Maple Leaf Wreath

Today, I had my kids + a visiting child all go outside and collect leaves from this tree:

This tree used to look like this:


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The leaves have fallen off a bit in the last few days. So the boys all collected the most gorgeous leaves they could find.

I melted candles in a pot on the stove:

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And dipped all the leaves into the melted wax.  And laid them out to cool.

Then, I roughly sorted by color, and put them on a wooden wreath that I had from last Christmas. This is a flat wooden wreath form. And last Christmas, my boys cut short sprigs from my boxwood bush out front, and we made into quite a nice wreath for the Christmas season.

After Christmas was over, I pulled out all the boxwood, and stored the wreath with the string still wrapped around it. Today, I put the leaves on:

Roughly in color order. And then I hung it on the door. Some of the leaves fell off due to their slippery nature of being waxed. So I had to take it off the door, re-position some of the leaves back to where they should be. Then I flipped it over and duct-taped the back.

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And then, I hung it on the door again. For all to see!

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A fun project. It looks really beautiful!  It's about a week until Halloween; so I'm hoping it will last until after Thanksgiving. At which point, I will take off all the leaves and re-do this same wreath form once again with the boxwood from my front bush.

I love no-cost solutions and sustainable ways to decorate. Don't you?

(That tree will have wonderful foliage again next year ... and the boxwood is such a strong bush & loves where it is - it will keep producing too.)