Fall Leaves Placemats–Perfect for Thanksgiving!

I can’t believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving!! I’ve got to get busy in the kitchen putting things together for various dishes like a turkey veggie tray, cranberry jello salad, green bean casserole, and mini pumpkin pies. But, I wanted to share one last project that would be perfect for Thanksgiving! 🙂

Fall Leaves Placemats

The fall weather was so perfect when we were in Nebraska! And, there were still so many gorgeous trees & leaves around!

In fact, we went for many leaf-collecting walks! See?!

I wanted to preserve them, but have something that would actually be somewhat useful. So, I decided on placemats! 🙂

Supplies:

-lots of fall leaves, assorted 12 x 12 cardstock, Mod Podge, clear contact paper, paint brushes, scissors Directions:

– put down some newspaper (to avoid getting Mod Podge all over the table)

– Arrange the leaves on the card stock as you like. I had mine hang off the paper just a bit. – coat each leaf in Mod Podge on both the front and back. I ended up just coating the whole paper and everything. – Let that dry & move on to the next paper. I made 10! Like I said, we collected a lot of leaves! 🙂

– Once the pages are dry (it took about half the day), they will have a really cool texture–almost plastic-like. In fact, you could probably just leave it at that. However, I was worried about the leaves holding up over time. And, I was worried that they might stain if stuff was spilled on them. So, we covered them in contact paper.

– Just cut out sheets of contact paper, and sandwich the mod-podged placemats between the pages. – Just note though, that there will likely be some bubbling around the leaves since they are raised slightly. I was a little disappointed with that, but I’m not sure that it’s avoidable. Any other ideas or suggestions?

Either way, I think they’ll be a nice addition to our Thanksgiving table and a special way to remember our fall fun in Nebraska!I like the way the leaves peak out around the plates! 🙂 Are there any fun ways that you’ve preserved fall leaves?