If you have followed this blog for a while you might recognize this project. It’s a lot like the valentine garland I hung up last February. It was supposed to come down by March but I liked it so much I let it hang up year round. Which is really just a nice way of saying I was too lazy to take it down, so okay, you got me, my butt is a lazy one. Revelation I think not.
I like this project because 1. It was 100% free, and 2. I can leave it hanging September to November, and even after that it can stay on display in my pantry window or some corner of the house that doesn’t need to look all seasonally fancified.
- 15 Plastic grocery bags (5 will get painted, 10 will remain unpainted)
- latex paint
- electric iron
- parchment paper
- tin foil
- sewing machine (or needle and thread)
To start out, take 15 plastic bags and paint the inside of 5 of them
To fuse the plastic together, sandwich the painted bags in-between the non-painted bags, then sandwich that in between parchment paper. The thickness of the plastic bags will determine the thickness of your leaves. Personally, I like 6 layers of plastic Target bags (=3 target bags total), but you could do this with twice that many if you wanted super thick leaves. Your sewing machine might not like them that thick, but we will get to that in a minute.
Note: If you do not have a sewing machine you could do this by laying your leaves out in a row and laying a glue-drenched piece of cotton string across them. It will take two days to dry, and won’t look as pretty from the back, but who cares?
The sun filters through the layers of paint and plastic in a way that my camera cannot capture. It’s nothing less than spectacular.
Hang them behind a curtain and they make the niftiest shadows.
Let me know if you have any questions. I hope to see these hanging in your window soon!
I can’t wait to try this! Did you only use mustard colored paint?
Will any craft paint work or only latex paint? I honestly do not even know what that is
This is really cool, and you’re a great writer, but funniness aside, please use cloth bags for your shopping. Plastic is the scourge of the earth
lol she said right up there in the post that she has cloth bags and uses them but sometimes they get forgotten and she ends up with plastic. Anyone who says they have NEVER forgotten their cloth bags is a liar. I think *someone* did the only-look-at-the-pictures thing. 😉
Okay, love the idea..but what I really love is the humor you put in ur blog….love , love it….thanks rock on girly;))
I am also a skip the directions head straight to the photos kind of a girl and I loved this post! Thanks for sharing!
Dear Aunt Peaches, I have a question about the paint. Do you think I could use regular acrylic paint? Where did you get your latex paint from? Is there a specific reason you chose latex paint?
~Rachel
Dear Aunt Peaches, I have a question about the paint. Is there a specific reason you used latex paint? I don’t know where I could find latex paint. Do you think using acrylic paint would make a difference?
Acrylic is great. Anything water based that will stick to plastic is great!
I used this craft at a Pinterest Party I threw this weekend. LOVE IT! I linked our party back to your very cute blog! http://thenotsosecretlifeofbee.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Becca!
What a crazy cool idea! I’ve seen various felt leaf garlands on Pinterest, but never a plastic bag repurpose project. Fantastic! I’ll be featuring this in my weekend post for sure.
Love this idea, your writing and your photos, too. For the sewing machine challenged among us, is there any reason you couldn’t just hand stitch through the leaves? Do hand sewing needles rip the plastic?