Fall Waxed Leaf Mobile

Waxing Fall Leaves

Have you ever wished that those beautiful fall leaves would stick around just a little while longer for us to enjoy? It seems like the leaves just start to turn and then... BOOM! They're gone in a flash! Here's a fun activity to do with your kiddos to hold onto those pretty signs of fall a little longer.

What you need:

• Leaves (ideally not dried out yet)
• Beeswax
• Something to melt the beeswax (I used a mini crockpot!)
• parchment paper or silicone non-stick mat of some sort
• tongs
• a stick
• hole punch (optional)
• yarn or string

This is the beeswax I used! I found it on Amazon for about $12 and used only about 1/4 of the bag.

Directions:

Simply collect your leaves and find a nice stick or two. This is the most fun, in my opinion! My little lady really enjoyed finding all sorts of different ones. Then raking up a pile to jump in, of course! Ha!

Next, you will need to prep all of your other supplies and get your wax melting! Once your wax is melted, this is when you will grab your tongs. Your kiddos will need help with this as the wax is hot. Use the tongs to grab hold of the leaves and help your little one to dip the leaf into the melted wax coating it. Hold it up above the wax to drip off a bit, then lay it on your parchment or mat to cool and harden. This happens quickly! Probably by the time you are done with a second leaf, the first one will be dry enough to handle. Which is good for impatient little kids wanting to see the fruits of their labor! Finish coating all of your leaves.

Once you have all of your leaves coated and cooled it's time to put the mobile together! We used a hole punch for a few of our leaves and for others we simply tied the yarn to the stem. We cut some yarn in various sizes ranging from about 8-12 inches. Tie your yarn or string around the stick and then attach a single leaf to the bottom. You can put on as many as you would like! We used various sizes and lengths so it looked uneven. This little girl was pretty proud of her mobile. The smile says it all! The rest of the leaves we didnt use are sitting in the center of our table as decoration with a pumpkin in the middle.

An alternative would be to simply string them up to make a garland. Happy leaf waxing!