ladycraft you are welcome to use the idea. Billie needs part of the credit- I had to come up with something easy for my birdbath leaf class, and this worked and it is cheap. Thanks soonergirl - I need to color the leaf a seal, but that may take a while. Mike --I do not give permission to use photos.

Rainsend, my experience trying to do what you want involves lots of skinny leaves breaking off in your hands.... no matter how much fiber you use. Look at the picture below (and the 3 following it) to see what I finally did. It is not a leaf cast but it did turn out to be very pretty. The first photo shows the initial result and the next 3 show different views of the same paint job. I do not have a picture of the final product - the same paint job with a coating of exterior urethane that added darkness to the reddish color and a slight amber to the lighter areas. I did this by coating the leaf with as "even" a coat of white cement (quickwall in this case) as I could get. ooops, I forgot an important step. FIRST, lay out a sheet of heavy clean plastic on a big sturdy table. Wad up a small amount of paper and decide how much to put under the center section of the leaf to give it alittle depth but still be able to put the leaf fronds flat on the table. It doesn't take much padding here - and JUST under the center vein area. NOW pick up the leaf and put it somewhere else and spray it with spray adhesive. I had some 10 year old can of stencil adhesive but I think anything would work. Next, go back to your clean plastic on the table and carefully (extra hands help here) lay the leaf down on the wads of paper and arrange each frond so it is separate from the others and push down so the adhesive makes the leaf parts stick to the plastic on the table. Get this all looking like you want and gently press down every edge so concrete won't seep under the leaf. NOW you can go back to spreading white cement very carefully on every part of your leaf. Try not to get much smeared off the leaf because you are going to have to clean up every bit before you go on. When you are happy with your white cement coating (at least a quarter of an inch thick.... more on the big solid parts of the leaf), get all the edges like you want. Because you surely will have made a mess somewhere, now sprinkle clean sand over the plastic sheet and between every separate leaf part. DO NOT get much sand on top of the white cement). Let all this dry for awhile. I waited about an hour. Mix up a big pan of gray concrete and color it whatever color you want. I added a small amount of red powder (concrete colorant) someone gave me to try. I used a hypertufa recipe(on the dry side... not runny ) because this piece was going to get too heavy with just solid concrete. The rest is easy and quick. You dump the colored (could be gray - just not white) mix over the leaf and pat it gently around so it covers everything and mounds up to the shape and thickness you want. Because the middle of this leaf is so deep, you need to have about a 2 to 4 inch thickness. Because you are using a mix that doesn't run, you can use your hands to give it a basic overall shape you like. All that sand you poured on the plastic will give the front of your piece a nice sandy finish which you will brush off later. check out the photos and see if this would work for you Laura Here is a link that might be useful: try here

Thank you for the nice comments. I've seen many of these on the forum recently. Aren't the leaves fun to make? Kat, below is a link that shows how to make them. If you click on the links on the bottom of that page, you can see how they can be painted in different colors. Hope you get the chance to make some! Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Rhubarb Castings

Katkin - I don't know why it wouldn't work that way. Just press the back of the leaf into your poured cement. A little Pam on the leaf will make sure they won't stick. I admit moving the finished paver isn't for wimps! It takes both Dave and myself to move them. Anyone interested in giving it a try e mail me and I will give more in depth directions. The first one is the hardest one after that it gets much easier. One more hint- I used 2 parts sand to 1 part cement and since I live in Florida, land of sand, I just found some nice white sugar sand, shoveled it into buckets, brought it home, screened it to remove debris, and used FREE sand to make my pavers! Susan