Decopage Works very well. Keep out of sun, or flowers will fade. I did a gourd vase with Johnny Jump Ups & Queen Anns lace. Very nice. You must seal your finished work with urathane. Enjoy, DJ

I do this with nest egg gourds. They make great tree ornaments. I use modge-podge or whatever clear drying glue you prefer. And cover them with 2-3 coats of polyurathane. I use satin. Gloss catches the light too well and the glare can hide the design.

Some gourds I painted, others I left natural. Of the ones I painted, I found that light shades of blue, yellow or mauve worked best...and white. Especially if you use flowers with contrasting colors. Green did not work well unless you did blooms with no folage or made it very, very pale.

I would drill holes near the top to run a string through before adding the flowers, then string them through wire to put on the polyurathane. The only problem I had was some pooling around the wire as it dried. I nipped it off between coats and after removing the wire, smoothed it out and added another coat just at the holes.

They make great gifts!

Kay.

Test your pressed flowers. Some keep their color well and others do not. Dark pansies, blue delphiniums, purple and pink larkspur, white Queen Anne's lace, etc. do very well.