Bleached Fall Leaves

Why is it once you have an idea in mind sometimes it's very hard to find what you need. I went to several craft stores looking for light shades of fall leaves other than yellow to go with white pumpkins. I found white sunflowers and bundles of wheat but no white, or off white fall leaves. I tried painting leaves white, but didn't like the results - they looked fake. I did find a site on the net that carried bundles of white fall leaves but when I tried ordering them, they were no longer available.

So I decided to bleach my own to see what would happen. Most of the leaves I collected had turned brown and I did pick up a green one, too.
I put the leaves in a cup of bleach in a pyrex dish and let them soak overnight.





The bleaching process was amazing to see . . . You can clearly see the "skeleton" (veins) of the leaves. Simply beautiful!





I was quite pleased with the bleaching and the way the leaves changed. The longer they stayed in the bleach the lighter they got (naturally) . . . but also, the more delicate they became. I had to be careful removing them from the bleach because they would come apart easily.





I dried the delicate bleached leaves on paper towels.





And after drying, I bundle the leaves together with a piece of raffia and tied them on my white pumpkin.





I love this look and the variations in color and patterns! I definitely will be bleaching more leaves!






Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/9781971/bleached-fall-leaves site