So Autumn is upon us, and the garden is full of colour – gorgeous burgundy reds, and green and white variegated leaves.
The boys love making cards for Grandma, and Granny, so we got picking – we had a cunning plan! 10yo enjoyed the leaf-collecting, particularly as I LET him climb on to the shed roof to reach the red leaves hanging over into the garden from our neighbour’s tree!
Hammered Leaf Printing – you will need:
- A selection of leaves
- Kitchen paper
- Water colour paper
- A hammer
- Chopping board
Working on your chopping board, position your leaf on the water colour paper, covering with two sheets of kitchen paper towels. Start hammering! (oh yes, the small blonde boys liked this bit, but MIND your fingers!). You’ll know when it’s working as the natural pigment from the leaves will start to show through on the kitchen paper… Gently remove the kitchen roll, and peel back the leaf – it should leave a beautiful print on the water colour paper – some leaves work better than others, experiment, it’s fun!
Want to see me talking about this project? Click the link and photo left, to watch via youtube…. Maggy Woodley from Red Ted Art hosted a fabulous “Nature Crafts for Autumn’ on Google+, (and in fact was the inspiration for the tie-dye experiment!).
Maggy talked us through some lovely nature crafts for Fall (love the acorn bracelet and pinecone fairies) more links to follow from Anthea at zingzingtree, Kelly at domesticgoddesque, and Liz from missielizzie-meandmyshadow.blogspot.
Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!
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I LOVE this idea, and can’t wait to try it!! Is there a way to preserve them, so the colors will last?
Hi Robin,
well, the colours on the prints have remained strong so far… I guess you could try varnish (or hairspray?!)
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This a great idea. I really love it how simple it is. I know two boys who would be impressed with the hammering too.
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I just did an 11×14″ hammer print of the last Summer flowers in my garden. It turned out beautifully. I used 3 different types of hammers to give varying effects. The more moisture in the petals or leaves, the better the print. Thanks for the idea!
Hi Susan, oh that’s lovely to hear – tag us on twitter or instagram to show us!
We are on @incredibusy most of the time now x
Very nice post.