What to Do with Rose Petals | 21 Rose Petal Uses (Fresh & Dried)
Roses carry an air of elegance and romance. You might catch a whiff of an incredible fragrance or just a touch of luxury. Plus, there’s so many ideas for what to do with rose petals!
If you grow your own roses, you may find you have an abundance of fresh petals that you can also dry for DIY projects. Different colors add to the beauty, no matter what creative uses match your interests.
If you or your kids are looking for fun and amazing things to do with dried rose petals, look no further! I am excited to share these crafty ideas with you.
Let’s get started!
Rose Petals Benefits
As you look for fun and unique things to do with dried rose petals, keep in mind the benefits you may encounter in the process.
- Beautiful Pop of Color
- Hint of Fragrance
- Touch of Luxury
- Biodegradable
- Sometimes Organic
- Good Source of Vitamins
- Great Source of Phytonutrients / Antioxidants
- Vitamin C for Immune Support
(Source: You can read more about the nutritional benefits of roses at WebMD.)
What Can You Do with Rose Petals?
If you’re wondering what to do with rose petals, join the club!
So many gorgeous flowers should have another chance at life. We’ve got yellow, red and pink petals saved from recent bouquets.
A few ideas to try:
- Crafts
- DIY beauty regimens
- Dried petal confetti
- Flower petal compost
- Rose petal tea (rose tea)
By the way – did you know sometimes you can get an ENTIRE large bag of petals for only $1 at Produce Junction?!
This photo was taken about two weeks after Valentine’s Day, so your mileage may vary.
Think about the most beneficial uses for what you can do with rose petals. Include your family members in the crafting process if you like!
Keep reading for more specific suggestions and please share any other ideas you have in the comments!
What to Do with Dried Petals
You can find plenty of dried rose petal uses with a little time and effort, or just check out these suggestions.
Dried, dead rose petals work well in plenty of creative projects! Consider making crafts with your kids or finding projects you enjoy solo.
These suggestions are also wonderful for what to do indoors on a rainy day!
Things to Do with Dried Rose Petals
Are you looking for things to do with dried rose petals? Perhaps you have a bouquet that dried out? Or maybe you're fortunate enough to harvest your own rose petals from your garden!
Either way, you can find plenty of dried rose petal uses with a little time and effort, or just check out these suggestions! Dried, dead rose petals work well in plethora of creative projects!
Consider things to do with dried rose petals from crafts to beauty product DIYs and beyond. The sky's the limit and your imagination can truly take you there!
Pink Rose Salt Soak DIY
Make this relaxing and rejuvenating pink rose salt soak with just a few ingredients! Dried rose petals add a lovely fragrance and bit of luxury in this bath soak.
DIY Recipe: How to Make Rose Gold with Rose Petal Bath Bombs
Make these glamorous DIY rose gold and rose petal bath bombs at home! They look just like something you'd find at a beauty boutique, but you are fully able to make them yourself with these helpful instructions.
Wild Rose and Yarrow Soap
Making homemade soap is on my list for a project one day, especially if it can turn out as beautiful as this Wild Rose and Yarrow Soap! This recipe walks you through the steps to create a wild rose and yarrow infusion and the process to create bars of stunning soap yourself.
Rose Petal Bath Bombs
Rose petal bath bombs are a perfect use for dried rose petals and other ingredients you may have on hand. These truly attractive beauty goodies are glam enough for a gift but you may have a hard time parting with them!
The Easiest Homemade Potpourri
Dried flowers and rose petals transform magnificently into potpourri, in case you have yet to try it. We love this idea and can't wait to try this simple recipe for a fragrance boost in some of our favorite spaces.
Rose Petal Soap Recipe
Rose petal soap is another fancy and elegant way to use up some leftover dried rose petals. Consider making these lovely soap bars as a gift or simply for yourself to keep. Poppy seeds add a lovely and creative polka-dot pattern!
Homemade Rose Bath Bombs
Made in a mini muffin tin, these rose-scented bath bombs sound truly divine! The recipe to make these rose bath bombs seems easy enough to do with the kids, making it a wonderful rainy day craft in my book.
Rose Scented Shortbread
I've never eaten anything with rose as an ingredient, to my knowledge, but these rose infused shortbread cookies look too impressive not to at least try! Fancy and lovely at the same time, the recipe sounds rather simple and fun to try if you have culinary rose petals on hand!
Jasmine, Lavender and Rose Homemade Aromatherapy Bath Salts
Fragrances of jasmine, lavender, and rose mingle in this relaxing homemade aromatherapy bath salts recipe. Dried rose petal uses like this work well as a stress-reliever or a gift idea. Try this lovely bath salts recipe.
Rose Milk Bath Tea Recipe for Dry Skin
Give your whirlwind life a break and relax with some rose milk bath tea that helps your dry skin as well as your anxiety. This calming recipe features wholesome ingredients, many of which you likely already have at home, as well as a clever suggestion for storage.
Rose Milk Tea (Rose Tea Latte Recipe + Video)
Chalk up another one for your stress relief list! This rose milk tea (and the included rose syrup!) sound truly amazing and worth the creative process to get to the finished result. I believe the entire experience would be a pleasant journey to a more stress-free lifestyle. Absolutely worth a try!
Easy 4-Ingredient Rose Salve Recipe
Luxurious and hydrating, this DIY rose salve offers a soothing experience for your skin. Treat minor irritations and add moisture for a calming effect. The natural rose scent adds a relaxing vibe.
Rose Petal Bath Soak – DIY Tub Tea Bags
Keep the relaxation going with this rejuvenating bath tea. Picture perfect, it features a blend of natural ingredients like dried rose petals, Dead Sea salt, and French green clay, among others. The bath tea bag idea is super cute and fun, so I think it's worth a shot.
(From the book: Homemade Bath Bombs, Salts & Scrubs: 300 Natural Recipes for Luxurious Soaks by Kate Bello.)
DIY Dried Rose Petal Serving Tray
This gorgeous and romantic rose petal tray is totally up my alley! I love the whimsical script and heartwarming use of the petals throughout the surface. Personalize it to suit your own style!
Fresh Rose Petal Uses
Fresh flowers offer so many benefits in and around the home. Make the most of your flowers and bouquets with some creative crafts and DIY projects.
Fresh Rose Petal Uses
When you have convenient access to rose bushes, try some of these unique fresh rose petal uses! Fresh rose petals can be romantic and luxurious. They can also be fun for kids to collect and use in their own crafts!
Try these fun and creative fresh rose petal uses:
Rose Water Face Spray DIY
A refreshing rose water face spray sounds like a truly refreshing way to incorporate fresh rose petals into your beauty regimen. Enjoy making this luxurious facial treatment at home with your own rose petals.
CRAFT: Spring Flowers Sun-catcher
Create a gorgeous flower suncatcher with fresh rose petals from your garden or a bouquet. These lovely kids crafts are memorable and fun for the whole family!
How To Make Petal Art For Absolute Beginners
Collect fresh rose petals and other flower petals to make beautiful pictures. This fresh rose petal craft is absolutely adorable and my daughters will love it! I love the way the author uses flower petals to create dresses and fashions for her sketches.
How to Make Pressed Flower Bookmarks DIY Pressed Flower Art
Pressed flowers can be an excellent kids' craft and one of the best fresh rose petal uses. These pressed flower bookmarks would be an enjoyable fresh flower use for kids of all ages who love exploring and creating. I imagine it would also work well during other seasons!
DIY Wedding Flowers Shadowbox
If your wedding is coming up and you want to preserve your bouquet, consider making a DIY wedding flowers shadow box. You can also make a similar craft for other flowers and occasions, depending on your interests and needs.
Pressed Wildcraft Bookmark
Here's another style of pressed bookmark to create with fresh rose petals and other natural remnants found in the wild! Enjoy foraging with the kids and making a memorable craft during the experience.
How to Make Your Own Beautiful and Fragrant Rose Soap
Featuring a goat milk base, this fragrant soap offers the perfect way to use up some leftover fresh rose petals. (However, the steps explain how to dry the rose petals for this project, so you can likely start out with dried petals as well.)
Use heart molds for a fun hint of romance.
Tip: If you need to speed up drying flowers for crafting, consider using silica crystals to dry roses.
How to Remove Petals from Dead Roses
In almost all cases, I found it very easy to remove fresh petals from spent roses. Here’s a super quick video I threw together to illustrate my technique.
It’s a bit of a pinch, pull, and twist maneuver that seems to get all the flower petals free. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!
What to Do with Dead Roses
With two young girls in the house, I love to do fun crafts with them whenever possible. Figuring out what to do with dead roses is even more fun when they get involved!
- Harvest and preserve or use the petals.
- Attempt propagation on the stems.
- Compost or discard anything dry, moldy, or totally dead.
First of all, I absolutely ADORE trying to propagate roses from cuttings. It’s such a fun gardening experiment.
In fact, my 7-year-old just talked about how she’s going to propagate a succulent leaf.
She actually said propagate! Proud mama moment!
Anyway, I have a lot of ideas for what you can do with dead roses. Starting with the stems – propagate away!
(Truth be told, I think it’s more successful when you start the process right away, but ALWAYS better late than never in my book.)
My girls love just about everything to do with crafting and being creative. I plan to give them some of the leftover dried flowers we saved and see what they come up with! Of course, I’ll be sure to come back and share.
So far, we’ve made handmade recycled paper with embedded dried petals inside. It came out lovely, but it was very time-consuming.
(You can also try my instructions for DIY plantable seed paper and use some petals for accents!)
Now we can’t wait to try some of these other projects for dried rose petal uses.
Do you have any great ideas for what to do with rose petals? Please share them in the comments below so we can all benefit!
03.16.23 – Updated to add more photos of pretty rose petals from a bouquet we bought. Changed last H2 to focus on what to do with dead roses. Also added video and several more fresh and dried rose uses. Republished from 8/13/21.
