Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Last Minute Thanksgiving Craft

Inspired by this post (via Crafty Crow), Dieter and I made leaf lanterns last night after I got home from work. This took just a little bit of pre-planning on my part. On Sunday while the boys napped, I picked this stack of fall leaves from the fruit trees in our back yard.
Then I came inside and pressed them in between the pages of a heavy book. I left them there overnight.
The next day, I mixed a little white glue and water. We applied the leaves to the jar with the glue, painted over them, then applied these white squares of tissue paper and painted over those with more of the watery glue. Dieter loved applying the glue with the paintbrush. It was a huge hit for him. I didn't worry about the mess--I just wiped it up right after we were done and it wasn't a big deal at all.
And here is what they look like with a tea light on the inside. It was hard to get the tea light in there--that's the disadvantage of using these tallish jars rather than a votive holder. But it finally worked and I love the look.

19 comments:

Mozi Esme said...

Very pretty!

Sarah said...

They look great. I like the idea of adding the leaves. I might try something like this for the solstice using cut out stars rather than leaves.

Andrea said...

These are so lovely...too bad our leaves (here in the Northeast) are already gone by this year (maybe pine needles would work for Christmassey ones??)

Hannah said...

Oh those look pretty. We might have a go at that this afternoon, we have a little barbeque campfire thing planned for tonight :o)

Anonymous said...

so pretty, love the soft glow!

stefana said...

You have inspired me again. So nice! I think this can be done with a Christmas theme as well!

driftwood said...

these are really lovely, a tip for lighting the tealights in a jar is to use a piece of spaghetti as a taper, - smells funny but it works xx

wayfarer said...

Very pretty! I think i'll do this one tonight too. My son has entered a glue and scissor craze and loves leaves so it's perfect. Thanks for the idea!

Anonymous said...

I love those! In Alaska all our leaves are long gone, but I keep bookmarking projects like this to use next year. I love the softness of the look, so simple and pretty. :)

Anonymous said...

Those are just beautiful. Coincidentally, I have two jars that I forgot to put out for the recycling today that would work beautifully. [And, by the way, I am often a lurker but every time I read about your family, I keep you all in my thoughts.]

Erna said...

wow I LOVE them!! We are used to make them with coloured tissue paper but with the leaves.....I'm going to make them too!

JessTrev said...

These are so lovely. Just the thing for the 6 cousins to do on Thanksgiving morning. Thank you.

Carrie said...

I love this project and it looks like something we could easily do with our kids. But as I work for a Housing Authority, "fire" is a four-letter word and we rarely encourage use of candles. Could these be used just for pretty storage?

Mary Beth said...

Hi Carrie. They're actually not very pretty when not lit. At least ours are kind of wrinkly and surprisingly opaque. Maybe try just gluing on the leaves? They really looked pretty at that stage of the project.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! I'm so glad you gave it a try :)

Rachael said...

They look great - what a clever idea!

Anonymous said...

I am going to have to remember this craft for next fall. My daughter will love it!

Michie said...

These are beautiful! I wonder if I can find something wintery to use to make one now!

lisa said...

I just wanted you to know that I tried it! Thanks for sharing! It's such a cute project.