There is a quiet, enduring magic in preserving nature’s beauty. While fresh blooms dazzle us with their fleeting vibrancy, dried botanicals offer a different kind of charm—one that is timeless, textural, and steeped in nostalgia.
Engaging in dried flower crafts projects allows us to capture the essence of a season and bring it indoors, creating sustainable decor that lasts for years rather than days.
Whether you have a bouquet from a special occasion you can’t bear to part with, or you simply love the rustic aesthetic of dried lavender and strawflowers, there is a project waiting for you.
The world of dried florals is incredibly versatile, ranging from simple arrangements to intricate resin art. These crafts connect us to the natural world, slowing us down and inviting us to create something beautiful with our hands.
In this guide, we are going to explore 12 beautiful DIY ideas for dried flower crafts projects. These ideas range from beginner-friendly activities to slightly more advanced techniques, ensuring there is something for every skill level.
We will walk through the steps, share pro tips for preserving your blooms, and recommend the essential tools you need to get started. Let’s roll up our sleeves and start crafting!
1. The Everlasting Floral Wreath
A wreath is the quintessential project for dried flower enthusiasts. It serves as a beautiful focal point for a door, above a fireplace, or on a gallery wall.
Unlike fresh wreaths that dry out and shed, a wreath made specifically as one of your dried flower crafts projects is designed to last, maintaining its structure and beauty for seasons to come.
To begin, choose a sturdy base like a grapevine or a simple metal hoop. Gather a mix of dried elements: sturdy base foliage (like eucalyptus or salal), filler flowers (like baby’s breath or statice), and focal blooms (like strawflowers or dried roses).
Creating small bunches of these elements and wiring them together before attaching them to the wreath form ensures a fuller, more professional look.
Using a high-quality floral wire is crucial here. The {Decora 22 Gauge Floral Wire} is flexible enough to wrap tightly around delicate stems but strong enough to hold heavy bundles securely to your wreath base, ensuring nothing slips over time.
2. Resin Jewelry with Tiny Blooms
Capture the delicate, microscopic details of nature by embedding tiny dried flowers in resin. This project allows you to create wearable art—pendants, earrings, or rings—that holds a secret garden inside.
It is one of the most popular dried flower crafts projects because the results look incredibly professional and make wonderful gifts.
For this project, you need very small, flat pressed flowers. Queen Anne’s lace, forget-me-nots, and individual hydrangea petals work perfectly.
You will need clear epoxy resin, a hardener, and silicone jewelry molds. Place your dried flower into the mold, then carefully pour the mixed resin over it.
Bubbles are the enemy here! A lighter or heat gun can be used to gently pop surface bubbles. Because this is wearable art, clarity is everything.
Using {ArtResin Epoxy Resin} is highly recommended because it is formulated to resist yellowing from UV exposure, ensuring your crystal-clear pendant stays that way, even when worn out in the sun.
3. Pressed Flower Floating Frames
If you love a minimalist, modern aesthetic, floating frames are the perfect way to display your botanical treasures.
This technique involves sandwiching pressed flowers between two panes of glass, creating the illusion that the flowers are suspended in mid-air. It’s one of the simplest dried flower crafts projects with the highest visual impact.
Start by pressing your flowers until they are paper-thin and completely moisture-free. Arrange them on the bottom pane of glass in a pattern that pleases you—this could be a geometric mandala, a random scattering, or a recreated “meadow” scene.
Once you place the top glass pane, the pressure holds them in place. This project is ideal for showcasing the translucent quality of petals.
4. Botanical Wax Sachets
Ditch the synthetic air fresheners and create your own natural, beautiful wax sachets. These solid wax tablets are infused with essential oils and decorated with dried botanicals.
They are perfect for hanging in closets, placing in drawers, or just displaying as beautiful, scented objects. Among dried flower crafts projects, this one engages both the sense of sight and smell.
Melt soy wax or beeswax in a double boiler and stir in your favorite essential oils—lavender, rose, and cedarwood are lovely choices.
Pour the wax into silicone molds. When the wax becomes cloudy and starts to set but is still soft, gently press your dried flowers (like rosebuds, lavender sprigs, or star anise) onto the surface. Let them cool completely before popping them out.
5. Shadow Box Floral Arrangements
Sometimes, you want to preserve the three-dimensional shape of a flower, not just a flattened version. A shadow box provides the depth needed to display full dried blooms like roses, peonies, or craspedia (billy balls).
This is a fantastic way to preserve a wedding bouquet or special commemorative flowers as one of your dried flower crafts projects.
You can arrange the flowers to look like a growing garden at the bottom of the box, or pin them in neat rows for a scientific “specimen” look.
Using long pearl-headed pins or a dab of hot glue secures the blooms to the backing board. For projects like this where precision is key and you don’t want visible globs of glue, a tool like the {Gorilla Dual Temp Mini Hot Glue Gun} is essential.
Its precision nozzle allows you to apply tiny, controlled dots of glue to the base of the stems, keeping your arrangement neat and secure without damaging delicate petals.
7. Dried Flower Phone Case
We carry our phones everywhere, so why not turn them into a piece of nature-inspired art? Customizing a clear phone case with pressed flowers is a fun, trendy, and surprisingly durable project. It’s one of those dried flower crafts projects that you’ll get to show off every single day.
You will need a clear phone case, pressed flowers, and some crafting glue or resin. Arrange your flowers on the inside of the case to plan your design.
Once happy, apply a small amount of clear drying glue to the face of the flowers and press them firmly against the inside of the case.
For a more permanent and durable finish, you can pour a thin layer of resin over the flowers on the back of the case (exterior). If working on the inside, make sure the flowers are flat enough not to scratch your phone.
8. Boho Dried Floral Wall Hanging
Move over, macramé! Dried floral wall hangings are the new bohemian decor staple. This project involves attaching stems of dried flowers and grasses to a branch, dowel, or piece of driftwood, allowing them to hang down in a cascading fringe. It adds texture, movement, and an organic feel to any room.
Start with a piece of driftwood for a rustic look or a copper pipe for something more modern. Cut lengths of twine or fishing line and tie them to the branch.
Then, attach bundles of dried flowers to the strings. Use long, linear elements like wheat, oats, and pampas grass for the length, and add clusters of colorful strawflowers or statice for interest. Vamping up the volume on this project is easy if you have the right base materials.
{Pampas Grass Decor Tall Dried Reed Plumes} are fantastic for adding that essential fluffy volume and height to your wall hanging, giving it that luxurious, full bohemian look instantly.
9. Minimalist Dried Flower Cloche
There is something inherently precious about an object displayed under glass. A glass cloche (bell jar) elevates whatever is inside it, turning a simple dried flower arrangement into a museum-worthy display. This is one of the quickest dried flower crafts projects, but the result is sophisticated and elegant.
You can create a miniature landscape using moss, stones, and small dried blooms like globe amaranth or bunny tails.
Alternatively, use a flower frog or a small piece of clay to hold a single, dramatic stem upright in the center.
Because the environment inside a cloche is protected from dust and air currents, it’s perfect for very delicate items like dandelion clocks or fragile seed heads.
10. Botanical Candle Decoration
Plain pillar candles can be transformed into stunning centerpieces with the addition of dried flowers. The technique involves melting the flowers slightly into the wax surface of the candle so they become part of the candle itself. It creates a romantic, glowing effect when the candle burns down (though always burn with caution!).
Heat a metal spoon over a flame (like a tea light). Take a flat dried flower and place it against the pillar candle.
Rub the back of the hot spoon over the flower. The heat melts the wax underneath just enough to act as glue, sealing the flower in place.
Dip the spoon in heat again and smooth a thin layer of wax over the petals to protect them. This is one of the most satisfying dried flower crafts projects because the transformation is immediate.
11. Scented Potpourri
Potpourri has gotten a bad reputation from dusty, synthetic-smelling bowls in the 90s, but modern, homemade potpourri is fresh, beautiful, and delightfully fragrant. It is the ultimate functional project among dried flower crafts projects, utilizing “leftover” petals and heads that might have fallen off during other projects.
Combine a mixture of dried flower heads (roses, lavender, calendula), dried citrus slices, spices (cinnamon sticks, star anise), and fixatives like orris root (which helps hold the scent). Add drops of essential oils and toss gently.
Display in a beautiful open bowl. To enhance the visual appeal and scent profile, adding textured elements is key.
A bag of {Star Anise Whole Dried Spice} not only adds a wonderful, spicy licorice scent that pairs well with florals, but the distinct star shape adds a beautiful architectural element to your potpourri mix.
12. Floral Confetti Poppers
Whether for a wedding, a birthday, or New Year’s Eve, tossing confetti is an act of pure joy. Making biodegradable confetti from dried flowers is an eco-friendly alternative to plastic or paper. This is one of the best dried flower crafts projects for using up petals from bouquets that are starting to shatter.
Simply pull the petals off your dried flowers. Roses, delphiniums, cornflowers, and hydrangeas offer great colors. Mix them together in a large bowl.
You can fill paper cones, small glassine bags, or clear push-pop containers with your floral mix. It smells wonderful and leaves zero waste behind.
13. Dried Flower Place Cards
Elevate your dinner party table settings with personalized dried flower place cards. This small touch adds elegance and thoughtfulness to your hosting. It’s a delicate, detailed project that fits perfectly into the category of refined dried flower crafts projects.
Use high-quality cardstock or handmade paper for the name cards. Write the guest’s name in calligraphy. Then, using a tiny dab of glue or a wax seal, attach a small sprig of dried flowers—like a sprig of lavender, a bunny tail grass, or a tiny cluster of baby’s breath—to the card. It serves as both a place marker and a tiny favor for your guest.
Tips for Success with Dried Flower Crafts Projects
Working with dried flowers is different from working with fresh ones. They are brittle and require a gentle touch. Here are a few tips to ensure your projects turn out beautifully:
- Dry Your Own: You can save money by drying flowers from your garden. Hang them upside down in a dark, dry, well-ventilated area for 2-3 weeks.
- Hairspray Hack: To prevent shedding (especially with grasses like pampas) and to make petals less brittle, give your finished project a light misting of strong-hold hairspray.
- Keep Out of Sun: Direct sunlight will fade the colors of dried flowers very quickly. Display your dried flower crafts projects in spots away from harsh windows to keep them vibrant longer.
- Dust Carefully: To clean your creations, use a hairdryer on the “cool” and “low” setting to gently blow away dust, or use a soft, fluffy makeup brush.
Your Dried Floral Toolkit
Having the right tools makes all the difference between a frustrating craft session and a joyful one. Here is a summary of the helpful products mentioned in this guide.
| Product Name | Brand | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Gauge Floral Wire | Decora | Strong yet flexible wire for securing bundles to wreaths and wall hangings. |
| Epoxy Resin | ArtResin | Crystal clear, non-yellowing resin perfect for jewelry and coaster projects. |
| Dual Temp Mini Hot Glue Gun | Gorilla | Precision nozzle allows for tiny, controlled dots of glue on delicate stems. |
| Tall Dried Reed Plumes | Pampas Grass Decor | Adds instant volume, height, and bohemian texture to wall hangings and arrangements. |
| Whole Dried Spice | Star Anise | Adds a spicy scent and beautiful architectural star shape to potpourri mixes. |
Conclusion: Capture Nature’s Beauty
Embarking on dried flower crafts projects is more than just making decor; it’s a way to pause and appreciate the intricate details of the natural world. It allows us to hold onto the memory of a summer garden or a special celebration long after the moment has passed.
From the simplicity of a pressed flower frame to the intricate beauty of resin jewelry, these 12 ideas offer a starting point for your creativity. There is no right or wrong way to create—just the joy of working with your hands and bringing a little bit of everlasting nature into your home.
So, gather your blooms, clear off your table, and start creating. Which of these projects inspired you the most? We’d love to see what you create
