Journal

I like to press green, fleshy kinds of leaves - ivy, fig leaves, magnolia along with ferns. I usually preserve fallen autumnal leaves in glycerine instead.

Pressing leaves is very simple - you need either a flower press, large heavy books and some sheets of absorbent paper, or sheets of paper and a rug that gets walked on a lot.

• Select your leaves and make sure that they are clean, dry and without blemishes.
• Lay them face down on your paper - either in the press or book, or on sheets to be put under the rug. Make sure that they don’t overlap and aren’t creased.
• Cover with another piece of plain absorbent paper and squash lightly all over the surface of the paper.
• Build up layers until you have used up all your leaves.
• Close the press, put the book under something heavy or put the sheets of paper between newspapers under a rug.
• Wait for 4 - 6 weeks. Though if you are wanting the leaves for something semi- disposable - like decorating gifts - then you can probably use them after 10 days.

I tend to use pressed leaves - like the sweet cicely leaves in the photo - flat on top of a gift. Wrap string around the gift several times, tying at the back of the parcel. Then tuck your leaves under the string at the front.