make | Fall Leaf Bookmarks

Being able to appreciate the short live splendor of fall is something that comes with age. As I slowly grew into this awareness I was living in San Diego, a place where the season is made of foggy bays and ice-blue skys. So, the fall I moved back to Oregon was a zero-to-sixty kind of season in full fledged technicolor. That season I was also falling in love, a feeling that makes everything appear a little brighter and deeper, and inspired songs like What a Wonderful World. 

These bookmarks were a product of that first fall, but I hesitated to share them because I didn't know if the leaves would hold up in the long run. But, two years later they are still as vibrant as ever: a lasting piece of a constantly changing season that seems to be leaving as soon as it arrives.

here's how to

supplies : leaves, paper, laminator, paper cutter, hole punch, ribbon.

1. collect dry leaves in a variety of colors. If the leaf is at all wet or still green it will brown over time.
2. place your paper inside the lamination sheet. I don't find the texture of plastic very pleasing so I offset it with milled white cotton paper to bring back some softness. {this can be found at Paper Source}
3. arrange your leaves inside the lamination sheet. I like overlapping, open space, and contrasting colors.
4. laminate!
5. cut (1 3/4 x 6 inches). Because we assembled a full sheet, each will include a cross sections of different parts and colors. 
6. hole punch
7. fold a piece of ribbon in half, and put the fold through the hole about a quarter of an inch, making a loop. Take the tail end of the same ribbon and bring it through the loop creating a knot. {I used the prettiest initialed Italian ribbon from Oblation here in Portland} 

et voila!

I finished mine off with a quote from the book I was reading, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

"Because when you sat beside me I, for the first time in my life, saw in the plain woodland the wonder I had always looked for, and always missed"

[ Original project design and photos by Samantha Shorey (1 and 2) on film, pentax k1000.]