craftgrrl | preserving pressed plants

Hello, craftsters !!! I have a bit of a conundrum. SOOOO!!! I am looking to start a plant journal, using pressed plant parts as the main attraction (haha I don't know how else to say what I mean!!). First of all, what would be the best way of attaching them to the page? I had the idea of using those nice lamination sheets that are sticky on one side... BUT I don't want the glare. Do they make matte lamination sheets? My googling yielded nothing substantial. I am definitely open to other ideas, too. My only requirement is that it will be able to keep the pressed plants protected after a number of paging throughs and over numerous years.

My second question, which is less important as I'm using just the book method, is what's the most efficient way to press plants? Is there some magical method that helps them to maintain their actual live look? Right now I've just been putting them in the middle of a heavy book, and then putting more heavy books ontop of that... which I guess is working ok.. Except they are turning out darker than I've seen pressed plants to be??? I am so completely new to pressing plants, so ENLIGHTEN ME!