CRAFT - Skeletonizing Leaves

I really love doing this. I saw it at an art gallery in Newport, OR an decided to look it up and try it myself. When you look it up online you'll find that there are several different ways that people skeletonize leaves and I've tried 3 of them. The following is the way I have found to be most successful. 

The type of leaf is important so for your first time go around the neighborhood and grab different types of leaves and see what the end product is with each. You will see here the ones that worked best for me. 

This is 5 parts water 1 part Washing Soda (not baking soda). Now I made the mistake this round by putting too many leaves in at one I would only do 3 at a time. Put the leaves in and bring to a boil for 20 minutes. Once done take a leaf out place it in a bowl of cold water. Then place the leaf on a paper towel and start brushing it with a paint brush.
 

After getting as much of the leaf meat off with the paint brush then use a toothbrush (soft bristles only). You must be very careful as the leaf will get more and more fragile. It should look a lot like this when our done, if you can get more off more power to ya.  Each leaf took my 30-60 min to do. When the leaf starts to get dry you can dab brush in some water. 

Bleach your leaves by putting water in a bowl and just a splash of bleach.

To dye your leaves just place them on a paper towel, put food coloring on a sponge-like item and just dab until you have a consistent color all over the leaf. 

The finished product. I put them in a shadow box frame. I attached them to a twig with matching wire to hold them in place and then pined them down. Let me know if you have any questions.