you have the container take half a cup of fixative, preferably the oak moss or the fiberfix and pour it into the container.
• To the fixative add a spoonful of essential oil that will match with your flowers or herbs. For instance if you are making a lavender potpourri use the lavender fragrance oil. Mix the two fixative and the oil by stirring the mixture nicely.
• Then close the container tightly and leave it for about two to three hours. During this period the oil will nicely penetrate through the fixative.
• After the blending of the two liquids pour in your flowers and herbs into the container and mix the nicely so that the liquid covers every part of the flowers and herbs. Cover the container and the let the mixture sit for an overnight. The next day your potpourri will be ready.

‘Potpourri’ is an interesting word, the thing that makes this word interesting is it’s meaning. Potpourri literally means a, ‘rotten pot’, which given our layman’s understanding of potpourris makes it a bit ironic. We generally relate potpourri to something to do with sweet fragrance and with our past experiences we know that all rotten things do note emanate aroma but they smell. So how can a rotten pot be the source of fragrance? To solve this mystery or  the irony of the word potpourri and it’s meaning, a little something about the origin of the word is likely to clear away the mist.

To devise an original potpourri you have to fill a pot with roses or other aromatic flowers like lavender, sprinkle some amount of salt over the flowers and cover the pot tightly leaving to flowers to rot. After the rotting phase is over, when you take out the lid off the pot, the essence of the pot will instantly fill the air with the sweet fragrance of the rotten flowers. Hence you have a rotten pot or the potpourri giving away sweet fragrances for free. Now that you see the light the term potpourri seems pretty logical. In brief, it’s the thing that goes into the pot to rot that makes a potpourri.

Flowers have always been a source of unparallel beauty and diverse fragrance, but the thing with beauty and fragrance is that they fade away too quickly. So potpourri is a kind of, “Pandora’s Box” for storing the fragrance of the flowers. It is a mixture of dried aromatic flowers that you can place in wooden bowls or small bags, place these potpourris in different parts of your house and experience the pleasant fragrance of nature inside your own home. Apart from using potpourri to freshen up your home, you may also use them in your closets to keep your clothes sweet and fresh.

Dried flower craft is the art of making crafts by drying petals and leaves using various skill. Dry the flowers using different technique like pressing; air-drying and in the microwave oven. These methods are vital as they facilitate the flowers to preserve their color and last forever.

You can craft a range of projects with the dried flowers. To make enhancing pieces you can use these dried flowers on unique papers like the Japanese paper. Be aware while sticking the flowers and leaves on the accurate arrangement according to your desire. Apply watercolors before attaching the dried flowers on the paper. You can also use certain fabric like velvet, silk, and linen.

Making craft with dried flowers is in fact very easy and simple. Let your imagination run wild. If you are interested in making a note cards with dried flowers then you will need to gather the following materials:

• Tweezers
• Dried flowers and leaves
• White absorbent paper
• Note cards
• Glue and toothpick

to begin with making your craftwork you first have to decide the flowers that you are planning to use. It will be better if you use flowers that have a number of petals. If you are a fresher this is just the right for you.

It is better to pluck the flowers from your garden early in the morning. At that time the moisture in the flowers evaporate totally. This will help the drying of flowers well.

After you are over with your flower selection, get ready with your drying process. It would be better if you press the flowers. lay the flowers in between two absorbent papers and place a heavy item on top. Leave it for 2-3 weeks.

Now make your imagination work. If you wish a good piece of work then you should arrange your dried flowers in a paper before adding glue. handle the dried flowers cautiously as they are very delicate. Choose the flower that best suits your setting. Apply glue at the back of the flowers and leaves. Then place the leaves and dried flowers on the card.

After this add glue to all the focal flowers and stick them. Allow them to dry. After you finish doing the pasting write quotes or verse according to your wish. If you want to protect your card wrap them with cellophane paper or adhesive paper. Make sure that they stick tightly to the dried flowers materials.

Well are you interested in making a dried floral craft? Then it is very easy to make. Dried floral craft helps us in creating a range of assets. You can make various projects with your dried flowers. Dried floral craft can teach you various skill of arranging your flowers. Dried floral crafts are enduring as well as retain their beauty for a longer period of time. But this quality is not available in fresh flowers.

You can create different crafts on dried flowers among which one is to make a wall hanging to decorate your home. For that you will need the following materials:

• A disposable bowl
• Florist foam
• Two sheets of very thick cardboard
• Glue
• Dried flowers
• Paint
• Strong wire

As you start your craft at first cut the bowl in equal half. Then plan out your frame on which you are going to work. Determine on the shape on which you are going to work.  Remember that it has to be considerably larger than the half bowl as you require making the space for the frame.

Cut both sheets of the cardboard into the shape of the chosen frame. With both the sheets one sheet would be backing inside and the other would be just the frame. Now make two holes in the backing so that they would be hiding behind the frame. Tie a string through both the holes on the outer side of the backing.

This will be used in hanging the final dried flowers in the wall hanging. For the frame cut the inside of the frame so that you have the outer frame unbroken. Now apply glue at the outer side of the backing in the frame. The half bowl will be the flower basket. Apply glue at the flower basket to the backing of the frame with the plenty of space above the bowl for your dried flowers. Allow the glue to dry. In case you are using a paper bowl then you can paint it to give an interesting look. If you use a plastic bowl then glue strips of paper. Soak this paper well in glue before using.

Wait for the paper to dry well. Then again paint it well. Then again allow the paint to dry. Apply glue at the florist foam to the inside of your flower basket. Wait for the glue to dry. Now arrange the dried flowers into the flower baskets. Secure the flowers in the florist foam.

Flowers play an important role in our daily life. But fresh flowers do not hold their beauty for long. To hold on to the lure of your flowers it is better to dry them. The charm and beauty of dried flowers will remain for longer period of time. Dried flower craft is simple and easy to design. If you have a fantastic sense of colors and are expert with thoughts you can arrange your own dried flower craft. Dried flowers are the cheapest and eternal. Dried flower craft for your home is incredible if you possess a garden of your own.

For making a dried floral sachet craft you will need the following materials:

• Dried flowers
• String
• Felt
• Glue
• Lace materials
• Piece of lace
• Perfume

At the beginning of the craft it is better that you dry the flowers. For following the right process of drying the flowers you first collect the flowers from your garden. It is better if you collect the flowers early in the morning. Then hang the flowers upside down and keep them in a cool place. After the flowers are dried then get ready for making the sachet craft.

Now cut the felt and lace the materials together in whatever shapes you wish the sachet to be. You can form any simple shape that you wish. The size of the sachet will depend on the number of flowers you are going to use in it. Remember to keep the sachet pillow full but not too big.

Apply glue around the edge of the felt but remember to leave a small section of it without glue. This is the place where you would pack the dried flowers. Place the lace on your glue see that they match well. Allow the glue to dry.

When the glue and the dried flowers are dry stick the petals of the dried flowers into the gap. When the flowers are struck then close it using glue. Apply glue at the edge of the shape and place the lace on it. Leave the lace aside to dry.

Once when the glue dried your sachet is ready. Apply small amount of glue at the back of the felt.