I really wanted to try and preserve some of the pretty petals from my abundant supply of garden hydrangeas this summer. In August, I picked off a few individual flower heads and pressed them between two sheets of baking paper in a heavy book (and just left them in a cool, dry spot until this week!) As Christmas is upon us, I took inspiration from a vintage paperweight that I saw containing dried flowers and decided to give resin craft a try for the first time by capturing my pressed hydrangeas as Christmas baubles and delicate gift tags.

As mentioned, this was the first time that I had tried this craft, but it was really easy to do. I had heard bad things about resin, but craft resin is not harmful as it is VOC and toxic-free - just make sure that you wear protective gloves when mixing the formula!

All you need for this craft is the following:

• Pressed flowers (make your own by placing flower heads between baking paper in a heavy book and storing the book away in a cool, dry place for around a month).

• Clear Craft Epoxy Resin Kit (protective gloves supplied)

• Silicone bauble mould

• Ribbon

• Tweezers

• Craft pegs (optional)

To start, place your pressed hydrangea heads in the silicone mould. I found that they start to ‘float’ when the craft resin is applied, so I didn’t need to apply a thin layer of resin in the mould base first before adding the flowers (because of this, keep an eye on the petals while the resin is developing and dip and shuffle them around with tweezers if they move before the resin starts to set).

All you need to do with the resin is mix the same amount of resin with the hardener. I found that for one bauble, you only required a mix of 20ml. Stir the mix together slowly to avoid air bubbles (any that did appear I just popped with the tweezers before the mixture set).

Pour the resin mix into the mould until it reaches the top (make sure to not overflow). The resin took about 48 hours to fully harden but was touch dry at 24 hours.

Once dry, the baubles easily popped out of the silicone mould. I then threaded a ribbon through the small hole.

You can clip these pretty decorations onto presents so they act as gift tags, or hang them on your Christmas tree!