How to Make a Beeswax Leaf Garland

Learn how to make a gorgeous, eco-friendly beeswax leaf garland using colorful fall leaves that are dipped in melted beeswax to preserve them.

Dipping colorful leaves into melted beeswax is an eco-friendly and beautiful way to preserve fall leaves and make their colors last longer.

We outlined exactly how to preserve leaves with melted beeswax in this tutorial, and used the same melted beeswax technique to make DIY yarn sticks dipped in beeswax.

Now, we are going to use those same wax-dipped fall leaves and make a lovely beeswax leaf garland for the mantel.

How to Make a Beeswax Leaf Garland

Step 1. Gather Supplies

Supplies Needed:

Fall Leaves
Beeswax
Pan or Crockpot that's dedicated to melting beeswax only (I find mine at thrift stores or garage sales)
Hot Plate or Double Boiler
Tongs
Parchment Paper
Twine
Scissors

Step 2. This detailed tutorial shows how to make beeswax-dipped fall leaves. Melt beeswax on low heat.

Beeswax can be flammable at high heat so go slow with low heat.

Step 3. Use tongs to dip fall leaves into the melted beeswax.

If the leaves have moisture in them, they will bubble, sizzle, and pop.

Mine were very wet so I only left them in the wax for a second or less before I removed them; just enough to coat both sides.

They started to sizzle and splatter hot wax immediately so I couldn't leave them in for long.

Dip colorful fall leaves into the beeswax. make sure the leaves are as dry as possible to decrease bubbling.

Step 4. Place the dipped leaves on parchment paper to cool and harden.

Repeat for all your leaves.

Remove the beeswax-coated leaf and lay it to dry on parchment paper.

How to preserve fall leaves with beeswax.

The hardened beeswax coats the leaves in a beautiful waxy finish that makes them look so luxurious.

Step 5. Cut a long piece of twine for the garland.

Step 6. Tie loops at each end of the twine and hang it up on the mantel.

Step 7. If you want to glue the leaves onto the twine, you can do this with a small dab of glue.

Instead, I opted to open up the strands of twine to make a small opening and slid the leaf stem into the hole in the twine.

Then I pinched the twine closed and it "self-sealed" around the leaf.

Open twine garland string to slide leaf stems in.

Step 8. Repeat for all of the wax leaves for your garland.

This beeswax leaf garland isn't very durable.

A curious child (or anyone, really) could easily pull the leaves out of the twine since they're just resting in between the layers of the twine garland string.

But as long as it is handled with care, it should work fine up on the mantel!