The Leaf in a Page

Boy oh boy it is hard to find time to write a post. I had wanted to write about the fun I had with birch bark a couple of winters ago. Of course it was a dog walking day when I noticed all sorts of birch bark on the floor of the forest. It was such a contrast in colour to the rest of the dead fall, moss and autumn leaves. I gathered some on a few walks and brought home to make something. All sorts of ideas popped in my head like wrapping a candle, making a little canoe, and even making a small lamp shade to incorporate the natural holes in some of the bark. Alas, none of these ideas formed into anything. Instead little Christmas ornament cutouts and a birch bark tree morphed from my mind from inspiration of colouring books and Pinterest. The first thing I did was put the prized birch bark in a tub of water with a 1/2 cup of bleach. I wanted to make sure it was free of unwanted guests. The kind you see and don't see. It soaked for about 20 mins. They were quite curly so whi