crafts, create

So Autumn is upon us, and the garden is full of colour – gorgeous burgundy reds, and green and white variegated leaves.

Leaf Printing

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 flower printHammered 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!

Red Ted Art and Kids Chaos you tube

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!