Falling Leaves

Just a few days ago, one of my favorite blogs, CENTSATIONAL GIRL, posted a "how-to" on how to make a beautiful collage out of Fall leaves. If you have never visited Kate at Centsational Girl you are in for a treat. She has an eye and the know how to create a gorgeous home using things that you already have and makeing trash into treasure. You have to stop by her blog....it won't be your last visit I guarantee it!

On her blog, Kate, the Centsational Girl, gives you the details on how to create this beautiful and seasonal collage out of the colorful leaves in your backyard. Want to make one for yourself??? Click here on Centsational Girl and you can follow her step by step like I did.

Here is what she made for her own home:

I love this! She actually made a set of two of these beauties. I was quite inspired and I stopped by Hobby Lobby to get the things that I needed. You will need a blank canvas and did you know they make a Metallic Mod Podge? I picked up a jar of silver metallic Mod Podge and some metallic gold and metallic esspresso brown acrylic craft paint. (Kate used a metallic bronze but I couldn't find it so I substituted the espresso instead.) You will also need some leaves and it is best if you press them in a heavy book for a day or two to make sure they are flat.

First step: Paint the canvas. I had some leftover paint....."Latte" from Sherwin Williams that I used to paint my master bathroom earlier this summer. So I used it for the basecoat on my canvas. Wait for it to dry before you start glueing your leaves on the canvas.

Next step: start glueing your leaves on your canvas with the silver metallic Mod Podge. I tried to place my leaves in a scattered fashion on the canvas to make it look like they had landed there after falling out of the tree.

After you have the leaves glued in place then you can start to touch up each of the leaves with some of the metallic gold and espresso or bronze paints. I also used these paints to make strokes and swirls around the leaves to make them look like the wind was moving them. This is fun to do. Keep a damp clean cloth nearby if you are like me and get a bit carried away you can wipe a stroke off the canvas and re-do it if you don't like how a swirl turns out.

And here is the final product. This was a fun project. Thanks Centsational Girl for the How-To and the inspiration. I enjoyed making this one!