Preserving Autumn Leaves with
Furniture Wax
© Stephie McCarthy
We love these Autumn leaves arranged with roses,
Ours will last indefinitely and are so easy to make.
No irons, crockpots, pans, or glue necessary.
We have lots of preserved leaves now and they will last and last.
Here are some of our preserved heavenly-bamboo leaves
tucked into a lace curtain. Beauty that will last.
Most ways of preserving Autumn leaves are
messy and time consuming … BUT,
this way is easy! We polish pressed leaves with
a non-toxic, clear liquid wax by Waverly Inspirations.
Let them dry a few hours and they are ready to use.
Our preserved leaves will hold their color indefinitely
and are flexible, not brittle.
What we do first, is press our leaves for a few days between
papertowels with a weight on top.
This removes a lot of the water
in advance. We dry them until they are papery, but still pliable.
You can find fallen leaves already mostly dry and papery. You'll
want to work with those before they become brittle.
We sometimes frost pressed leaves with metallic paint applied
with a cotton swab. We use metallic gold by DecoArt.
Lots of metallic colors would look marvelous, but do this
before applying wax and allow a few hours to dry.
These will be sweet mixed with the plain dried leaves.
Here we are polishing and preserving a small leaf with a cotton swab
dipped in Waverly Inspirations clear liquid wax.
Let these dry for a few hours. They will be slightly waxy.
Now we can hot glue some of the leaves to dried flower stalks
we gathered from a meadow.
We left dried flowers on this stalk, but replaced the leaves
with my waxed and gilded versions, held on with hot glue.
Ready to arrange with a few fresh flowers.
Or add them like bits of stained-glass to windows or lace curtains.
Our leaves will now stay colorful and flexible in arrangements.
Flowers may fade, but these leaves will last
for many arrangements to come
!
© Stephie McCarthy
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