Dishfunctional Designs: DIY Painted Leaves Tutorial

I published this blog post so late in the season last fall, that I wanted to share it again

so that everyone has a chance to start collecting those leaves while they're falling! I think

that you get the best painted leaf results when you press your leaves for at least a few weeks

before painting them, if not longer. This gives the leaves time to press completely flat,

and gives the moisture a chance to escape, so look for freshly fallen leaves and press those.

Here is the original post:

After painting acorns a few weeks ago, we were ready to move on to painting leaves!
This is a simple project that has beautiful results, is a lot of fun, and everyone in the family can participate. I think the variety of shapes of leaves combined with the different paint
colors is what was so appealing to me about this project. Check it out and let me know what
you think!

First we collected fallen leaves that were mostly brown, but not too dried out. Our leaves
were still a bit pliable but not crumbly. After we collected a nice variety of leaves, I
placed them between a stack of heavy books for over a week to completely flatten them out.
The longer you leave them between the books, the better your end result. I recommend
leaving them between books for at least a week. I flattened a few for three days, and later
found that after we painted those that they curled up a bit once the paint dried. If your
leaves are still green, you will want to press them in between sheets of newspaper in between
the books. This will help absorb some of the moisture from the leaves as they dry out.

Next we gathered our supplies: a variety of acrylic paints (I used whatever I already had at
home), some newspaper to protect our table top, a few plates to serve as palettes, a variety
of craft paint brushes, a cup of water to clean our brushes with, some wax paper to place
our leaves on while they dried, and a few paper towels.