DIY Crafts

DIY Victorian-Style Pressed Flower Tea Tray

During Victorian times, floral motifs were quite popular and often were the themes for an entire room’s worth of furniture, decor and accessories. Victorians would collect flowers and leaves, press them between pages of a book and then use them to make gifts for friends, family and lovers. Many items could be embellished with pressed flowers including jewelry, paper products, and small dishware.

This project is made using modern materials, but the end result is a lovely gift for someone else or yourself that emulates the feel of the Victorian period and preserves the flowers that you love. And you can get a lot of practical use from the pressed flower tea tray once it has dried completely.

Pressing Flowers

Before you start this project, you need to have a collection of pressed flowers. You may already know how to press flowers, but if you don’t have the correct tools, there are several available on Amazon that give you the instructions on the best way to press them. These 6 presses below can give you the pressed flowers you need for this and other nature projects.

Microfleur 5″ (13 cm) Microwave Regular Flower Press Flower & Leaf Press 7 X 9 with guide National Geographic Flower and Leaf Pressing Kit Moulin Roty Le Jardin Flower Press Flower Pressing Kit BestNest Nature Presses II 9″ x 9″ in Set Of 3

Materials and Supplies

Once you have collected enough pressed flowers, you are ready to make the tray with them. Here are the supplies you need for this project.

Epoxy resin
Clear mixing cup
2 oz. cups for measuring
White non-porous tray
Pressed flowers
Small glue dots
Wooden mixing stick

You can find all of these items at your local craft store or on Etsy’s craft section. You can also find many other tutorials on Etsy to use up your supplies.

Instructions

Once you have laid out the supplies on your workspace, you are ready to begin making the tea tray. Work with the flowers gently to arrange them in a pleasing design. If you wish, you can draw out the design on paper before you start. Etsy Studio no longer is a valid website so for the time being, we are offering links to two similar projects below:

DIY Pressed Rose Petal Tray

Pressed Flower Resin Tray

DIY Pressed-Flower Coasters

In the meantime, we are waiting to hear from Etsy where to find the original tutorial.