I love leaves in the fall. The colors, the way they crunch under your feet, the naked trees left behind as the crispy leaves fall with each little breathy gust of wind. I was hoping to find some branches full of leaves to bring into the house but I waited a little too long and missed the prime time for the red tones. There are a ton of green trees still, so there may be another chance yet to come.
To compensate, I made a few leaves that will not turn brown, crumble all over the floor, or be a temporary fixture. Frankly, I love them. A. Lot.
To start with, I grabbed a box of oven bake clay from Walmart. This one:
I love this stuff. The box lasts significantly longer than I would have expected and it can be sanded to a really smooth finish after it's baked. Grab a chunk of it and mush it around in your hands to soften it. Once it's nice and soft, it's ready to make whatever you want.
I rolled it flat between pieces of wax paper using my nice baking rolling pin and rolling rings (LOVE!). Hence the wax paper on top - I didn't exactly want clay residue corrupting my next batch of cookies.
After it was even, I placed leaves on top of the clay, put the wax paper over the top, and rolled to press the leaf impression into the clay. These leaves are small, and I literally just grabbed them from where the wind dropped them off on my back patio. Make sure to place the veiny side, or back, of the leaf down to get a really great impression in the clay.
Carefully lift off the leaf, and look at the impression left behind. (It didn't photograph very well here, but it is there!)
My favorite part was the dirt that was left behind in the clay. It gave some serious character and really helped the image to show up.
See? I never thought I'd say this, but I heart dirt.
To get a nice cutout, I used an exacto knife to cut around the edge of the leaf impression. I learned very quickly that it works better to use a tapping motion to cut downward through the clay rather than sliding the blade through it. It's soft enough that dragging somewhat smears the edges and loses a little bit of the detail.
Here it is all cut out. See the vein lines? They are awesome.
Following the package directions for your clay, bake it until it's firm. This clay is still soft when it comes out of the oven but firms up as it cools.
After it cooled, I grabbed a variety of acrylic paints from my stash and just went at it with reckless abandon. I tried to mimic the natural coloring of each type of leaf to keep a rather natural feel to them, which often required smearing the paint around with my fingertip to blend colors and keep the coat pretty thin. It's like a sophisticated take on kindergarten! I did use some leftover glaze medium mixed to keep some of the colors more subtle.
After the painting session, they looked like this:
Then I sprayed on a light coat of matte finish polycryllic (just because I already had it on hand from other projects) and let them dry.
Gotta say, the little reddish ones are my fave in the picture, but the lightest oak leaf is my fave in person because it's slightly metallic from a light gold paint. Either way, I love them.
What do you think? I'm crazy happy with them and can't quit thinking of how to use them.
