The Fern Grove

Enjoy the local trails and your favourite walking and hiking routes in a new way with the change of the seasons. The fall is personally my favourite time to hike. While out enjoying the vibrant new leaf colours you will inevitably end up with a handful of perfect fall leaves in all different shapes and colours. Here’s a great way to preserve those fall leaves to put on display or use later in another great fall craft.

When you get home from your walk lay out everyone’s favourite fall leaves on a sheet (or two) of wax paper. Leave lots of space between each leaf even if it means using several separate sheets. Place an equal sized sheet of wax paper down on top of the leaves. If the leaves are curling slightly set some heavy books on top of them over night (or until you get time for the next step) to flatten them out. Now carefully transfer the sheets of wax paper and leaves to the ironing board. Place a sheet or pillow case over the wax paper and leaves, preferably a white or light coloured sheet so that you can see the leaves through the fabric. Gently iron on a medium or low setting (no steam) being sure to cover the whole sheet in slow circular motions. Then go back and outline the leaves several times with the iron to seal them into the wax paper. The wax paper should melt together slightly to seal the leaves between the two layer.

This part the kids can do. Cut around the leaves leaving at least 1cm around the perimeter of each leaf. You can also cut the leaves out in different shapes. For example you can cut out a large square or rectangle around each leaf, or a circle depending on how much room you have around each leaf and the cutting skills/age of the children doing the cutting.

These leaves can be saved as keepsakes of the fall, put up on the fridge, window or wall for fall decoration, saved to use in fall leaf crafts, pasted in scrap books or on cards and wrapping paper for decoration. When you go to use them they should peal out nicely from inside there waxpaper layers.