Leafy Crafts

Step 1: We went for a walk around the neighborhood, gathering some lovely leaves. Step 2: Here are the leaves being pressed for a few hours until dipping time.

Step 3: Create a double boiler of sorts and melt the beeswax. Here it is getting ready to be melted.

Step 4: Dunk each leaf in the melted beeswax. (The smell is heavenly!!!)

Of course I let Akilah participate; despite the websites I consulted that said to have children watch this step. What's the fun in that? I mean, she knows how to be careful and what "hot" means. Geeeezs.

Step 5: Lay each dipped leaf on parchment paper (or whatever you have, they dry insanely fast).

Take some silly photos.

Pile o' waxed leaves!

Step 6: Make garlands! The outdoor nerd in me definitely used clove hitches to attach each leaf to the thread...

Voila!

Tony has been on the road since Halloween and I was itching to do something different, and fun, and free... SO over the weekend the girls and I went for a lovely walk in the autumn sun, gathering all the best leaves for beeswax dipping. We had never done this craft before and goodness was it loads of fun! And SUPER easy. (Really crazy easy, doesn't get much easier.) In fact, it was so much fun that we invited a friend and did it all over again the next day!