Filling the time before lunch...

Last Saturday was a most glorious autumn day - slightly chilly but beautifully sunny. More of a lightweight cardigan day than the full on scarf and boots day the week turned into. 

Looking to kill an hour before lunch, I encouraged my littlest daughter and her friend to make an autumn mobile each rather than start watching TV. 

First up, we grabbed a basket and headed out in search of 'treasure'. As it turned out we didn't have to venture far before we found loads of gorgeous leaves; the colours a mix of reds and greens with a bit of yellow and orange thrown in too. We had such a lovely time sorting through the piles of leaves that our plan for a major nature trail soon turned into more of a 'find your favourite leaves from this massive pile'! It was hard not to pick them all up!


(You'll notice Fudge Bear, the class mascot, helping out too!)

Home we went and laid out our stick (that the leaves would be hanging from) on the patio table and sorted out our favourite leaves from the mass. That was a challenge in itself!

We were rather impatient which meant that instead of pressing the leaves so they would stay flat, we used sticky back plastic front and back to keep them from curling. You could laminate them too, if you've got the equipment (we don't so we didn't!!). It was a bit laborious and won't last forever, but it was a good temporary option.



So, each leaf was stuck onto the sticky side, then another piece stuck on top. Push them together to seal and then some scissor exercise by trimming around the edge - not too close though or the leaf will pop out!!



Once we were happy with our leaves, I used two strands of orange embroidery thread to tie all the leaves in a line, then wrapped this around the stick to hold them in place. 

My daughter also found some conkers she wanted to add. My challenge was to poke a skewer through the conker to make a hole WITHOUT stabbing myself in the process!! Thankfully I avoided any major incident.

Once the strings of leaves or conkers were tied into place, I added another strand of thread to make a hanger.



And then we were done! 

Finding somewhere to hang it to take a photograph wasn't so easy, but I'm sure you get the drift.

This was SO simple and SO lovely to do. I recommend it to everyone, whatever your age!!


Comments

  1. Ah, these are beautiful. Autumn leaves are such a treasure. I have some that I pressed from our autumn, and I even have a laminator. Thanks for the idea! I love the look of your blog design by the way!
    Dani @ Sand has no home

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Dani.
      I'd love to see a photo of your mobile if you make one. I think I should invest in a laminator!!

      Delete

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