Crafty people I need some help

[Racket_Man]

I know several members here work at craft type stores and I need some suggestions.

After GF's funeral I got one of the flower arrangements. I would like to preserve one or two of the bigger rose blooms for the future.

Any ideas like drying and spraying them with something like Shellec ( or a similar product)?

[Kittish]

You can preserve the flowers with glycerin, probably the best way would be to suspend the blooms upside down with the flowers in the glycerin solution for a few days. Floral preservative may be available in craft stores in your area, and you can probably find glycerin in the pharmacy department of your local everything store. You can also just straight up dry the flowers. Hang them upside down some place out of direct sunlight until they're completely dry. Or you can press the flowers. Put the blooms between pieces of parchment paper with a big, flat heavy weight on them.

However you decide to preserve them, I'd suggest one or two coats of a matte sealant spray to help protect them. Pretty much any sort of matte or satin acrylic sealant should work for this.

[Seshat]

There's a (reuseable) product on the market: it's basically the same substance as those small packets of silicon-based dessicant beads that are found shipped with a lot of products these days. (Google search term "dessicant beads".)

This is smaller beads, sand-like. You find yourself a box (such as a plastic food storage box) and partly fill it with the beads. Bed the flower or flowers in the beads, carefully and gently ensuring it's shaped and positioned correctly. If it has petals that need support, use more beads to support those petals. Make sure the lid will clear the whole flower, then put the lid on, sealing the flowers in with the beads.
The instructions should say how long to leave it for, and may have a better description of how to do this.

Once it's dry, anything that seals moisture out should be suitable as further preservation.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

I've bought the desiccant Seshat's talking about before, should be available at any decent craft store. $15-20 for a 5 lb box. Reusable by baking in the oven at low temp(exact # is in the instructions).

Talking stores I know are in your area, Mikeys carries Activa brand, Hob Lob had Dri Splendor. You should be able to find a preservative spray designed for dried flowers as well.