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Gorgeous!

Wow, the red leaves are beautiful. I might steal that idea. Actually, I saw that article in Country Living last year and was inspired to make something like what's in image 3 in the first row. My version is smaller, and I think the leaves have lost some of their color vibrancy over the past year, but I still like it. Actually, my favorite part of the project was taking a long walk in the woods with my mom and collecting the leaves!

how exactly do you press the leaves? I've never learned...
I should just google it I guess.
Can't you just put the leaf that you find outside into a frame? what else do you have to do?

my mom used two pieces of wax paper with beautiful fall leaves sandwiched in between that she ironed and made into a privacy screen in a bathroom window. it didn't last forever but it was so easy to make and it looked lovely.

i've fallen for the first one

@plumeria: sandwich them between waxed paper and pile heavy books, etc. on top. That's how we did it in grade school, at least. I remember that the leaves were never quite as vibrantly colored as the examples are. How does one preserve the intensity?

The problem is that you need to remove the moisture, but you also want to keep the colors, which fade as the leaves dry. I have some leaves that were coated in some sort of wax, and that seems to have kept the colors vibrant.

The infamous 6th grade project in my middle school was the "leaf report" - you had to collect leaves from dozens of types of trees, press them, and write an info page about each tree. I pressed most of the leaves carefully, but I was a few short in the end so on the last morning I ran out and grabbed some sumac leaves from across the field, still covered in dew. That page of my report is moldy now. Heh, oops.

these are awesome! I might have to give this project a try.

Oh, and I just remembered something sweet that I'd forgotten entirely! When I moved to California, my partner still lived in Boston. He knew I missed the fall colors, so he mailed me an envelope full of leaves. I wonder if I still have them.

plumeria, there are several ways to dry botanicals but longer lasing leaves requires a drying agent. Use sand, fresh kitty litter, a white cornmeal-and-borax mixture, or, for best results, silica gel. This is commercially available and sold under several different trade names at garden centers. Once you've decided on which drying agent to use then begin experimenting. Fill the bottom of a flat dish or cardboard box with 1 inch of the drying agent. Put in the leaves. Add more drying agent until the leaves are completely covered. The drying time varies, but check after several days and then carefully shake off the drying agent and handle the leaves gently or they can crumble. Dry leaves feel like paper.
The drying agent process can also be speeded up with a microwave oven. Prepare a few leaves at a time in a small baking dish. Put this in the microwave along with enough water to cover the leaves. "Cook" on medium for 10 seconds or so - you must experiment with timing because microvawes vary. After microwaving, allow leaves to cool in the drying agent for a few hours up to a day or so. Of course you can still just place leaves between sheets of blotting paper and weight down with bricks or books. Check them after a week. Fern fronds are also good for pressing.

Forgot to mention in my last post that you can also use clean kitty litter that is based on silica gel although I've never tried it myself. The brand of flower drying agent I have in my cupboard is called Activa and I've been able to reuse it several times even though it isn't that expensive.

So beautiful!

Somehow the thought of a leaf collection (and a leaf collector) makes me smile....

Of course, this topic has a whole different meaning to the baseball card crowd....

the artist of the first piece, from pressedleaf, is one of the nicest guys on the planet, seriously. the photos don't really do justice to his work. they are really stunning in person, where the texture and precision is more evident. I'm the proud owner of several of owen's originals.

Me and my son collect leaves and have just framed some with frames we got at a yard sale. They look nice, I'm planning on having a large collage of them. These pictured are lovely. Gives me ideas! Thanks!

the first one is fantastic. it takes the simple idea of leaves and adds pattern to it which is what really pulls it off.

The first one makes me giddy. I love autumn, deep red, and things that are lined up neatly. It's perfect!

The first one is fabulous - where can you get something like that, but more affordable (other than diy, which isn't going to happen...)?