Tuesday, April 24, 2007

From nature walk to nature wall

We bought a photo-rich wildflower guide (25 cents) this weekend. Since had to take our old sideboard to my mom's shed, the kids and I took a nature walk behind her house.It was too hard to juggle the field guide in the field, so we picked a few leaves to study later.
I flattened these leaves between paper towels overnight. (Martha Stewart would press and preserve the proper way, but you know I opt for the quick-mom solution!)
The prints inside these frames were ruined, so my mom passed them along to me. The mounted leaves will hang on our dining room wall. You can reuse any yard sale frame for this; it's easy to find leaves to fit. Several framed leaves give the wall a living, graphic feel--for free!

11 comments:

Candy said...

Great idea!

Anonymous said...

That is too cute! Educational, decorative and free! Gotta like that!!

Milehimama @ Mama Says said...

I just wanted to let you know, in case you go to the same spot again, that the plan in the background of the first picture looks like Mayapple, which is poisonous. So don't let the kids pick any green fruit, or leaves or stems - the YELLOW, ripe fruit is edible though!

Mama Says

Alexandra said...

Oh, I see Mayapples...we've got those too. Hey, maybe you could help me out with your guide. I've got a few mystery plants posted on my blog.

Mama Says is very helpful with safety warnings! Tnanks for the information. :)

Someone Beautiful said...

Wow, I LOVE this! I flatten the first flowers (weeds?) in my phone book every spring, but I have never kept them for myself. I am going to consider framing some. :)

martha said...

You are a great mommy, teacher, and decorator!

A clever way of making your pickings more permanent is to take your leaves to a copy center and make a color copy of them. "Curious Sofa" had the even more clever idea of copying the fauna with an antique page behind it. Tres Chic!

I just love your ideas, and refer to your pix often. Thanks for the pleasure you bring.

Martha

martha said...

P.S. I forgot to say that you then frame your color copy.

Martha

Milehimama @ Mama Says said...

Alexandra,
If you had boys anything like MY boys, you'd know safety warnings for everything too LOL!

Mama Says

Meredith said...

Milehighmama,thanks for the warning. I grew up in these woods and know the plants, but they're all new to the kids.

Martha, photocopying the leaves is a great idea! My frames are slightly larger than a legal size sheet of paper, though, so I suspect it is cheaper to press for this project. Also, I like the 3 dimensional look of the real leaf, even if it doesn't last as long.

We can press new leaves every year!

Melissa Stover said...

i think it looks wonderful!

Renee said...

I remember seeing this post awhile ago and finally found it. How stunning the pictures look in a group on your wall. Very beautiful!
I do have a question on whether or not you know how long these will last framed?
Thanks for such a great idea we have tons of woods to get some treasures in.