Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Make Your Own Potpourri

Potpourri ~ basically, a mixture of dried flowers and herbs ~ has been used for centuries to sweeten a home with soft scents. However, potpourri can be decorative and lovely to look at, too.

Follow these instructions to make your own potpourri and a pretty container to display it in...
What You'll Need:

  • Scented garden flowers
  • Paper towels
  • Spices
  • Glass container
  • Ribbon
  • Fabric
  • Scissors
  • Spoon
How To Make Potpourri:

Step 1: Gather sweet-scented garden flowers early in the day after the morning dew has dried.

Step 2: Pick the petals off larger flowers, pick leaves off herbs, and spread the petals and leaves out to dry on paper towels. Smaller flowers may be dried whole. You can also cut the flower spikes from herbs such as lavender and dry them whole.

You can experiment to see which flowers keep their scent after drying. You may want to dry petals of colorful but unscented flowers to add color to your potpourri.

Step 3: Blend your herbs and flowers together to make a pleasing scent. You can add spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, or bay leaves.
Try some of the following mixes, or make up your own combinations:
  • Lemon verbena or lemon balm, lavender, and violets
  • Rose petals, lavender, and bits of orange peel
  • Pine needles, rosemary, violets, and bay leaves
Step 4: Put your mixture, now "potpourri", into glass containers with lids and decorate with ribbons.

To make sachets: Cut circles of fabric. Place a few spoonfuls of potpourri in the middle of the circle. Draw the fabric in over the potpourri and tie the bundle with ribbon.

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