An autumnal trip to the forest is not only fun for the children, best longboard for sliding because the colorful leaves on the trees and the foliage are also an eye-catcher for adults. Let your children collect and dry leaves the next time they walk. best longboard for sliding It’s easy and fun and you can decorate a lot with it later. Here we will show you how best to proceed.
When and how do you collect the leaves best?
When collecting in autumn or spring,best longboard for sliding you should make sure that the foliage is dry. Otherwise, pressing and drying takes too long or the leaves could mold. best longboard for sliding therefore, you have to process the collected leaves quickly at home. Apart from that, the foliage should be thin and flat, because thick and watery leaves are more difficult to dry and press.
What options are there to dry leaves?
You can dry and press leaves in different ways, or even do both in one step. We will show you these here.
Drying with kitchen paper
Just like herbs, you can simply place the leaves on an absorbent kitchen paper or newspaper to dry. If you let them dry in a dark place, they even retain their color best.
However, they could curl up, so it is more ideal if you cover them with several layers of kitchen or newsprint and complain with a wooden board (your cutting board) or if available with a glass plate or books. Thus, the leaves are dry and pressed at the same time.
Drying with salt
Drying with salt is easy and an old home remedy. You can buy dry salt at the hardware store, but you can also use table salt. All you have to do is put the leaves and the salt alternately in a can and close everything well. Depending on the moisture of the leaves, it takes about 2 weeks until they are dry.
Dry in the microwave
Leaves can also be pre-dried well in the oven or microwave.best longboard for sliding the problem with this is that they could burn or burn. This is dangerous and the leaves are then unusable. Therefore, you have to work very carefully! Here’s how to do it:
It’s best to take a sheet of kitchen paper, place the sheets on it and cover them with another sheet. Then you put everything on the turntable and put a glass with a little water on it. Depending on the microwave, you may first need to experiment with when the leaves get the right dryness. Try 10 seconds at 250 watts (if the microwave can be set that way.)
However, the leaves could curl up, best longboard for sliding so it’s ideal if you can flatten them with a microwaveable plate. Nevertheless, it is a bit more cumbersome than the less technical methods we are now coming to.
Drying and pressing in one operation
To press the leaves, you need something heavy that allows you to distribute the weight evenly on the leaves so that they become nice and flat. For pressing, you can take kitchen paper and books or even make or buy a plant press.
Pressing collected sheets into books
The classic is to simply put a pretty leaf or flower in a book, where it is nicely pressed flat. But due to the residual moisture, the book page could wave and therefore this is not ideal.
If you want to squeeze sheets into books, don’t add valuable books and also cover the sheets with kitchen towels or newsprint. For children, this is the easiest method. They can always check what their leaves are doing and change the damp paper over and over again until the leaves are dry.
Dry with the flower press
You can buy or make a flower press. For this, you need two wooden boards, a drill, and four screws including washers and wing nuts.
The two boards should be around 70x30x2.5 cm in size and congruent. In each corner, you drill a lock and attach the screws and washers. For the interior, you need cardboard and pressed paper, which you cut to fit.
You first put cardboard in it, then two layers of pressed paper. On these come later the leaves. On top of that again two layers of pressed paper and another piece of cardboard. Then you can put the second board on the screws and put the nuts on them and tighten them with the help of the wings.
This means that drying and pressing take 3 to 6 weeks, depending on the leaves. It is best to check again and again whether the leaves are already dry and replace the wet paper.
The ironing method: Pressing with wax paper
The ironing method also works very quickly. With her, best beginners longboards you simply place the sheets between two pieces of wax paper and then an old towel over them. Now you can alternately iron both sides of the leaf. A wax layer is placed on the leaves so that they not only remain smooth but also the color is preserved. Be sure to turn off the steam function of the iron!
