What craft can I do with leaves?

807 Views 12 Replies 13 Participants Last post by guest^, Oct 16, 2003

Heavenly

Discussion Starter · Oct 8, 2003

DS and I are doing home preschool and we went on a walk today and he decided to collect coloured leaves. We have red, orange, yellow and green. He said he wants to make something with them. So what kind of crafty thing can I do with leaves? Thanks a lot!

Save

1 - 13 of 13 Posts

mommyof2kids

· #2 · Oct 8, 2003

when I was his age, I lived in CN, my mom and I would get leaves, place them between wax paper, and iron it closed, and I sent them to my grandma in Miami, it perseved them pretty good, infact now I have them. you can also imprint them in plaster and make molds and then paint them,
hth

Save

khrisday

· #3 · Oct 8, 2003

crayon rubbings (place a leaf under a paper and rub with the side of a crayon
or string the stems together and make a garland to hang

Save

mom2kbeth

· #4 · Oct 9, 2003

Fall wreath - cut center out of a paper plate and glue leaves all around

Leaf creatures - Glue leaf to a paper and add other atural items (twigs, acorn tops, etc.) and wiggle eyes to make people, animals, monsters, etc.

Preserve them with glycerin - Place a small branch of fall leaves on several layers of newspapers. With a hammer tap the end of the stem until it is slightly crushed. Place the branch in a jar with one part glycerine to two parts water. Keep for 2 weeks, refilling the solution as needed. The leaves will be thicker to touch, colors will have changed and they are less likely to disintegrate or fade.

Fall centerpiece - attach the leaves to florist wire with florist tape and stick them into a piece of foam. Add other natural items (acorns, gourds, etc.) for a centerpiece

Fairy house - Cut an opening in a milk carton for a door and decorate it with leaves. Leave it outside for the fairies (you can also leave "evidence" inside that the fairies were there - some glitter (fairy dust) is a favorite in our house)

Tree costume - use tacky glue to stick leaves to a green or brown sweatshirt. Wear with brown pants for a tree costume

Leaf print bag/sweatshirt/t-shirt - paint the leaves with fabric paint and press them onto a light colored t-shirt/sweatshirt/canvas bag to decorate

Leaf stickers - Run through a sticker maker and use as regular stickers (a favorite activity of dd's)

Not crafty, but they can be sorted, graphed, counted, classified (what tree did they come from) with a field guide or good children's picture book, traced, laminated and used as manipulatives

HTH!

See less See more

Save

ShannonCC

· #5 · Oct 9, 2003

Ok, we're simple folk here

My dd just glued her leaves to black construction paper. Simple, but stunning!

See less See more

Save

CAmomto1

· #6 · Oct 9, 2003

I think we're simple too.

And, we only get brown leaves here ... bummer... but DD was very proud of the collage she made by gluing her found leaves, pods, etc. to a piece of craft paper.

See less See more

Save

darlindeliasmom

· #7 · Oct 9, 2003

You can make autumn placemats if you have access to a laminator... Cut out an autumn colored posterboard and glue the leaves to it..we also used stickers and glitter, 'cause Delia couldn't get enough of them when she was a preschooler...

We still use the placemats in the fall now, 3 years later. She thinks she was quite the artist!!

Save

pamamidwife

· #8 · Oct 9, 2003

My daughter and I gathered some sticks and lots of leaves one fall and made a mobile. We used fishing wire to string the sticks together and then strung the leaves (with the help of a needle) on the wire - it was really, really beautiful!

Save

bestjob

· #9 · Oct 9, 2003

You can make a lion's mane by gluing the leaves to a circle of cardboard with another circle cut out of the centre. You can tie it on like a mask, then use facepaint for nose and whiskers.

Save

serenetabbie

· #10 · Oct 12, 2003

I saw in a decorating magazine these cute collages and pictures made out of leaves. They had taken leaves of different shapes and made animals and fish out of them. Very neat looking. The easiest looking one was the fish.
All I ever did was the wax paper thing. When I was a little kid we used to mail them to my Grandparents in Florida too!

Save

laralou

· #11 · Oct 13, 2003

In the latest edition of Martha Stewart's Kids magazine, she does a leaf alphabet, using leaves to create objects to represent each letter. It was pretty sharp.

Save

lilyka

· #12 · Oct 14, 2003

flag or t-shirt : spread fall colored paint on the back of leaves and press onto white fabric.

bowl: press veined side of leave into rolled clay. shape with hand or gently push into a bown to make clay into a bown shape. fire (or otherwise dry) and paint or glaze in fall colors.

suncatchers: place between two peices of waxed paper and add craola shavings (to the inside) iron together and hang in windows.

Nature bracelettes: Place tape, sticky side out, around wqrist like a bracelee. As you walk stick leaves, acors etc . . .to bracelet.

Save

guest^

· #13 · Oct 16, 2003

Thanks lilyka! We tried the suncatchers yesterday, and they turned out beautiful!!

See less See more

Save

1 - 13 of 13 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month