I gave up buying seasonal decor a while ago. To be honest, our bank account is the one who made that decision. It’s something that I have grown to love and appreciate. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t like a small splash of seasonal decor in the house.
My solution was to use what is outside, whatever produce is in season, or just plain whatever I already had around the house. This beeswax leaf garland is a beautiful and simple way to add some natural fall elements in your home, without spending any extra money (if you already have beeswax at home). The best part is that you don’t have to store it in a bin, you can just toss it on the compost pile at the end of the season.
What you’ll need:
Beeswax (white or yellow)
Leaves
Tweezers (optional)
Glass jar or bowl
Wax paper (to place the leaves to dry or you could use a tray)
Pot of boiling water
Instructions:
- Place 1/2 – 1 cup of beeswax into a glass jar or bowl. Place the glass container over or in the pot of boiling water. Allow the beeswax to fully melt.
- Once the beeswax is fully melted remove the jar from heat.
- Carefully dip each individual leaf into the wax with tweezers or carefully with your fingers.
- Gently scrap of the excess on the sides of the jar or bowl. Then allow them to dry on wax paper. (They will dry quickly)
- After about 5 minutes they will be ready to create whatever you want with the leaves. There are so many things you could make!
Notes:
- If the leaves start to come out of the wax looking like they are coated in wax (not clear)it means your wax needs to be hotter. You will need to reheat up your wax and then continue. I needed to do this a twice when making my garland pictured below.
- You can also add some essential oils to the wax once it’s melted to add a fun fall scent. I add cinnamon or OnGuard every single time and it makes the whole process extra fun.
- The wax helps preserve the leaves for much longer than if you hadn’t added the wax.
- If you have a small warmer may help a lot with keeping the wax hot. However, I’ve never used one for this project.
I used the wax coated leaves to create a fall garland. I used some scrap string and hot glue. It’s incredibly easy to make and the kids loved helping while putting this together. It took about 5 minutes max. There are so many places to use the garland to decorate for the season.
My daughter loves helping making these and finding new pretty leaves is the boys new favorite quest. Overall, it’s very simple and uncomplicated. I haven’t tried this with anything other than bee’s wax but I’m sure you could use other light colored waxes and come up with the same results.
It may seem like beeswax is a random thing to have on hand but I use to fairly often. Here are a few homemade recipes that I use beeswax for: DIY Beeswax Candles , Homemade Sunscreen , and Wooden Spoon Butter.
Let us know if you give this a try and what you are planning on doing with the leaves!
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