Fall Foliage Candle Holder Craft

Chris and I have been so excited about the fall foliage and making crafts with beautiful leaves.  We challenged each other to come up with a new project to top last year’s Nicole Duke’s Leaf Roses.  My project is a fall leaf candle holder using a canning jar, Mod Podge, a paintbrush, and leaves.

After gathering leaves, I placed them on paper towels to dry.  The night before I gathered we had a significant frost, and everything was wet in the morning.  I layered the leaves and weighted them down with a heavy cutting board.

I seem to be stuck on using up my canning jars, don’t I?  I love them!  They’re durable, functional, and pretty!  Oh, and they’re relatively cheap!!

I covered the canning jar with Mod Podge and placed the leaves on the tacky surface.  They didn’t adhere well, so I tried applying more Mod Podge.  The leaves weren’t pliable enough or flimsy enough to mold to the round jar.  To hold the leaves in place while drying, I wrapped parchment paper around the jar secured with rubber bands.  I left it overnight to dry.  In the morning I got an okay result.

I don’t love the “glue” look over the leaves, but it is very pretty when lit at night.  I added a bow to give the jar some pizazz in the daytime; and as they say: It Is What It Is!

If someone comes up with a better idea for attaching leaves to jars, I’d love to hear about it.  Possibly if my jar was smooth, it would have worked better…

As an end note, I’ll say it’s kind of funny when your sister calls and tells you she’s making a new leaf craft and you say, “Me too!”  Later that night you text to say, “My project isn’t that great,” and she responds, “mine stinks too.”  You have to laugh at these moments and keep finding new ideas to share!

What new ideas have you been experimenting with?

Take a look at our other Fall Leaf Projects! And as always, don’t forget to share your pictures with us on Facebook!