Place a piece of plastic on a flat surface. This is just to keep the cement from attaching to your work surface. Take your leaf and lay it face down on the plastic. Place hypertufa or mortar mix on the back of the leaf. Cover with plastic and let cure anywhere from a couple of hours to 24 hours, depends on the size of the leaf. Peel off leaf right away. Place in a waterbath to remove the lime. Smooth leaves are easiest to work with; fuzzy leaves definitely stick. Not all leaves make a great imprint. If the leaf sticks to the hypertufa don't try to remove the leaf right away. The leaf can break. Let the leaf finish curing before removing the rest of the leaf.
To mold a leaf with a wavy edge or curved body use a damp sand mound. Just remember that you're working in reverse. If you want the hypertufa/mortar leaf to bend down at the tip you have to push the sand under the tip up. Billie