DIY Pressed Leaf Art

We've got some new artwork hanging up in our living room!

 Maura and I started collecting leaves way back at the beginning of October. We go for a walk or are outside in our backyard almost everyday, so this was something to do with the added bonus of teaching her about fall. We got a pretty good collection going and then I showed her how to press them in between the pages of a large, heavy book. I figured we could make some sort of arts and crafts project out of them. My first thought was garland, but we already did that with our pine cones. Then my plan was to frame a bunch of them glued down to a large sheet of paper, plus maybe then we could try to identify them.

Wouldn't you know that before I could get started, this came in the mail?

Gasp! Love! Pressed leaf art by Lucy Mitchell was featured on the cover of the November issue of Country Living. Once I saw this, I had to change my mind and do my/our own version. I love things in multiples, there's definitely a lot of drama in lots of one thing. Just bummed I didn't think of it on my own first.

This was super easy. I already had white cardstock, so I just cut a bunch of 5 x7 cards out of it and used spray mount to adhere down the leaves. I tried referencing some online fall New England leaf guides to see if I could actually figure out what each of the leaves were. Eh, I was about 50% successful, and most of that was just guesses. (I figure no one I know is a super leaf expert, so its not like they are going to be in my house going "You are wrong!! That is not an oak leaf!!")

We hung them here in the living room, to the right of my vintage map, on the way into the family room. I love the idea and look of actually thumb tacking them to the wall like Lucy did for the CL cover, but I wasn't loving the idea of a bunch of holes in my wall nor the fact that Maura would have thumbtacks readily available for the taking. So instead I used Scotch 3M Removable Mounting Squares (which I have had super luck with before) and tried to make it look like they are pinned to the wall by only using one piece of tape and putting it near the very top middle of the card. (And I totally eyeballed all of it, no measuring or level using.)

I also wanted to include some sort of description as to what this was, sort of to commemorate our adventures, so I made the first card in the top left corner of the grid this sort of plaque. I'm not sure yet how long I'm going to leave these up...I mean, I know they're obviously overboard fallish, but we don't have anything else to put on this wall and I like the quirkiness this adds...I mean, I'm a stay-at-home mom of a 2 year old, this is my life! So at least now we have a way of remembering how much fun we had together doing this:)

Looking back at the inspiration, I aesthetically still like Lucy's wall more. Her cards are bigger, there's way more of them (I thought 14 was a lot, but they don't actually take up that much room), I don't have the lovely gradation of color and shape in the leaves that she does and I do like how her walls are white so the cards blend in and the leaves pop.  (Plus there's the whole thumbtack thing, oh well..and that beautiful wood sideboard and those green over-sized bottles!!.) But I'm surprised I actually got this done at all (knowing my track record) and my kid and I did it together. Priceless:)

Ps. In case you haven't noticed, I've been a pretty bad blogger lately. I am currently happy posting once a week and not trying to stress myself out by coming up with anything more. Ok with you guys? Has anyone else been in a blogging slump lately?