Autumn Lanterns

These make really beautiful table centres - I lit them this afternoon as the evening began to draw in. The girls really love candles and the gentle glow of light they produce........

 The girls made one each and one for Idris too! Then one for Cousin Samuel and one for Granny and Grandpa (of course!). I can see another package to Canada coming up soon!!

 I bought a bottle of mod podge glue an embarrassing two years ago to preserve leaves with after seeing the idea on another blog. Some how I never got around to it..... last year we waited and waited for Autumn colours and then the leaves just froze on the trees in the early sub-zero snap we had in November and there weren't any nice Autumn leaves to preserve (can't remember what happened the year before!!)

This year I was determined not to leave that mod podge in peace any longer so we went to the park to collect pretty and tiny leaves (and play hide and seek, feed the squirrels, have hot buttered toast from the cafe and use our coats as sledges down the slide - ahem!) Back at home we ironed the leaves flat between two pieces of baking parchment - the girls LOVED being allowed to use the iron - fancy doing some clothes girls?!

We then spread mod podge on the candle holders, chose a leaf, stuck it flat side to the glass with the veined side out and spread a layer of mod podge thickly over the top. It was messy and great fun. We left them to dry and voila...... 24 hours later they were ready for some candle action!

I was really impressed with the look of the leaves with the mod podge on. It really preserved the colours of the leaves and they stay flexible instead of crispy. I think we will have to try making a leaf garland with mod podge leaves next year!