Laminated Leaf Sun Catchers

A few weeks back I saw a project online for laminated leaf magnets. I thought the idea of running some beautifully colored fall leaves through my laminator was a stellar idea; however, I wanted to hang them in my window instead of adding them to my clutter of fridge magnets. So, I picked some pretty leaves and got to work. These leaves were allowed to dry a day or so before I laminated them, but they were all still flexible and vibrantly colored. I arranged them in my laminator sheets with lots of space around each leaf so I'd have room to cut around them and leave a tab to punch a hole in.

I ran each sheet through the laminator a few times to get the best possible seal so the leaves wouldn't turn brown. After they were laminated, I cut them out and punched a hole near the top of each leaf, then I trimmed them a little more to get the finished product.

I had a heck of a time getting a good photo of these leaves. The front window I have them in stays relatively dark in the afternoons since it's on the north side of the house (top photo). I moved the leaves to my patio door on the south side of the house to get a brighter photo--but I was getting odd reflections and in some photos the sun caught the dirt on the outside of the window (the rain splashes on it--not to mention the dog paws :)).  But the sun catchers turned out lovely. The bright red ones look especially nice in the sunlight. I have noticed that my largest leaf is starting to turn a bit brown.  It had the worst seal out of all of the leaves, so I hope at least some of them will stay vibrant.  If they don't, they are an easy and cheap enough project that I can make more next Fall. 

UPDATE: After hanging on the window for about a month, the photo below shows the slight changes in the coloration. Leaves that were flattest to begin with (including one that I pressed in a book for a couple days before running through the laminator), seemed to change the least. They all still embody fall, just a little less vibrantly so.