Friday 13 March 2015

Interplay Instant Flower Press


I remember spending hours gathering and pressing flowers and petals as a child. I had a little wooden flower press my grandad had made me, with little wing nuts and washers, stacks of cardboard he'd lovingly cut out of old boxes, and precious squares of yellow blotting paper.  I still have that press somewhere, I must look it out, I bet it's still got faded paper-thin flowers in it.

Much as I enjoyed it, flower pressing wasn't a hobby for those who want instant gratification.  And I suspect kids nowadays probably wouldn't have the patience to wait weeks and weeks before their petals are ready to use.

That's why the new Instant Flower Press from Interplay is such a great introduction to this pastime. 


I was sceptical at first whether it was really possibly to achieve pressed flowers in seconds as claimed on the box, but we put it to the test.

Flowers are a bit thin on the ground in our garden at this time of year, but we hunted around and found some violets and yellow forsythia flowers.

The kit itself works in the microwave, so it's all made of plastic, with felt pads and cotton sheets to place the flowers between.  It's robust and easy to assemble for little hands, although younger children may need some help squeezing it together to get the hinge pin through.


The instructions recommend heating in the microwave for periods of 20 seconds at a time before checking if it needs more.  The flowers we selected required 3 lots of 20 second blasts before they were dry and pressed.

To prevent the flowers from burning, you're instructed to place a cup of water in the microwave with the press.  It is recommended that an adult supervises the use of the microwave and I'd recommend  getting into the habit of changing the water after every 20 second period - a cup of water can get very hot after a minute.


Young children may also need a little help gently lifting the pressed flowers from the cloth as they're so fragile.  A pair of tweezers or a palate knife of some sort may aid the process.

We were delighted with our instant pressed flowers and being able to get on and craft with them straight away.  We made this simple posy card with the violets by punching through a couple of holes into the card, threading a ribbon through before using PVA glue to attach the flowers and tying the ribbon.


I think this is a kit that's going to really come into it's own in the summer when there's an abundance of flowers and we're looking forward to using pressed flowers in all sorts of crafts.

The Instant Flower Press retails at £9.99 and is a great gift for crafty children. Recommended for children aged 8 years and over.

Disclosure: We were sent a kit for the purposes of this review.  All opinions and images are our own.

18 comments:

  1. I love this and I think my 12 year old would enjoy using this too. Thanks for sharing x x

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  2. i absolutely need one of these, my girls would love it but not just them ,,,,me too x

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  3. Forget the kids, I need need one of these. It would be brilliant for scrapbooking and cardmaking!

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  4. Interesting I think my son would actually enjoy using this, although I guess it's probably marketed at girls.

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  5. I remember slipping small blooms amongst the pages of weighty books as a child (though I never knew what I was supposed to do with them afterwards). I still find the odd one now and then.
    The plastic press is a great modern twist on your old, lovingly crafted wooden one, but I think in today's speeded-up world, learning the value of patience and delayed gratification is more important than ever.
    I'm sure your cards are going to be sensational though ;-)

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  6. I WANT ONE. I love that you can do it in the microwave. How cool or warm is that1

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  7. I remember having one when I was a child, such memories! I started first by pressing flowers in books then moved onto a flower press. The card is lovely xxx

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  8. I had one of those wooden flower presses too and used to love using it when I was little. This microwave flower press is an excellent idea.

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  9. What a lovely idea - I remember putting flowers in books as a child, my parents weren't too pleased.

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  10. This is so lovely, I used to use my Dad's Encyclopedias much to his annoyance x

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  11. This looks great - we have just made their Fairy Garden and Eliza thoroughly enjoyed it

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  12. This is great! I remember doing flower dairies for school assignments and used books as a press :D

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  13. This is brilliant! I was a child who spent weeks waiting for flowers to be pressed only to find they lost their colour and were wrinkly due to the cardboard in the press!

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  14. Oh my that's so cute such a great thing!

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  15. Oh wow this is amazing! What great results. I had one of those wooden presses too...although nowhere near as special as yours. I love the sound of this one though, perfect for young children to get instant results.

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  16. Wow I have never done flower pressing before but feel like I need to now! I love that card, really special

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  17. Love that, my daughter would play with this. And good tips too re the microwave ;)

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  18. I actually bought my mum one of these a few years ago; we always pressed flowers when I was little!

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