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♥ Fallen Leaves

4 november 2021 by Delinlea Leave a Comment

Hey Lovelies! Enjoying fall so far? Well if you live in a country where fall excists. Today I wanna talk about Fallen Leaves. Have you ever seen how pretty those are and not just annoying like many people seem to think? Gosh the amount of people I see during fall, cleaning up all those leaves from their garden and then I think, what ARE you doing, that’s natures food for the earth, a place to live for little creatures etc. *sigh, sorry I just can be really frustrated by that.

Today I wanna give you some ideas what you can also do with those beautiful leaves that has fallen down. Let’s get creative with what nature gives.

Tiny leaves

From a real fallen leaf you can actually make tiny leaves, for like miniatures for example. Or anything else you can think of. Find a leaf punch cutter of a shape you’ll like and just punch out tiny leaves from a real leaf you just picked up from outside. It can be a bit fiddly at some times. But it is doable, just do it carefully.
When you have punched out a bunch of tiny leaves, I let them air dry for a day or so, this way they curl up like real dried fallen leaves do. (You can use a dried leaf, the tiny leaves just stay flat then).
When they are dry, you can use them for whatever your heart desires!

Fallen Leaves as Canvas

If you find fallen leaves that has just fallen and didn’t dry up yet. You can actually dry them inside a book or between other papers to press it flat. When dried, they make amazing canvasses to paint on. What’s better then to paint of a free canvas that nature gave us?! So usually when it’s fall I take a bunch of leaves home, press them flat between a pile of paper. This way I can use them year round and don’t have to take fresh leaves!

Dragon on Fallen Leaf WIP — Unfinished Dragon Painting on real Leaf

Handlettering

Another fun way, and kinda similar as the previous one, hand letter on them! And hang them everywhere! Or on a cute card to send to family/friends! Isn’t that lovely?! Handlettering you usually do with markers, just test if they work on leaves, some do, others don’t.

You can probably do more with leaves, I think I’ve seen origami with them before as well. Just play around with things that you can find in nature, you can be pretty surprised!

I hope you got some new ideas after reading this blog. If you did, and started making something, show me on Twitter or Instagram, I’d love to see!

Have a wonderful day!

Love
Danielle

PS. if you love those kind of blogs, maybe you’d like to support me on Ko-Fi?! So I can keep making content like this!

♥ Leaf Rug or Blanket DIY

10 september 2020 by Delinlea Leave a Comment

Hey Lovelies! Since colder days are coming, well, weather forecast says else, but let’s ignore that xD. I really need a new rug, that I could easily dump in the washing machine. My cat is kinda old, with her little accidents, I just need to be able to clean it well. My last rug didn’t survive the washing machine, oops, haha. So, I came up with a much more fun one, in the shape of a leaf! I love botanics and would fit my space well. While I was making it, I realized it would be perfect as blanket as well! So, double fun, just choose where you wanna use this Leaf Rug/Blanket for. Let’s see how to create your own.

For this DIY you’ll need:
♥ Green Fabric of choice, 1 by 2 meter.
♥ Sheet Stuffing/Snowblanket, 1 by 1 meter.
♥ Template of a Leaf.
♥ Sewing Machine. (optional)
♥ Needle and Thread.
♥ Embroidery Floss in Green.
♥ Tailor’s Chalk.
♥ Sewing Pins.
♥ Fabric Scissors.
♥ Fabric Glue. (Optional)

♥ DIY Leaf Rug or Blanket

Make a template of a leaf, you can easily find shapes online or draw one yourself. If you are confident enough you can also draw directly on the fabric. Since I am a perfectionist, I used newspaper to draw my leaf on and cut it out. Make sure you stay within 1 by 1 meter.

Fold your fabric in half, so you have a 1 by 1 meter sheet. On this, position your template and trace around it with the tailor’s chalk. Or, if you chose to draw it freehand, use the chalk as well.

Now before you cut it out. Keep in mind you need seam allowance. I just drew a line 1cm from the edge of the leaf on the inside, or you can add it around it. Just keep in mind that if you draw it within the shape, it will turn out a bit smaller. When you did that, cut it out, both layers at the same time!

In the end I changed the shape of the leaf, as you can see the pics side by side with and without the newspaper.

Sewing

Now it’s time for sewing! You could do this by hand, but that will probably take a while! I used my sewing machine, just a straight stitch will do. Start somewhere on one of the sides, since you need to leave a gap, about 20cm, to turn it inside out. To keep the layers together before sewing, use sewing pins along the edge.

Stuffing.

I used an old snow blanket for the stuffing, it was perfect! Cut it to size, use your template. It doesn’t have to be perfectly shaped, just make sure that it will fit inside the seams.

Now for the tricky part, the stuffing has to end up on the inside. You can do this 2 ways. Just flip the fabric and try to get the stuffing nicely inside, which is a challenge but possible.

Or the second way is, before you flip it, use a bit of fabric glue around the edge of the stuffing and glue it to the fabric. Just a warning here, test you glue on a scrap piece of fabric first. Some will leave really bad stains and that’s not pretty! Make sure to let the glue dry well and then flip the whole thing.

Stuffing glued on top of the still inside out piece.

Closing the Gap.

With a neeldle and thread, sew the gap closed. The best way is to use and invisible stitch. If you don’t know how to do this, watch a video on youtube, it’s not as hard as you might think. Make sure you fold in the sewing allowance neatly to the inside so, in the end, it won’t be visible when you are done.

Leaf Veins

It’s time to give our rug or blanket some more detail! Take out you chalk again and draw out the Leaf Veins is any shape or form you like. If you are happy with how it looks, take your sewing pins and pin those down.

I did use embroidery floss, split in 3 strands. And stitched those veins by hand, it will take a while, but this way they were thinker as I could get with sewing it on my sewing machine. You, of course could choose to use your sewing machine to finish it quickly. But I think it was worth it to do it by hand.

♥ Finished!

Your rug or blanket is finished! Isn’t it fun to see? I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and made a beautiful blanket or rug. If you did, don’t forget to show me on Twitter or Instagram with the #DelinleaDIY

Have a wonderful day and I’ll see you next week!

Love
Danielle

♥ Monstera Leaf of Plexiglass DIY

13 augustus 2020 by Delinlea Leave a Comment

Hey Lovelies! Is it as hot as it is here?! Gosh, I am not made for weather above 25 degrees Celsius, and it is currently 33 >_<. I feel sick cause of the heat and my body aches.. I just want cold/rainy weather! xD (We don’t have airco and houses are build to keep heat inside on cold days..well, it does its job on hot days too..)
Anyway, I am glad I did plan an easy DIY for this week, so I could slowly work on it. I wanna show you how to make Monstera leaves from plexiglass. I had this material left over from some old frames. I’d better use all the stuff I’ve around. (I need to come up with a few more plexiglass ideas, I’ve many more *Hides). I guess the virus also brought something good, I started using a lot of the materials I already had around. I barely bought any crafting supplies since.

For this DIY you’ll need:
♥ Plexiglass. (Can be as thick as you want)
♥ Sharp Knife or Fretsaw /I believe it is called/.
♥ Shape of a Monstera leaf printed out or drawn.
♥ Cutting Mat.
♥ Sanding Paper.
♥ Glue.
♥ Green Acrylic Paint.

♥DIY Monstera Leaf of Plexiglass

First draw or print out a shape of a Monstera Leaf of your liking. Keep in mind, that the more details it has the more complicated it will be to cut out. You can make it as big as you want, but small is tricky. I made mine about 17cm.

Now trace the leaf to the plexiglass. I used a knive to carve it in lightly, but you can also use a marker. Make sure, that if you use a marker, that there’s still the protective foil on both side. This makes life a lot easier with working on the leaf. It doesn’t get stains or scratches.

♥ Cutting the shape

Now it’s time to decide if you wane use a knife to cut it out, carving it in and breaking off the remains carefully. Which can be tricky, (mine broke at some spots I didn’t wanted it to). Or use a fretsaw to go around the out lines. Whichever way you chose, be careful, both are sharp things to use, and if the plastic breaks as well, it’s sharp, don’t hurt yourself!

When you have the shape completely cut out, use some sanding paper on the edges. To remove any un even edges and the sharp points that might be there.

Now it is time to remove the protective foil. If you want you can keep the shape like this and say it is done. But you can also give it some color, like I did.

♥ Painting

Mix glue with a tiny bit of green paint (You could use paint only, but then you loose transparency). You could test the color first on one of the scrap pieces to test if you like the color. If you do, paint the whole leaf green, on one side, it’s okay if the layer isn’t even, I think that adds to it. Try to avoid very runny glue, plastic won’t take watery things very well. You can better have it on the thicker side.

When you are done, let it dry completely and give it a gloss varnish if you like.

Later I was thinking, what if you add black/metallic tape to the edges, so it looks like stained glass, wouldn’t that be cool?

I hope you enjoyed this DIY! If you decided to make some leaves, show me on Twitter or Instagram with the #DelinleaDIY.

Have a wonderful day and I’ll see you next week!

Love
Danielle

PS. The transparency isn’t really visible, but I refuse to go take pics outside right now! Maybe I’ll update this post later, when heat wave stopped!