No other way to put it, I just love herbs! If you ask my friends and neighbors, they can assure you this is true. Pretty sure last summer, at the peak of the season, you could small my herb garden at least 3 blocks away. What a harvest we had, and all those recipes with fresh herbs, m-m-m-m. I made as much as I possibly could with my herbs, then gave tons away, but I still had much more left, so I started drying them. (If you have not dried herbs yet, you should definitely try it, as it is much easier than it looks!) Anyway, here I am with all these amazing dried herbs, and you can only do so much cooking with them, you know? So, I decided to look for some other cool and creative uses for my dried herbs, and did I ever find some! From scented sachets to some of the cutest little DIY decor ideas ever, you are going to love these adorable and sweetly scented projects. Enjoy!
DIY Ideas With Dried Herbs
1. Moth-Repellent Sachet
apartmenttherapy
4. Pressed Flower Candle Jars
If you have a book somewhere with flowers pressed flat between the pages, this is what to do with them. They get smoothed onto the outside of a clean glass jar, and the moment a tea light goes in the color comes back and the whole jar glows from behind the petals. Small jam jars and yogurt jars work as well as proper votive holders, so the only cost is the candle. Kim uses hydrangea and small garden flowers, which hold their color better than most. My Family Thyme has the full tutorial including how she seals them so they last.
7. Pressed Botanical Wall Hanging
This is what to make once the drying rack is full and you want to actually look at what you dried instead of storing it in a jar. Pressed botanicals get clipped to twine strands hanging from a wrapped dowel, with tassels at the bottom giving the whole thing enough weight to hang straight. The clothespins are the clever part, because it means the piece changes whenever you press something new rather than being finished forever. Pressed sage, bay and lavender behave exactly the same way as flowers here. Kim Pepper has the tutorial.
13. Dried Orange and Rosemary Garland
Very few decorations smell as good as they look, and the rosemary is what does it here. Dried orange slices are strung along twine with sprigs of rosemary, dried cranberries, wooden beads and the odd cinnamon stick worked in between, so there is texture the whole way along instead of just a row of circles. Hung somewhere warm, a doorway or above a radiator, the scent actually carries into the room. The slices are the slow part, so those go in the oven first and everything else follows. Homemade Heather has the tutorial.
14. Dried Hydrangea Wreath
Hydrangeas are the one flower that dries better on the bush than off it. Cut them late, when the heads have already started going papery and turning green and antique pink, and they hold that color for months. Short stems tuck straight into a grapevine base and grip on their own, so you can build the whole wreath without reaching for glue. A strip of burlap hangs it. Home Stories A to Z has the full tutorial including how she times the cut, which is the part that decides whether they dry or rot.
17. Pressed Lavender Jar Candles
The whole point of these is what happens when they are lit: the lavender is pressed against the inside of the glass, so the stems show through the wax and glow whenever the candle is burning. Twine at the rim with a sprig tucked under it finishes them off. Lavender is the obvious herb but rosemary and small sage leaves do exactly the same job and look less expected. They are good enough to give away, which is the real argument for making four at a time rather than one. Crafts by Amanda has the tutorial.
21. Pressed Flower Candles
This is the one on the list that looks the most expensive and takes the least doing. Small pressed blooms go right against the wax of a plain white pillar so they read as set into the candle rather than glued onto it. Daisies, delphinium and small hydrangea florets all press flat and hold their color, which is more than can be said for anything with a thick center. A supermarket candle turns into something you would put on a wedding table. Group three at different heights and light the shortest one. One Little Project has the full tutorial on the project page.
21. Hanging Herb Drying Rack
If you dry herbs at all this beats bunches tied to a cupboard handle, and the reason is airflow. Because the screen frame hangs on chains, air moves underneath as well as over the top, so leaves dry evenly instead of going musty in the middle of a bundle. Rosemary and bay lie flat on the mesh and hold their shape rather than curling. Hung near a window it is something worth looking at instead of something to hide, and built from a salvaged frame it costs close to nothing. Sadie Seasongoods has the how-to.
24. Dried Flower Bath Tea
This is the best use we have seen for a summer’s worth of dried flowers. Epsom salt fills the bottom of a tall jar and the dried lavender, calendula and rosebuds layer above it, so the jar does the decorating for you before it is even wrapped. In the bath a scoop goes into a muslin bag under running water, which is the trick that keeps the petals out of the drain and stops the whole thing being a nuisance to clean up. Lavender and chamomile suit an evening soak, rosemary and mint suit a morning one. A Pumpkin and a Princess has the full ratios on the project page.
