I guess I should let you know that we would only have about 3 days to dry the flowers

Stitch, I guess this will be a project for later this spring, although Pansies can be bought cheaply now and dry beautifully. I was thinking you could perhaps dry some flowers ahead of time to show the girls the finished product, then let them collect their own and start the drying/pressing process. Or are you planning a project with the girls making bookmarks, greeting cards, etc.? If so, of course you'll want the girls to have their own dried flowers to use.

Trouble is, I can't think of a flower which will thoroughly dry in just 3 days by pressing, and haven't used the microwave enough myself to be able to advise. Hope others more experienced will give you better advice.

Not much help...but I think it's great that you want to introduce this fun craft to young girls...josh

For best results you can use a microwave flower press that has been designed specifically for the purpose or you can put a book with flowers and paper in the microwave.
When pressing in the microwave, be careful not to over do it. Start out with short bursts at a medium setting, perhaps 30-60 seconds, then experiment with the timing. Let the plant material cool between zaps. I open the press to let the steam escape while cooling, then repeat until almost dry. To save time, consider working with 2 presses, just zap one while the other cools and alternate.
While still in the paper, place your flowers in a book or flower press to finish pressing. This normally takes anywhere from a few hours to a day depending on the particular flower.

So it depends

Preparing your favorite flowers, for pressing is not hard to leave pressed flowers in diaries and journals etc.

This post was edited by RickyBobbitt on Fri, Jan 3, 14 at 6:14