Preserving Autumn Leaves

As the final leaves of Autumn make their way to the ground, I realize that this peaceful season has almost passed.  Winter and Christmas are right around the corner.   Marie had longed for  me to come and visit her in Ohio before the last of the leaves fell from the trees, and happily I was able to make it before that happened.  The leaves there are so huge and beautiful, and it is sad to see them disappear completely.  We decided to preserve them so that they might last.

While I was there we had fun doing a couple of projects involving paraffin.  I would have loved posting this project before Thanksgiving so you all might have been able to make some before Thanksgiving, but ran out of time.  There is still a tiny amount of November ahead of us, so I decided to go ahead and post this easy project anyway.  Marie was sweet enough to send me pictures, since I had not taken any on my camera.

A wonderful way to preserve Autumn leaves, is to dip them in paraffin.  The steps are as follows.  Find a

large coffee can or a double boiler, and place it in or over a pan of  water.  Place the paraffin blocks in the can or  double boiler.  Turn burner onto medium to medium high heat.  

Once Wax is melted into liquid, turn off heat. Next, take each leaf by the stem and dip into wax.  Pull out, let cool momentarily, and dip again.  You may repeat the dipping process several times if you like, depending on how thick of a coat of wax looks best to you. When done dipping, lay them on a piece of wax paper to dry.  They  come out so pretty.  Click here at IdreamtIdweltinmarblehalls.blogspot.com   to see how lovely they looked on Marie's Thanksgiving table.