How to Preserve Flowers in Resin: Make Awesome Paperweight Now (2024)

Recently, resin has become a very popular substance for creating art and beautiful showpieces amongst DIY enthusiasts. This substance comes as a clear thick liquid, and as it cures, it becomes solid. Flowers are beautiful, but the bad thing with fresh flowers is that they die, and then they’re gone.

However, with resin, you can preserve your flowers by creating beautiful paperweights and many more items. This process is not too complicated, but you will certainly need some guidance on how to preserve flowers in resin, so you can get the best outcomes! Thus, without any further ado, let’s jump right into the details.

Supplies You Will Need for This Resin Project and Their Purposes

There are some essential items that you must purchase before you get started on preserving your flowers with resin.

Get Some Good Resin

The first thing you have to buy for this project will be some good-quality resin. Do your research properly, and ensure whichever brand of resin you’re buying is reliable, and of great quality. You need good quality resin so your paperweight or other resin items can retain their intact appearance for a long time.

Molds

You can get very creative with the molds because you will find molds of many shapes and sizes in the market. The designs of the molds can be very unique, and if you want you can also get a letter or number molds, they are great for making keychains or pendants.

Molds for resins are made of Silicone. Invest in sturdy molds so they last you a while.

Popsicle Sticks

For mixing your resin, popsicle sticks are the best option. They are thick enough for you to grip onto them properly, and long enough so you can stir the resin properly.

Mold Release and Conditioner

Although this item is not a must purchase, this will be very useful in getting your resin creations out of the mold smoothly.

Mixing Cups

If you haven’t worked with resin before then, you might not have known that you need to mix up your resin in a cup before, so it cures properly. So, you can get the right quantity of resin to get yourself some mixing cups with measurements. These mixing cups are usually made of plastic, but sometimes they’re also made of paper. And here is a good article about cup crafting already discussed in another post.

Heat Gun

When making items out of resin, you will see that small air bubbles form as you leave your project to cure. This will ruin the finish of your product, so you have to use something like a heat gun to remove these air bubbles from the surface of your epoxy.

You can also use the heat gun to get some interesting designs by utilizing the airflow you will get from the gun.

Sandpaper

At times, the edges of your resin item might be a bit rough. In order to smoothen things out, use fine sandpaper. It’s best to have some options in terms of grit size’; you might need sandpaper of up to 3000-grit.

Safety Equipment

You might know that toxic fumes are released into the air a lot of the time when the resin is being processed. Huge brands say that their resin does not release such fumes, but you should still be careful.

Hence, you should buy a respirator, some nitrile gloves, and even safety goggles for your safety.

How to Preserve Flowers in Resin? 7 Easy Steps Explained

Let’s go through the process here.

Step 1: Prep Your Mold

Before you get started off with anything, pick out your mold of choice and clean it properly. The mold must be completely clean, or dirt particles will be stuck in your paperweight, which won’t make for an aesthetically pleasing appearance.

Next, you will have to spray your mold generously with some mold release and conditioner. As we have said before, this will help you in easily removing the resin items from the molds.

Step 2: Dry Your Flowers

For preserving your flowers with resin, you have to ensure that your flowers are completely dry. There are a few ways you could dry fresh flowers. You can keep your flowers pressed inside a book, and after about 4 weeks all the petals should be completely dried.

Drying your flowers by keeping them inside a book will give them a flat appearance, and it also takes a long time, but it’s a reliable process.

Besides that, you can hang a bunch of flowers upside down in a dark place with decent airflow for about 2 to 3 weeks. This should dry out the flowers completely, and they’ll also be able to retain their shape properly.

A lot of people may use artificial flowers or paper flowers for this type of resin project, but dried real flowers look much better.

Step: 3 Mix Your Epoxy Resin in Small Mixing Cups

Carefully pour your resin from its container into small mixing cups. Make sure you don’t get any on your floor; this can be very hard or even impossible to clean. By using small cups to mix your resin in, you will be able to ensure that all of your resin has been mixed properly, so it cures the right way.

However, if you are working with a large mold, you might have to use a larger mixing cup, or else it will be very convenient for you.

When you are mixing your resin in their cups, you can add paint or glitter so you can get a little creative. Acrylic paints do a great job when mixed with resin, so you may use them if you want. However, when it comes to making paperweights with flowers, we’d say the clear resin looks the best.

Step: 4 Glue the Flowers in Place

For best positioning, use a glue sealer to fix your flowers in place inside the mold before you pour your resin mixture. The glue shouldn’t create any issues; just make sure that the glue you are using dries clear.

Step 5: Pour the Resin Mixture, and Pop the Air Bubbles

After the glue on your flowers has dried, pour the resin mixture into your silicone mold slowly. Be careful not to accidentally pour in too much resin, or else you might cause some spillage. When you’re done pouring the resin mixture, you will start to see some air bubbles start to form. You can easily pop them by using a heat gun.

Step 6: Wait and Let the Resin Cure

Cover your resin mold with something clean like a large jar while leaving it to cure. This step is necessary to avoid anything falling and getting stuck in the resin mixture.

It will take about 24 to 48 hours for your resin to cure completely, depending on the volume you used for your project. While the resin is curing, please do not touch or else it might get ruined.

Additionally, if you are layering resin of different colors, you should know that you have to let each layer dry completely before you pour the next.

Step 7: Pop It out of the Mold, and Smoothen out Any Rough Edges

Once the resin has completely cured, it should get out of the silicone mold with ease. If there are any rough edges, take some sandpaper, and try to smoothen it out a bit, and then you should be done!

Conclusion

Flowers are very special, and they are present throughout many important events of our lives, so often preserving flowers from an event is like being able to freeze a bit of time. We hope by following our guide on how to preserve flowers in resin, you will also be able to create beautiful resin paperweights with flowers from your special day.

Up Next: How to fix uneven epoxy resin – An expert tips.

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Michelle Jacobs

Michelle is a young mom and crafts fanatic. In her free time she loves to write about her latest creations, and how other moms can entertain their children with some colored paper and a pair of scissors!

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