Leaf Castings

Now that you all have a background on me and my house, its time to get to the fun stuff. PROJECTS! I love  arts and crafts/projects/DIY and couldn't wait to get to this stuff on the blog. I thought we would start with leaf castings. Leaf castings are basically a mold of a giant leaf that you can use as  a bird bath, centerpiece, or even just a decoration in your yard. Its very simple and very cheap to do so its perfect for a hand-me-down home.

All you need is play sand, big leaves, and a smooth concrete topper. For the following, I mainly used elephant ear leaves and Quikrete.

Create a small pile of sand on a table. This will create the 'bowl' so you can make it as small or as large as you want. Just make sure to leave a lip around the edge. If you want to create a flat piece for holding 

candles, jewelry etc, then you won't need any sand and can skip this step

You will want to trim down the stem as much as you can so it doesn't create a hole in the concrete. This is useful if you want yours for a birdbath Make sure to place it with the veins facing up so the grooves in the concrete are inward.

You will want to mix the concrete with water until it is all wet. The only way to judge the consistency is to just keep mixing until there isn't any dryness left but not enough to make it soupy. 

Layer the concrete on top of your leaf. You want to try to keep it on the leaf as much as possible and to not make it thin or else it could break.

don't be scared if you see the leaf crinkle, it totally adds a ton of character.

**if this is a large leaf, place chicken wire in between 2 layers of concrete to help hold it together.**

Sometimes, its a good idea to press a piece of flat board along the top so it will sit properly on a table.

We usually let these sit out for a day or two to let the concrete cure. 

Now the fun part! GENTLY flip each leaf over and CAREFULLY pull the leaf off the concrete.

You may need to pick at the leaf with tweezers to get it out of all the nooks and crannies.

You can do as many as you like. I tend to make as many as I can until the concrete runs out. (and because I love flipping them over to see how they turned out!)

Wasn't that super easy! The hard part is the wait to see what was created.

I stain and paint my leaves with concrete stain and outdoor paint. 

This leaf is from a sunflower

The above picture shows how a stain works. It seeps in so its not going to create perfect lines but turns out awesome when it dries

Painting is a little bit harder but totally worth it in the end.  I like outdoor paint by Folk Art and Martha Stewart. It may not be totally safe from the rain but it does better than the regular paints.

I used a light green to paint the whole leaf and a dark green to fill in the veins. The easiest way to apply the dark color is to first paint a small spot on the leaf and then wipe it off with a paper towel. It will leave the veins the dark color and remove it from the top. Paint, wipe, repeat.

It is also optional to paint the bottom but I always do or else it feels incomplete to me. Again, totally up to you.

I hope you enjoy your conversation piece as much as I enjoy mine.