magnolia leaf wreath

My neighbors have a sort of overgrown, large magnolia tree that used to seriously get on my nerves. A chunk of it hangs over our side yard and driveway, and I was constantly picking up all these leaves that fell, cluttering my flower bed and clogging the drain at the bottom of the driveway. But then on a recent visit, my Grandma taught me to love that tree - because the collected leaves are perfect for a fall wreath! She took some home with her and gave me the idea to make my own.

Magnolia leaves are nice and thick, so they seem like they'll hold up well. At first I thought of spray painting the ones I collected to get a uniform color for my wreath, but a lot of them have a nice shine to them already, and the brown/yellow/green shades are so pretty, so it would be a shame to cover them up. 

So instead of trying to collect all one color leaf, I decided to go with an ombre effect. I sorted my leaves by color and then used a hot glue gun to attach them to a flat wooden ring.

The leaves aren't exactly bendable, so it seemed easier to use a flat ring rather than a styrofoam wreath form where I would have to cover the sides. I sort of layered the leaves a bit to give it a little more fullness and dimension.

This is some pretty darn inexpensive fall decoration too - the wreath form cost me just a couple bucks, and the leaves were of course free!

linking here and here: