Got a bumper crop of rosemary, a drying rack full of lavender or a bouquet you can’t bear to toss? These 24 DIY ideas with dried herbs and flowers give every last sprig a second life. Dried herb crafts use air dried, oven dried or pressed herbs and blooms, like lavender, mint, rosemary, bay and hydrangea, to make home decor, handmade gifts and even pantry staples. You’ll find wreaths that dry right on the wall, sachets for the sweater drawer, bath teas, a garlic dipping oil and a stock powder that beats the store bought kind. Two DIY JOY favorites with step by step videos are in here too, the mason jar fairy lights with pressed flowers and a resin coaster with dried flowers. One tip covers almost all of them: make sure everything is bone dry first, because leftover moisture is what turns herbs musty.
1. Garlic Dipping Oil With Dried Herbs
Garlic dipping oil is the restaurant bread basket trick you can pull off with pantry herbs. Grate one peeled garlic clove into a quarter cup of good extra virgin olive oil, then stir in half a teaspoon each of dried oregano and dried basil plus a pinch of kosher salt and coarse black pepper. That’s it. No cooking, no waiting. A ceramic garlic grater dish turns the clove into paste fast, but a fine microplane works if you do not own one. Serve it with crusty bread and watch the dish come back wiped clean.
Get the full tutorial at Life Currents.
2. Rustic DIY Herbal Crafts
Three rustic herb crafts come out of one big garden haul here: a wall wreath, a dried soup gift and herbal tea swags. For the wreath, tie six small herb bouquets with 10 inch string, largest sprigs at the back, hang them upside down for two weeks, then wire them around a circle of jute wire. A quarter sized mini wreath of basil, parsley, oregano, rosemary and thyme gets tied to a jar of soup mix and goes right into the pot. Tea swags bundle lemon verbena, lavender, mint and rosemary, ready to steep for 3 to 5 minutes.
Get the full tutorial at Little Rusted Ladle.
3. Pressed Flower Candle Jars
A pressed flower jar turns an old yogurt jar or a Dollar Tree vase into a lantern that glows from behind the petals. Brush a thin layer of matte Mod Podge where each flower goes, set the bloom with tweezers, brush more Mod Podge over the top, then give the whole jar one last thin coat so the finish looks even. Use a small craft brush, not a foam brush. Foam lays the glue on too thick and the jar looks cloudy. Pop in a tea light for a candle holder, or fill it with water and stems for a vase.
Get the full tutorial at My Family Thyme.
4. Mason Jar Fairy Lights With Pressed Flowers
Mason jar fairy lights with pressed flowers are the project that makes you lose an entire afternoon in the best way. Clean the jar and dry it completely, then play with the flower layout before any glue comes out. Brush a thin layer of Mod Podge on the glass, lay a flower down, press gently and brush more over the top, working in small sections so the glue stays wet. Thin flowers and leaves are the secret, because light passes through them. A second coat seals everything, then the fairy lights go in and a jute bow goes on.
Get the full tutorial at DIY JOY.
5. Framed Dried Herbs
Framed dried herbs might be the easiest wall art on this whole list. Little bundles of the last lavender of summer get tied with twine and hung inside open frames built from rough boards, painted a soft grey so the purple pops. No glass, no mat, no backing, so the scent still drifts out and you can swap the bundle when a new herb comes in. Hang lavender upside down for a week or two before it goes in. A pair leaning on a shelf or stacked on a basket looks like a boutique display.
Get the full tutorial at Haikaranpesä kodiksi.
6. Pressed Botanical Wall Hanging
This pressed botanical wall hanging started as dorm room decor, and it’s sweet enough for any bedroom. Grocery store bouquets go into a flower press, ideally for a few weeks so they are fully dry. Lay some blooms open, some as buds and some sideways, and press greenery too. Cardboard cut into little frames gets painted with acrylic craft paint, then the flowers are glued on in tiny arrangements. Each frame hangs from a jute wall hanging with a mini clothespin. Moving it? Snap a photo of the layout first.
Get the full tutorial at Kim Pepper Blog.
7. Homemade Vegetable Stock Powder
Homemade vegetable stock powder is the dried herb project that saves you money every single week. Finely chop a carrot, two celery stalks, an onion, a handful of parsley and a couple of sprigs each of thyme and rosemary, then weigh it all. Salt equal to 20 percent of that weight goes in, and yes, it seems like a lot, but it’s the preservative. Cook it low for about two hours until the liquid is reabsorbed, bake at 300 degrees F for about 75 minutes, stirring now and then, and blitz it into powder. It keeps 3 months in a jar.
Get the full tutorial at As Easy As Apple Pie.
8. Homemade Simmering Potpourri
Homemade simmering potpourri makes the whole house smell like the holidays, and it doubles as a cheap neighbor gift. Dry orange slices and rosemary sprigs first: quarter inch slices go on parchment at 200 degrees F for up to six hours. Then mix and match cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, allspice, bay leaves, star anise, apple peel, pine or a spent vanilla bean. Buy the spices in bulk, since a little jar of cloves at the grocery store can cost five times as much. Pack the mix in a jar with simmering directions, and keep refilling the water.
Get the full tutorial at Home in the Finger Lakes.
9. Dried Mint Tea Leaves
Mint takes over every garden eventually, so turning it into dried mint tea leaves is the polite way to win. Rinse it only if you need to, and let it dry completely, overnight is easiest. Spread the leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at 170 degrees F for 2 to 3 hours, checking at the two hour mark and then every 15 minutes. Crumble the crisp leaves into a jar and keep it in a dark cabinet for up to six months. One teaspoon steeped for 3 minutes makes a cup, hot or iced.
Get the full tutorial at Brooklyn Farm Girl.
10. Dried Orange and Rosemary Garland
A dried orange and rosemary garland smells like Christmas morning before a single cookie gets baked. Slice oranges into quarter inch rounds, blot them, and bake on parchment with fresh cranberries scattered around at 200 degrees F for about five hours. Thread twine onto a yarn needle, poke holes in the slices and string them with cranberries, wooden beads, rosemary or pine and cinnamon sticks. Here’s the trick: tie a knot around each cinnamon stick and sprig instead of trying to pierce it. Finish both ends with a twine loop.
Get the full tutorial at Homemade Heather.
11. Dried Hydrangea Wreath
A dried hydrangea wreath is three steps and zero glue, the best kind of wreath there is. The drying is the clever part. Cut hydrangeas at the end of the season, stand them in a vase of water and then leave them alone. Don’t change or top up the water, and they dry slowly while keeping a lot of their color. Store bought hydrangeas don’t dry as well, so use garden blooms. Poke the stems straight into a grapevine wreath, where they usually stay put without floral wire, add a few dried roses if you like, and hang it with ribbon or fishing line.
Get the full tutorial at Home Stories A to Z.
12. Herbal Moth Repellent
These herbal moth repellent sachets use what already grows in a lot of gardens, so the cost is basically the drawstring bags. Mix a quarter cup each of dried lavender, dried rose petals and dried rosemary in a bowl, crumbling the stems and rosebuds a little as you go. Spoon the blend into cloth drawstring bags and pull them tight. More of one herb and less of another is fine, it’s method more than math. After one season the scent and the repelling power fade, so compost the herbs and refill. Tuck one in with a hand knit hat as a gift.
Get the full tutorial at Homespun Seasonal Living.
13. Resin Coaster with Dried Flowers
Resin coasters with dried flowers turn a bouquet you can’t bear to toss into something you’ll use every day. Mix about 36 grams of epoxy resin with 12 grams of hardener for a 3 to 1 ratio (check your bottle), and stir slowly 5 to 10 minutes until it’s clear. Add 2 or 3 drops of pigment. Pour half into a clean mold, arrange the flowers with tweezers, wait a couple of minutes, then pour the rest. A quick pass with a lighter pops bubbles. After it cures overnight, a thin coat of UV resin on the front gives it that glassy shine. Wear nitrile gloves.
Get the full tutorial at DIY JOY.
14. Pressed Lavender Jar Candles
These lavender candles have a trick that keeps them pretty and safe: the lavender never touches the wax. Melt candle wax slowly in a double boiler, stir in about 15 drops of lavender essential oil, then pour it into an 8 ounce wide mouth mason jar with the wick clipped to the bottom. A skewer across the rim keeps the wick centered while it sets. Once it’s firm, trim the wick to a quarter inch and set the small jar inside a 12 ounce jar. Dried lavender stems slide into the gap between the two jars one at a time. Twine and a sprig finish the rim.
Get the full tutorial at Crafts by Amanda.
15. Dried Lavender Pomander
A dried lavender pomander is too pretty to hide in the wardrobe, so hang it on the door instead. Push a skewer through a 7 cm foam ball and leave it in as a handle. Coat the ball in PVA glue, a high tack one holds best, and press dried lavender all over until it’s about half a centimeter thick, then patch any gaps once dry. A spritz of lavender essential oil boosts the scent, which means you can pick a deeper blue lavender for color instead of smell. Florist wire through the center makes loops for a tassel and a ribbon hanger.
Get the full tutorial at Dried Flower Craft.
16. DIY Laurel Wreath
A DIY laurel wreath is a kitchen decoration that’s also a stash of bay leaves for every soup you make this year. Wash and dry fresh bay laurel leaves, then shape a length of wire into a circle with a small loop at one end. Thread leaf after leaf onto the open end until the ring is full, and close it by hooking the end through the first loop. Tie on ribbon, raffia or string to hang it. The leaves dry right on the wreath. It takes longer than it looks, so make it smaller: fewer leaves, same effect.
Get the full tutorial at ABOUTGARDEN.
17. Lavender Centerpiece
This one is really how to dry lavender so it lasts, and the payoff is a gorgeous bunch for a vase. Pick long stemmed lavender in mid morning, before the florets fully open, so the buds keep their scent and don’t fall apart. Gather bunches small enough to wrap your hand around and secure them with a rubber band, since the stems shrink as they dry. Hang them upside down somewhere warm and airy for 1 to 4 weeks, until the stems feel brittle. Swap the band for ribbon or raffia and stand the bunch in a pitcher. Keep it out of the bathroom, humidity dulls the scent.
Get the full tutorial at Homemade Gifts Made Easy.
18. Pressed Flower Candles
Pressed flower candles look like boutique candles and use the wax itself as glue. Light a tea light and let a pool of wax melt. Set a pressed flower on the side of a white pillar candle near the bottom, hold it with your thumb, then dip a silicone brush in the melted wax and spread a thin coat over the flower until it lies flat on its own. Keep the strokes quick and light, too much pressure tears petals and too slow means the wax hardens on the brush. Work around the candle mixing sizes, colors and greenery.
Get the full tutorial at One Little Project.
19. Hanging Herb Drying Rack
A hanging herb drying rack made from a thrift store picture frame works better than herb bundles tied to a cabinet knob, because air reaches both sides of every leaf. Any wood frame works, size doesn’t matter. Pull out the glass and backing, paint the frame (indoor outdoor spray paint plus sealer if it’ll live on a porch), then staple window screen across the back, folded and pulled taut. Eye screws in each corner take S hooks and short chains crossed into an X, gathered on a bigger S hook. Rosemary and bay leaves lie flat on the mesh.
Get the full tutorial at Sadie Seasongoods.
20. Oatmeal and Herb Bath Bags
Oatmeal and herb bath bags take five minutes and turn a bath milky and soft. Cut cheesecloth into roughly 8 inch squares plus a few long strips. Drop a handful of oatmeal in the center of each square with a dried herb of your choice, like dried rose petals or lavender, then gather the corners and tie them with a cheesecloth strip or a ribbon. Make the tie long enough to loop over the faucet so hot water runs through the bag, or drop it in the tub and give it a squeeze now and then. Cloudy water means it’s working.
Get the full tutorial at Everyday Roots.
21. Infused Herbal Oils
Infused herbal oils are the first step for homemade salves, lotion bars and body butters, and they’re easier than they sound. The one rule: herbs must be completely dry, because any water leads to mold or rancid oil. Lavender, rosemary, calendula, plantain and yarrow all work well. Cover the herbs with a carrier oil like light olive or a blend with sweet almond and coconut. The cold method sits in a cool, dark spot for 4 to 6 weeks. In a hurry? Warm it on the lowest slow cooker setting, keeping it under 110 degrees F. Strain, and use within a few months.
Get the full tutorial at Grow Forage Cook Ferment.
22. Dried Flower Bath Tea
Dried flower bath tea is the gift that makes people think you own a tiny apothecary. Mix 3 to 5 drops of essential oil like lavender, lemon or rose into a cup of Epsom salt. Spoon about 3 tablespoons into a small organza or muslin bag, until it’s half full, then layer a heaping tablespoon of lavender, calendula, chamomile, cornflowers and rosebuds on top. Knot it and keep it in an airtight jar. Drop a bag into the bath or hang it under the running water. For gifting, layer the salt and flowers in a test tube instead.
Get the full tutorial at A Pumpkin And A Princess.
23. Fresh Herb Wreath
A fresh herb wreath dries right on the frame, so it’s decor and a snip as you cook spice rack at the same time. Woody herbs like rosemary, sage and thyme hold their shape best, and lavender or fennel blossoms add color. Pick one sturdy herb you have plenty of and cover the whole wreath frame with it, using twist ties or floral wire. Be patient here, it takes longer than you’d expect. Then add small rubber banded bunches of two or three herbs, or poke in single sprigs, wiring each one. Hang it in the kitchen and harvest as you go.
Get the full tutorial at Garden Therapy.
24. Peppermint Pine Headache Salve
Peppermint pine salve is a soothing rub made from dried mint and, believe it or not, pine needles. Infuse 2 tablespoons each of crumbled dried mint leaves and dried pine needles in two thirds of a cup of sunflower or olive oil, either in a dark cupboard for 4 to 6 weeks or gently on the stove for a few hours. Strain it. Warm half a cup of that oil with half an ounce of beeswax in a double boiler until melted, stir in peppermint essential oil if you like, and pour into tins. More beeswax makes it firmer. It keeps 6 to 9 months.
Get the full tutorial at The Homestead Garden.
