Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Autumn leaves: a garland DIY



I love autumn leaves, they're so colourful and bright. One last burst of life before slowly but surely, they detach themselves ones by one and float to the ground. I have a special theory of my own about why the leaves change colour. It involves a team of well organised fairy folk, many tiny pots of paint in all shades of red, gold, yellow and brown and a many a well-coordinated sleepness night of leaf painting mischief. Whatever really goes on in the treetops, I like to collect pretty leaves all autumn long. Many of my big heavy books are hazardous once taken off the bookshelf, as opening them causes a flurry of carefully pressed leaves to fall out. I put them in year after year and forget about them. Inevitably they fade and become so fragile and delicate that they are in fact useless. This year, I wanted to put some of them to a more decorative use instead of hiding them away to be forgotten about. So here's what I did.


1. I collected leaves of different colours and shapes.


2. Once home, I wiped them clean and then coated each side with a nice thick layer of pva glue before leaving them to dry overnight.


3. I cut a length of ribbon and then carefully stapled each leaf to the ribbon, spacing them out carefully so each one could be seen and admired. (this was quite a delicate process and caused a couple of the smaller, more fragile leaves to tear. Itn hindsight, i might have been better to glue them, but I wanted instant results and this worked nicely enough).


4. I bluetacked my new leafy garland to the wall.

5. I stepped back to admire it :)


Here it is, in all its leafy autumnal glory hanging on my wall....



And some close-ups...



Hopefully the layer of glue will preserve the leaves so I can enjoy the garland for a few weeks whilst the rest of the trees change colour....

Why not make a leafy garland of your own?
x

3 comments:

  1. i think i will make one of these for my new wall :) I made a pretty felt dangly with bells on for my friends birthday last week so i might do a doodah dangle/sarah leaf garland morph...i will hotograph the result :)

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  2. yes! get creative :) can't wait to see the results!

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