Friday Fancies XII

Because I just have to hang onto autumn . . . . . . . . . .

I love autumn.  It is so bittersweet for me.  I think it is the combination of autumn’s beauty and brevity.

I’ve been working on the above project for a few weeks, cuz that’s the way I do things . . . . . . .very, very slowly.  Sidney and I collected the leaves on an afternoon walk to the mailbox.  It was a sweet time to spend with my eldest.

We pressed the leaves between the pages of some books.  After a few days, I retrieved the leaves and painted them with modgepodge.  Ha!  I finally found a way to use modgepodge that doesn’t irritate me.  I painted one side, hung them by the stems from clothespins to dry, then painted the other side.

Then I grabbed an old frame with an ugly picture that I bought at Goodwill a long time ago, popped out the picture.  I had planned on using scrapbook paper for the background, but the papers I had on hand looked kind of blah with the leaves.  But I didn’t want to spend any money on this, and I didn’t want to drive to town, so I pondered.

I finally came up with the idea of using fabric I had on hand, hot-glued onto the orginal picture, and had fun playing with the leaves, laying them this way and that.  Once I had them where I wanted them, I gave them a dot of hot glue to hold them in place and framed it up.

That should have been the end of it, but noooooooooooooo . . . . . . . . . . . . .we homeschool moms have to take every opportunity to make an educational moment.  We can’t help it.  It’s in our blood.  Like a disease, a blood disease.  No cure.

I decided to cover the back of the picture to make it all nice and neat.  Because I never know who might come to my house, take my pictures off the wall to look at the back (my sister), and I had cloth awkwardly folded and sticking out the back.

I really should have stopped there.  But . . . . .well . . . . . I couldn’t help myself . . . . .

I sketched the leaf layout, so we could label the leaves. 

Rachel, in particular, was enthralled with my leaf art.  That girl has a discerning eye.  She immediately wanted to do one for her and Prairie’s room.  I gave her the brush and modgepodge, and she was able to paint her leaves with little help from me.  We’ll work on finishing hers up later this weekend.