I was trying to think of something to do with my munchkins for fall. Then something caught my eye on Pintrest and I came up with the idea to make pressed leaves bookmarks. We’ve got a bunch of readers in our house and so I thought this would work out great, not just something that ends up getting tossed later. So we started collecting leaves on our walks to and from school. My oldest was a bit picky with her leaf choices, but my little guy was picking up all kinds of leaves. He ended up filling up his paper bag twice. Once that was done I got them all set to press.
After a few days they were all set and ready to go. I gave them each a piece of Whisper White cardstock that I had punched with the Delightful Tag Topper punch. Once they had gone through all their leaves they picked their favourites.
I gave them the Multi-Purpose Liquid Glue to help get the leaves to stick to the cardstock. I also had some wax paper ready to wrap around the bookmarks. That way we wouldn’t have to worry about anything happening to the leaves or the books. So once they were ready I ironed the was paper wrapped bookmarks. It worked fairly well. I still ended up added a strip of clear tape at the back for good measure though. I even made one for myself! Here they are before we added some ribbon…
The next step was to add some ribbon or twine. Since I’ve been a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator for over 8 years now I have a pretty good stash. (one of the hazards of the job… I buy new before I’ve used up my other ribbon and twine. although I think most crafters do this too.) I showed them all the options and they went with some retired ribbon for their bookmarks. They picked from my stash of retired ribbons, but I went with something current…
I used a piece of the Just Jade Gingham ribbon from the Flowers for Every Season combo pack. And then I tied a bow with a piece of Linen Thread to keep it in place. I debated about adding a stamped phrase on top of the leaves, but decided I didn’t want to cover them up.
We had a lot of fun making these pressed leaves bookmarks. Now I have to swap out my bookmark from the book I’m reading right now! If you liked this project you might want to check out the shrinky-dinks I made with my munchkins. Enjoy!