Drying Leaves the Quick Way (a tutorial for people as impatient as me!)

My absolute favourite part of spring is all the new green leaves. While most people start thinking about pressing leaves when they change red, orange & yellow, I want to capture the green of young leaves. The other day I grabbed some and then went online to find the best way to press them so I could glue them into my art journal. The processes I found generally involved leaving them in a book for 24 hours or more and that was just too long for me. When I have a creative idea, I want to do it now or in 6 months, not in 24 hours. So I figured out a way to do it now.

What you need:
fresh leaves
two pieces of newsprint
iron
ironing board


How to do it:

Take your leaves,

 And a couple sheets of newsprint (if you get the newspaper, you can use that).

 Place one sheet of newsprint on your ironing board, then place your leaves on top. It's easier to place them facedown (or curve-down) because they are less likely to wrinkle this way.

 Place the other sheet of newsprint on top.

 Now with your iron on a hot, dry setting (no steam!), iron the paper over the leaves. If you overdo it, the leaves will start to brown, so check them often.

Once they feel completely dry, you are done!