Waxing Leaves


We waxed leaves today. I love having a stash of leaves preserved for our mantel at Thanksgiving. I save all my beeswax candle stubs throughout the year and then add them to a big juice can of wax. I also have an old pot that I use because it is inevitable that wax will get on it and in it. It's my own little double boiler system for wax.


Once the wax is hot, I move it to a table covered with newspapers and let the kids have at it. Some of the leaves were pressed, others were fresh.

Aren't they beautiful?

Sue  – (October 25, 2007 at 10:52 PM)  

We do this, too! What a fun afternoon project you and your girls enjoyed together. Your leaves came out really lovely. The colors are brilliant.

Anonymous –   – (October 29, 2007 at 6:20 PM)  

What a lovely thing to do ! I've never seen this before.
What excactly do you do with the waxed leaves? Do you use them for decoration?

I love those colors !

Anonymous –   – (November 27, 2007 at 11:56 AM)  

My 2nd grader just did this craft the day before Thanksgiving. She actually made a wall hanging and it is so beautiful. What a lovely idea.

woof nanny  – (December 25, 2007 at 4:07 PM)  

Wow, how fun. I'll have to try this.

Renee  – (February 8, 2008 at 7:53 PM)  

Love this idea! Thank you for sharing. We'll have to try that, the leaves are just gorgeous afterwards.

Cocukla Cocuk  – (October 3, 2008 at 5:29 AM)  

yes they are beautiful, we'll try that too

Katie Jean  – (October 3, 2008 at 1:56 PM)  

I just camehere from crafty crow. Thanks so much for posting this. I am so excited to try it out!

Ruskin  – (October 3, 2008 at 3:47 PM)  

These are beautiful, as is your blog. What a pleasure to find it.

Becky N.  – (October 3, 2008 at 4:46 PM)  

I came here from Crafty Crow. Thank you for sharing this! My kids and I love to glue autumn leaves to a poster board to hang on our walls, but the colors always fade so quickly. We'll enjoy it so much longer with waxing first - and I had never heard of doing that before now!!

Barb  – (October 3, 2008 at 8:45 PM)  

Popping in from the Crafty Crow....love, love, love this idea! I am linking to you too!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Angela  – (October 3, 2008 at 9:29 PM)  

saw this on the Craft Crow. great idea, we'll give it a try!

Magpie Ima  – (October 3, 2008 at 10:24 PM)  

We made piles of these two years ago to decorate the lunch tables at my son's bar mitzvah and they were gorgeous!

Anonymous –   – (October 4, 2008 at 3:38 PM)  

We've done this for several years with parafin wax or, by putting the leaves between two sheets of wax paper and ironing it. I never thought of beeswax! :D

4in4  – (October 4, 2008 at 6:47 PM)  

Lovely! Too bad we are in TX and it was over 90 F today...not so much incentive for those leaves to start changing...yet...

woolladyfelter  – (October 4, 2008 at 6:51 PM)  

Love waxed leafs. Hey Crafty crow put you on her web site - cool!

Anonymous –   – (October 5, 2008 at 10:04 AM)  

Those are amazing.

I saw them on Crafty Crow and can't wait to try them at our house!

Anonymous –   – (October 6, 2008 at 4:26 PM)  

have you ever tried it with flowers? just curious! the leaves are gorgeous

Jamie {See Jamie blog}  – (October 9, 2008 at 8:33 AM)  

I'm SO going to do this! I love fall anyway, but I'm also trying to come up with cute (but cheap) decor for a fall ladies' brunch I'm hosting in November. This is perfect! :-)

Anonymous –   – (October 10, 2008 at 8:05 PM)  

Thanks for the great idea! I just tried this with my 5 and 3-year-olds and we had a blast! They turned out great!

denise  – (October 17, 2008 at 11:44 AM)  

We did that this week too! Lots of fun!

Anonymous –   – (October 17, 2009 at 3:53 PM)  

Hi! The leaves look wonderful and I want to try this too, but I have a question. I may have gotten a little lost in translation, beeswax is the yellow wax from simple candles? I am not sure which is the difference between parafin wax and beeswax and which one I could use. Would you be so kind to give me some advice?

onegoldensun  – (October 26, 2009 at 5:08 PM)  

Such fun! I love the gentle glow of the beeswax. Last year, we also made leaf fairies with our waxed leaves. http://goldensunfamily.blogspot.com/2008/10/kindergarten-fun.html

I love the pretty color range that you preserved! Ours gradually lost color, despite the wax, maybe because I hadn't pressed them ahead of time for long enough?

Happy Autumn!

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