Add a little flower power to your creativity with our ideas for using garden flowers in crafts, recipes, and more. April showers might bring May flowers to our northern friends, but around here both months just seem to bring more showers as autumn slowly gives way to winter. Fortunately, we’re lucky enough to have a temperate climate where there are flowers to be found no matter what our season. Whether you’re looking for ideas to treasure a few blossoms from your Mother’s Day bouquet, the first spring blooms from your garden, or the last few flowers of fall, here are some creative ideas to help.
Creative Project Ideas Using Flowers
Getting Crafty from the Garden
- Use flowers and a little hammer time to create a pounded floral design, like this tote bag by DIY Candy pretty paper pounding like this card idea from Garden Therapy.
- Go gathering and use your garden cuttings to create a pretty floral arrangement or dress up a plain wreath, like Garden Therapy’s Everything Wreath.
- Preserve flowers by hanging them to dry, accelerating drying with a dehydrator (one of my favourite methods!), or pressing.
- Make yourself or a garden-loving friend a homemade wooden flower press with simple materials and basic woodworking tool skills, or up your air-drying game with a drying screen, like the DIY screen by Grow Forage Cook Ferment.
- Create your own flat lay artworks or cards with pressed flowers and leaves, or a floating floral art display with pins like this creative project from Design Sponge.
- Use resin to turn pressed or dried flowers into custom jewellery pieces, like this birth month resin pendant from Resin Crafts or pretty petalled decor, like this pressed rose tray at Say Yes.
Flower Power Edibles and Recipes
- Bring your host/hostess-with-the-mostess up a notch with edible flower ice cubes (and flavour combo suggestions) from here at Green in Real Life.
- Take those ice cubes from drinks to dessert with floral ice pops, like these lovelies from Marla Meridith or these pretty pops from Garden Collage at The Nest.
- Add edible blooms into a fresh salad for colour and flavour. Pick for flavour over looks for a tastier result – edible doesn’t necessary mean tasty. Haha! Need flavour ideas? Check out the delish looking summer salad from Cali Zona or the eat-your-garden salad at My Recipes for inspiration.
- Use flowers create an infusion, like chive blossom vinegar from Vegetarian Ventures or simmer something sensational like Sprinklebakes’ hibiscus syrup.
- Create a custom tea blend that includes dried flowers and other garden goodies. Soap Deli News shares some great combination ideas.
- Make a gorgeous gifts or party treats by adding flowers to chocolate bark like this floral bark from Paper & Stitch or rose, strawberry, and pistachio bark from Now, Forager.
- Take a cake from basic to brilliant with a topping of fresh edible flowers. So easy! Check out the strawberry layer cake below. I made it a few months ago for our first day of summer (where does time go???). It’s just a simple cake topped with fresh herbs, berries, and flowers straight from our home garden.
Even if you’re not into eating edible flowers, an edible topper or garnish can still be a beautiful way to dress up your dishes, and is an easy compromise for differing tastes or for looks-over-flavour. Decorations, garnishes, and toppings can be easy removed uneaten and composted for anyone who loves the looks but not the tastes or textures.
Floral Infused Homemade Spa Ideas
- Be the bomb by adding some flower power to your bath with petalled bath bombs, like these rose. lavender, and oatmeal bath bombs by Lovely Greens.
- Scrub up with a homemade floral sugar scrub, like the lavender sugar scrub recipe at On Sutton Place or rose petal sugar scrub by Happiness is Homemade.
- Make fancy floral soap like the chamomile lavender milk soap by A Pumpkin and a Princess.
- Make a floral bath milk, salt, or soak using dried flowers. Not a fan of cleaning up? Use little cloth bags, like this herbal bath bundle DIY from Karissa’s Vegan Kitchen, to enjoy your soak without the extra mess.
- Create your own simmered or distilled floral water, like Wellness Mama shares how to do for rosewater (great usage ideas, too) and use it straight up or to scent other homemade spa creations like The Heathy Maven’s homemade rosewater toner or The Nerdy Farmwife’s rose face and body cream.
- Spread natural scents with a homemade floral spray, like Hello Glow’s DIY lavender linen spray.
