It has finally started to turn cold in Milan which means that the leaves are changing colors – an explosion of bright yellow, orange and red. Every year, we spend a couple days picking up our favorite leaves. I usually put them between a paper napkin under a heavy book. And every year, we are disappointed when our once vibrantly colored leaves turn brown and crumble. This year, emboldened by some late night internet searching, I found two ways for preserving fall leaves – different tricks to lock in those vibrant colors!
You will need:
LEAVES!
Glycerin
Bees wax
vine wreath
green ribbon
We followed two different techniques for preserving fall leaves that I found online:
Bees wax: we melted the bees wax and dipped our leaves into it. We then let the wax covered leaves cool on waxed paper.
Glyercin: we submerged our leaves in a glycerin bath (1 part glycerin to 2 parts water) for 4 days.
LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE. The first leaf I just left out on the counter to dry. The color is okay but if you touch it, it starts to crumble. The second leaf is covered in bees wax and the third leaf got the glycerin treatment. The bees wax leaf kept the bright red and yellow colors while the glycerin leaf turned brown.
Obviously we decided to use the wax colored leaves to decorate our Fall Wreath. One interesting thing about the glycerin leaves – they have completely changed texture. It is true the color was lost but they are really soft and do not break. After all the hard work we will have to use them for another project.
We added a little bit of great ribbon and glued our bees wax covered leaves on for a great CELEBRATION OF FALL!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM FUNLAB
Have fun
Alison
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