how to: wax paper and crayon fall leaves

so this last week i decided to quit ignoring the elephant in the room, and acknowledge that fall is... well basically at my door step. the leaves are starting to show a hint of change and with that change came my "NO! NOT YET!" anxiety of: if fall is coming that means winter and that thing that this california native still can't understand why anyone would enjoy...snow...is basically just around the season corner.
see i used to love fall. while growing up in california it meant you got to bring out pumpkins, got to cook with pumpkin, cinnamon smells were in the air, the air would turn a crisp yumminess and some of the leaves would turn a really pretty color. then i moved to somewhere where there's REAL seasons, and well personally i loath, hate, and think it's kind of poopy don't think i like winter and i think it's over rated. and it's turned me against my beloved fall because it's just the in between from me and that white yucky stuff.
but my kids love it.
and there's no real near future of moving from it.
so...
"get over it." i tell myself.
and myself tells me to "screw you."
oh well.
might as well craft anyways.
these leaves were made just like you used to make those stain glass windows with wax paper and crayon shavings.

you can hang them, you can place them prettily to dress up any surface, and well you can just place them on your windows as well.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

*wax paper.
*scissors
*iron
*towels (so that you don't ruin your ironing board)
*paper towels (so you don't ruin your iron)



*fall colored crayons that have seen better days

*leaf template (right click hit save as and then print off. make sure you make them fit your picture screen so it doesn't cut off any of the leaf. i made mine as a 4 by 7 picture)


cut out wax paper approx letter paper size. with scissors start shaving your crayon onto the wax paper. not too much we want it to be a pretty thin layer of crayon melt.
i mixed two colors:
*brown and orange
*yellow and magenta
*orange and yellow
my favorite ones turned out to be the yellow and magenta ones.

when you have your two colors shaved on, place the second piece of wax paper on top making a sandwich.

with an iron set on a warm setting, place a towel first down onto your ironing board. then your wax paper and crayon sandwich. then place a paper towel in between your iron and the wax paper sandwich.

slowly melt your crayon shavings. and push the "liquid crayon" around so it's thin and covers a larger area. (be careful of spilling the wax! don't push it too far out or it will seep out the corners of your wax paper sandwich!)
once they are cool take your print out leaf, and your wax paper creation.
place underneath, it should be clear enough for you to be able to see your lines.
with a pencil trace your leaves.

cut out your leaves.


admire your pretty leaves, that surprisingly are making you feel a little better about fall coming.
now if you would like to hang them, i just got a needle and thread and made a big knot at the end of my thread. i hung them in front of our window, i hung them above our dinging room table, but in the end they ended up taped up...



on our back windows. the kids loved them. katie wants butterflys for her room, and the boys want bats for halloween.

ahh the life of a crafting mom.

enjoy!
maybe i'll craft myself into winter happiness. i mean there's a ton of ideas to welcome fall. a blog i just found is the better blog...if you've not seen it check it. it's pretty sweet.
BUT... i do in fact have extra clippings from this project and i'm hoping to make another project out of it. maybe monday...
happy thoughts happy thoughts i can do this...snow isn't that bad...yes it is but i still have fall to buffer it.
have a great weekend
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