Fall Leaf Pencil Holder

A couple of weeks ago, we posted a list of places to find cool projects using your fall leaves. This year, I thought that I would do something a little different with our leaves. We already have quite a collection in our leaf book. It was time for a new project, so I opted to make a pencil holder using a glass
jar.

To make my creation, I followed the fall leaf candle jar project from Gingerbread Snowflakes. Our leaves had already been pressed and dried, so they were ready to go. I made my own Mod Podge using Elmer's glue. I basically mixed a bunch using a 1 part water to 3 parts glue ratio. Instead of putting all of my leaves on at once, I concentrated on one at a time because they were larger and tended to take a little coaxing to stay on.

To put on each leaf, I applied my mod podge to the section of the jar where I wanted the leaf. Then, I lightly coated the back of the leaf and pressed it on. Next, I covered the leaf with the mod podge. For the larger leaves, I had to apply more mod podge after they dried to keep all of the pieces on the jar. The smaller leaves worked much better. You do need to be patient with this process as it takes awhile to dry.

Once I had the leaves on the jar, I peeled off some of the excess glue on the glass around the leaves. Then, I dry brushed a little gold paint on to the leaves for a little shine. To do this, I dipped a paint brush into some gold paint. I then brushed a piece of paper with the paint brush until most of the paint was off. Then, I dusted gold paint onto the leaves. Lastly, you can spray your project with an acrylic spray to seal it.

While I had intended on making this project as a pencil jar for my desk, I decided to try it out as a candle holder as well. It does seem to get really hot with a candle in it, so I think you should use one of those flameless candles to avoid cracking your creation. You can also use the jar to hold all sorts of knickknacks. It really is a neat way to use those leaves and makes for a cool, budget-friendly craft!