Simple and quick to make, the placemats, made with parcel paper and embellished with “bright” autumn leaves, are ideal for seasonal lunches and dinners.
A new way to change the usual mise en place that will leave guests and friends speechless.
Not at all complicated to replicate, they do not require a lot of time or great manual skills, they only have leaves as a basic ingredient (the typical ones of the October and November foliage), so if you want to redo them, run to the park to collect the most beautiful, the most intact and more colorful.
1. Required:
– a sheet of common brown parcel paper
– an American placemat (to be able to take the right size)
– a long line
– paper scissors
-a dark marker
– vinyl glue
– glitter of different colors
– glitter glue
– double-sided tape
– dry autumn leaves
2. First you need to know that leaves are always prepared in advance. After being in the park or in the woods, they should be cleaned with a dry cloth or with a sheet of absorbent paper and placed between two layers of tissue paper or ordinary newspaper, inside a book. Inserted within the same tome, or more tomes, they must therefore be subjected to pressure (other books or magazines are fine) and left to dry for at least a week.
You will find that the leaves will be ready for use when their surface is perfectly dry and rigid.
3. Spread your American placemat on the parcel paper and draw the shape with the felt-tip pen with the help of the ruler to avoid making mistakes. The shape as dimensions should be with the short side between 35/37 cm and, proportionally, with the long side between 46/49 cm. Once you have created the shape, remove the placemat and proceed to cut the rectangle created.
4. Take the leaves you have chosen, the number will vary according to the size of the placemat, but also to the size of the same. The advice is to alternate leaves of different sizes and colors so as to enliven the effect. Once the leaves have been chosen, divide them into two groups. Take those of the first group and place them on a sheet of white tissue paper (blotting paper is fine too), place a little vinyl glue on the sheet then, with a finger, evenly cover the tip of the leaf, taking care to remove the glue in excess. Pour a little glitter on the paper, then turn the leaf so as to adhere as many glitter as possible to the part previously wet with the vinyl glue. For the second group of leaves, use glitter glue. Easily recoverable on the market, these glues are equipped with special narrow spouts that can be easily directed, therefore perfect for decorating leaves. Place all the decorated leaves on a clean sheet of paper and let it dry for at least half an hour.
5. While you wait for the leaves to dry, spread two strips of double-sided adhesive tape on the two parallel sides that you have decided to decorate, taking care to place the strip inside the edge.
6. At this point, make sure that the leaves have dried, arrange them side by side on the chosen edge starting from the top and working downwards. Glue each leaf to the bio-adhesive in the central part, alternating small and large leaves, yellow with red leaves, decorations with glitter and others with glitter glue. In this way, if you make more placemats, they will all be different, varied and lively. At this point you just have to set the table. For plates and glasses, choose a single color or the same shade so as to avoid too many discordant colors.
The placemat can be used or placed directly on the dining table, or combined with a tablecloth chosen in warm tones of beige, butter white or saffron yellow. In addition to being the basis for a different mise en place, the idea could also be used to create an alternative centerpiece. Leaves and glitter are a big trend of the moment, easy to recover they can really, with little, revolutionize a party table that everyone will surely admire (and copy).
Claudia Schiera
