When I was little I remember placing leaves between layers of waxed paper and pressing them with a warm iron to preserve the fall color a little longer. I tried this when my boys were smaller and learned that waxed paper contained far less wax than it used to. That little project did not work.
After posting many photos of fall leaves on flickr, Sarah pointed me to this website showing how to dip leaves in melted paraffin. Uh, why didn't I think of that? As soon as I clicked on the link P and I headed out for a walk to gather leaves.
We came in, dug some 30+ year old wax from the depths of the basement, and went right to work!
We had so much fun with these we had to go to town to gather different leaves!
One day later, here are two leaves gathered from the same tree at the same time. It's like MAGIC!
Thank you Sarah for giving me that link on the PERFECT day. We have since had a fierce wind and rain storm and all our fall leaves outside are gone.
Our next project is to figure out how to hang the dozens of preserved leaves in the window.
