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May is the month for wild flowers. It seems as though nature finds any excuse to sprinkle the roadsides, paths, woodlands and parks with colour. Even the most boring journeys are made more enjoyable by looking out of the window at the burst of colour.

Why not take your nature notebook with you and note down or draw what you see? If you have permission from the owner of the flowers, you can also pick one or two and press them when you get home – but be careful not to pick too many as bees and other insects need flowers for food.

This takes a couple of days to make as you need to soak the recycled paper in water overnight. You can add some of your pressed flowers as decorations.

How to Press FlowersYou don’t need a special flower press. You can simply use paper and a very heavy book!

Take some sheets of newspaper and the biggest, heaviest book that you can find.

Lay the flowers on the newspaper, opening them out as much as you can without breaking them.

Put another sheet of newspaper on top of the flowers.

Open the heavy book near the end.

Put the newspaper sheets into the book.

Close it and make sure the heaviest part of the book is on top of the flowers.

Leave for two or three weeks.

The flowers will have dried out and be pressed very flat. They will be very delicate so take extra care when lifting them off the newspaper.

Use your dried flowers to make bookmarks or even add them to

homemade paper.

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You will need:

Used paper Washing-up bowlWaterOld pair of tights Old wooden picture frame or wire coat hanger bent into a squareFood processor

Shallow baking tray Decorations such as flowers, leaves and seed headsFood colouring or paint2 small old towelsRolling pinPegs

Collect any old paper you can find. Place it in a washing-up bowl full of cold water and leave it overnight. While the paper is soaking, cut the tights so that you have one layer of fabric and then stretch this over the picture frame or coat hanger to make a screen. The next day, ask an adult to help you fill the food processor half full with water. Add a handful of wet paper and whizz it up until it looks like a thick milkshake. Pour the mixture into a baking tray and add the flowers, leaves and seed heads. Add food colouring or paint if you want. Place your screen face-down in the mixture and gently move it around to coat it with an even amount of pulp. Lift the screen out and let it drain on a draining board or over the washing-up bowl. Once a lot of the water has dripped out, put the paper on an old towel, place another towel on top and use the rolling pin to squeeze out any water that is left. Hang the paper up using pegs on the washing line or somewhere warm and dry.

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Make Homemade Paper

Ask a grown-up to help you with

the food processor.