I love this time of year! Nature becomes so colorful and pretty! I love to decorate with the gorgeous Autumn palette inside too! Using coffee filters, I created this Autumn Leaf Mobile that will last for years to come!
Here is what you will need:
- Disposable Cone Coffee Filters
- Two Bamboo Sticks -I used two 16″ bamboo stakes that come with my tomato plants
- Thin Hemp Twine
- Acrylic Paints in Fall Colors -I used Red, Brown, Yellow, Tan and Clay.
- Liquid Glass from Close to My Heart
- Glue Dots® Mini Dots
- You will also need: Drill with 3/32″ bit, Scissors, Hole Punch in a small size and Paintbrush.
Directions:
- Drill each bamboo stick in 5 places: one in the center, a half inch from each end and then at the midway point on each side.
- Feed a long piece of hemp twine through the center holes of the bamboo sticks. Knot on each side so they are held firmly in place. You should end up with 3″ on one side of the bamboo sticks and whatever length you will need to hang the mobile on the other.
- Attach 3 ft. of hemp twine to all open holes, knotting on the top side of what will be your mobile. You can trim the side with the knot now or save that for later.
- Cut out leaves from your coffee filters. I used a leaf from the template on the Thanksgiving Countdown Calendar post of a few weeks ago.
- Use the Liquid Glass and make veins on the leaves. Let dry, approximately 30 minutes.
- Dilute acrylic paint in two tablespoons or so of water. Use a paintbrush and drip on the leaf. Be creative and use multiple colors on each leaf. Let dry about an hour.
- Put a hole in each leaf stem.
- Slide the leaf up the piece of hemp twine until at the desired spot.
- Place a Glue Dot® Mini Dot just below the hole and over the twine. Fold the end of the stem over trapping the twine with the Glue Dot®. This will hold the leaf securely at that spot on the twine.
- Continue placing leaves on twine in whatever pattern you would like. I chose to put just two leaves on the outside strings and increase towards the center. When you are finished adding leaves, trim and hang!
My friend has a powder room that can only be described as “fabulous”! It has high ceilings and is painted a gorgeous blood red color! I took my Autumn Mobile over to see how it looked against that vivid background… and I almost didn’t get it back!
I wrote this blog post while participating on the Glue Dots® Design Team.
Beautiful! The leaves look so real. This is my favorite time of the year. I love the colors I see when I am outside and this is a great idea to bring those colors inside!
I had my kids help with some of them! Easy peasy. 🙂
How cool and I thought they were REAL leaves or at least ones bought at the craft store. Great job!
Thank you! It was fun to put together. 🙂
great craft idea!
Thanks!!!
This is super pretty – can you come make one at my home? I love it!
Well, surely! I’d love to! 🙂