Pressing Leaves

[boigrrrlwonder]

I've never done this previously, but I thought it would be a fun craft. I'm having a really hard time. According to the instructions I followed, I let the leaves dry between sheets of newspaper under heavy books for 24hrs. I then iron it between wax paper and voila! Pressed leaves. Except when I try this the wax paper doesn't stick to itself or the leaves. It just falls off. Help?

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

The wax doesn't usually stick to the leaves but it should stick to itself. Hmmmm I'm not sure what's wrong.

A similar craft would be trapping the pressed leaves or flowers between layers of wide clear packing tape. That will defiantly stick and doesn't need an iron but you need to use leaves that are smaller than the width of the tape.

It makes nice book marks.

[4evermom]

Maybe some brands of wax paper are less waxy? I've never tried it... You could try clear contact paper but I'd think that would be trickier getting everything together without a big wrinkle or something.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

I had a thought. Are you sure you have wax paper and not parchment paper?

[Noelle C.]

When I've done this, the point was for the wax on the waxed paper to leot from the paper and onto the leaves.

If you want to wax paper to stick to itself and "laminate" the leaves, turn down the temp and put several sheets of newspaper on top of it to keep the heat low.