Fall Leaves Découpage Hurricane DIY Project

When I saw the Mason Jar fall leaf hurricane project circulating on social media and featured on Country Living Magazine online, I got very excited and wanted to make them right away.

I wisked Prince Charming off on a fall walk on a wooded trail to collect beautiful leaves for the project.  This was after all a candlelight mission!  Once home I got to work on the project, figuring it would be a quick, fun activity.  Wrong!   I have done many découpage projects in the past and am very at ease with the medium.  I experimented with both real leaves and silk ones.

Can you tell which one is made with fresh leaves and which one is silk?

The real leaves have to be worked with while they are fresh, before they start curling up.  In both cases, the leaves had some natural curvature to them so they did not completely lie flat.  This made them hard to glue down on the curved surface of the glass hurricanes I used.  I would think they would be even more challenging to work with on the smaller surface of a Mason jar! After reading the reader comments,  I realized I was not alone in experiencing problems with this project.  I believe the only way to be successful is to use flat and transparent paper leaves from a craft store or leaves that have been pressed flat and dried for a couple of weeks.  My final result shows the natural leaves are not transparent enough to really let the light shine through them.

Natural leaves on the left, silk on the right

The silk leaves are better but when you look at the hurricanes close up, there are gaps where the leaves are curved in both cases.  From a distance, the effect is still pretty at night.  In the daytime, less so.  I thought I would still report my findings if you too had been seduced by the nostalgia of preserving the beauty of your fall leaf collection in those adorable Mason jar leaf votives.  Maybe it’s just me….next year I am going to take Prince Charming for a stroll through the isles of my local craft store, looking for flat transparent paper leaves!

Should you want to tackle the project yourself, here are my step by step instructions:

Supplies needed: clean glass vessel, leaves, Mod Podge, sponge paint brush, newspaper, pruners to clip leaves free of stems, water to moisten leaves and help make them more pliable

Paint a layer of glue on the glass

Cut the stems off the leaves. Moisten your leaves with a bit of water to make them pliable, then dip in glue, adhere on the glass in a natural “wind blown” pattern; apply more glue on the outside of the leaf with the sponge brush. Use your moistened fingers to try and flatten the leaves as much as possible.  This is a messy job!   Let dry.

Note how the silk leaves are laying a bit more flat

I let the project dry for 24 hrs and tried applying a second coat of glue to get the curled up edges to lay flat. No luck.  A seond coat Was not any more helpful.  If the leaves were laying flat, a second coat would have been good to secure all the edges.  A coating of adhesive is recommended to preserve the project long term.  In this case I did not bother.

After 24 hrs of drying, place your candle in the hurricane, light and enjoy.

I hope my adventures in crafting have been helpful to you.  I still really love this project and will try my hand at it again next year.  Right now I’m heading out the door for another fall walk to admire the foliage and work off my frustrations with this craft!