Apply glue to the bottom center section of a leaf and make this sweet project

Who can resist bringing the outside in during autumn? It’s only natural to accent your home with the rich golds and reds of the changing leaves and revel in fall’s beauty, especially at the dining table.

This leafy fall place mat DIY can be executed in many ways, depending on how you blend the main materials, which include three types of twisted rope. The realistic faux leaves imbue each mat with rich color to counter the natural tones of the rope. In one iteration, we include burlap, which adds rustic charm to the piece. Place a mat at each place setting or simply set one down in the center of the table with a dramatic pillar candle for use as an eye-catching centerpiece.

Materials
- Several feet of thick, twisted rope in a light wheat-colored tone
- Several feet of thick, twisted rope in a dark, coffee-colored tone
- Several feet of lighter-weight, thin rope in white or off-white
- Dinner plate
- Hot glue gun
- Glue sticks
- Small heavy duty cutting tool
- Bag of 30 or 40 artificial fall leaves
- A 20-by-30-inch sheet of burlap
- Sharpie pen
- Scissors
- Iron
- Ironing board
- Ruler

Instructions
1. Take one end of the lighter-colored rope, and apply a line of hot glue to one side of it.

2. Bring it up and around the next bit of rope to form a small circle, and then apply pressure.

3. Apply another bit of glue to the outside portion of the small circle you just formed, and begin coiling the rest of the rope around this central point.
Apply glue every inch or so, and just continue gluing the rope until you have about a dozen or so rows of concentric rope circles, and the mat is about 1½ inches larger in diameter than a standard dinner plate. We used an 8-inch plate.

4. Cut the other end of the rope that's situated on the outermost portion of the mat using the cutting tool.

5. Apply a bit of glue to that end, and affix to the side of the mat.

6. Allow the glue to dry.

7. Cut about 2 feet of the darker rope, and glue it around the outer edge of the mat. Bring it around the mat two or three times, so you gave several layers of the dark outer rope framing the mat.

8. Take about a dozen of the leaves, and apply glue to their bottom center sections. Glue them onto the top of the outer edge of the mat, one by one. Space them so they're quite close together, but not touching or overlapping. This is your first place mat.

9. Put the mat aside. Now begin the second mat by unraveling some of the dark rope.

10. Manipulate it so that when it’s laid on the work surface, there are two rows of two loops. As you form the loops, they'll be joined in the center. The loops will be more oval as opposed to perfectly circular.

11. Apply glue to the center pieces of the loops. Glue these short, horizontal lengths of rope that the loops emanate from together.

12. Cut the lower end of the rope from the spool with the cutting tool, but be sure you have enough rope to form a circular loop under the center of the oval loops.

13. Form the end part of the rope into the circle, and glue the end piece to the bottom of the center part of the loops.

14. Repeat steps 12-13, but create, place and glue the second circular loop on top of the oval loops. This circular loop will be located opposite the bottom circular loop.

15. Make the top and bottom circular loops even more secure by applying glue on either side of the points where they were glued to the oval loops. Affix them to the top and bottom center portions of the oval loops.

16. Take a couple of feet of the lighter weight, light-colored rope, and glue one end of it to the center of the horizontally arranged rows of darker rope that connect the oval loops.

17. Wrap the lighter rope around this center portion of the loops about 5 or 6 times vertically, so it’s covering the rows of darker rope but oriented in the opposite direction.

18. Cut the lighter rope from the spool, and glue the end piece to the rows of wrapped light rope.

19. Center the rope form on top of the burlap sheet.

20. Put the rope form aside, and place the dinner plate face down in the center of the piece of burlap.

21. Measure about 1½ inches from the rim of the plate, and at this point, draw a circle on the burlap with the Sharpie. The circle will be just a bit larger than the plate.

22. Using the Sharpie mark as a guide, cut the circular shape out of the burlap with the scissors.

23. Place the burlap circle on the ironing board, and iron it thoroughly.

24. Place the burlap circle on the work surface, and lay the rope form on top of it. Make sure that it's centered.

25. Apply some glue to the back section of white rope that binds the center parts of the rope form together, and glue it to the center of the burlap circle.

26. Apply a bit of glue to the outer ends of each of the rope loops, and glue them to the burlap also. It’s easiest to do this by flipping the piece over, so the backside of the burlap is facing up. Lift it away from the ends of each loop, and apply the glue to the loops. After applying the glue, place the burlap back down, and apply pressure to securely glue the burlap to the rope.

27. Flip the piece so the rope “flower” is facing up again.

28. Get a 2-feet piece of the lighter-weight white rope, and apply a bit of glue to one end of it.

29. Start gluing it to the outer edge of the burlap circle.

30. Continue applying glue to the rope and affixing it to the burlap. You can place the ruler under the burlap to use as a guide and protect your work surface from the glue. Continue gluing the rope onto the burlap until the entire outer edge is covered with the rope. Trim any excess rope.

31. Flip the piece over, and glue leaves along the outer edge of the piece, placing them right next to each other, but not connected to each other. Allow the glue to dry.

32. Flip the piece over again, so the top is facing upward.

33. Set your table with these beauties to create an extra-special atmosphere for guests, or spoil yourself a little.