DIY Colorful Skeleton Leaves

When I was a child, I used to make bookmarks with skeleton leaves. I took the fresh leaves and pressed them in a thick book and waited for them to dry. It usually took more than three weeks for the pulp to completely dry out. Here is a faster and easier way to make beautiful skeleton leaves. You can use any kind of leaf you like. Delicate skeleton leaves make wonderful accents to your favors. You can use them for gift wrapping, cards, bookmarks, crafts and decoration. Let’s get started!

You will need:

• Leaves (preferably waxy leaves);
• Washing soda;
• Water;
• Brush;
• Food dye;
• Paper towel;
• Gloves.

Instructions:

1. Find your favorite leaves.
2. Dissolve 3/4 cup of washing soda in 4 cups of water in a pot.
3. Place the leaves in the solution and bring the water to a boil.
4. Allow the pot to simmer until the leaves are softened. Depending on the thickness of the leaves, this process may take 1 to 3 hours.
5. Remove the leaves and rinse them in clean water.
6. Wear your gloves and use a brush to gently rub away the leaf pulp.
7. Soak the skeletonized leaves in fresh water, remove and let it dry.
8. Dye the leaves with food coloring.
9. If you want a white skeleton leaf, soak the leaf in a solution of 50 ml of bleach and 1 cup of water until it turns white. Remove it, rinse with water and let it dry completely.

Suggestion: Different leaves require different combination of soda and water. You might have to experiment a few times to get the best result for the leaves that you have.

DIY Creative Handmade Felt Trees from Template

Here are some creative handmade felt trees for you to enjoy. They are from the Etsy shop Intres. I am always amazed by the creative minds and skillful hands to make something ordinary (such as felt) become extraordinary. These felt trees are so beautiful and definitely pieces of art! They come in different colors and shapes (both the trees and the leaves), sometimes decorated with cute felt animals, fruits and other ornaments. With their bright colors and unique designs, these amazing felt trees are definitely nice decors for you home!

Of course, they take a lot of time and patience to make, but they give you an idea of the different kinds of creative felt trees Intres has made. You can always try making the most basic ones with templates. Take these ideas further and you can create your own designs.

Here are the things you may need:

• Felt;
• Templates;
• Needle and thread;
• Scissors;
• Polyester fillings;
• Ornaments (optional).

If you don’t have the time for DIY, you can purchase these beautiful felt trees from Intres’ Etsy shop. Also check out other beautiful felt crafts Intres has created. Enjoy!

Gorgeous chandelier from plastic bottles

That's such an unusual and beautiful chandelier can be done by hand using colored plastic bottles! We offer you a master class ...

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We need:
- Plastic bottles of different colors of your choice,
- Scissors,
- Soldering iron for the treatment of leaves,
- A thin wire to twist the branches,
- For steel wire frame


Plastic bottles cut into pieces - value depends on you devise leaves. Then attach each piece of the shape of a leaf, then only need your imagination ... I did something on the similarity of birch leaves.


Turn the soldering iron. Better to take a soldering iron with a thick tip (so more likely to get on the falling edge of a leaf, and not on the fingers))), with one-sided slant ...
Podplavlyaem sections, so leaves look more impressive, especially in the light bulb. Just the edge of the tip draws veins on a leaf, but carefully - they quickly on the penetrating through)))



As plastic bottles themselves cylindrical, the leaves are obtained and not flat. The point is that by heating the soldering iron grates them in an unknown direction, they look on this as a result of a very personal)))
Now you have to melted the red-hot needle in each leaf on a couple dyrdochek for procrastination. One hole is small, because leaf will hang out as he pleases, by the force of Earth's gravity, but we still need to leaves sticking out as we wish)


Take a thin wire to the stem (I have copper from sovpedovskogo stabilizer))) cut into pieces the length of 15-20cm. Take a leaf and is passed to it from the wire holes in the eight hole) ... near the ends of the wires are twisted leaf 10-15 mm. One of the tips strung next leaf, since at the hole, and so on - are strung curl ...
Well, so as to shape the very twig is the brain of every man spreads, despite what you wish to leave the ends of the wires ... not less than 2 cm. Takes the next wire, fold in half, caught on the last leaf and twisted together with a tail from the previous delays, inch by 2 -3 ... Sprig becomes thicker in the 4 wires ...) further branches are forming at the discretion of course that leaves should alternate in size and color ...


Now we have to come up with a skeleton form ...
For me personally, it was the most difficult ... I've done in the form of spheres ... must take into account the fact that in entoy design and more light is present, the chandelier all are the same ... I just made a frame with a hole in the top to chuck climbed.
For framework took 5 pieces of steel wire 60-70 cm. Flexed their C-shape and put them in a ring of plastic bottles, leaving a 5-coal hole in the center - it has 10 branches ...
Well, here at this building now and it is necessary to wind invented twigs ... better start from the bottom, and then impose on the principle of shingles.
The frame had for convenience hang on a string - in the supine position, as I thought, it's just impossible to collect ...



The next crucial step is the way to fix this creation on the ceiling. I did not bother, hung on a piece of steel wire and disguised el.provod and suspension same leaves ...
Looks, of course, very well when the lamp in the evening)))

How to Make a Vase out of a Plastic Bottle

Steps

1

Mark and cut the smooth middle portion of the bottle to give an even edge approx 7.5 to 8 cm (3") above where you want the fluted rim.

2

Measure and make straight, evenly spaced cuts all the way around the bottle. Cut the segments in half and then cut each of those in half to make even, thin strips.

3

Carefully press and fold all the strips outward to make a level edge all the way around.

4

Press the bottle upside down on a flat surface to ensure an even edge.

5

Weave the tip of a strip over the next one and under the next two. Fold and crease it so that the tip is at the place shown here by the arrow.

6

Fold and crease the next one the same way, but weave this one over two and under one.

7

Fold the third strip and weave the same as the first one.

8

Continue around in this pattern until the last three and tuck each one under the next until woven in completely.