Crafting Fall Leaves

There is a simple beauty in a painting done by a 3-year-old. While they aren’t quite able to draw people, places and things, they can swirl, twist and mash a paintbrush like no other. I often like to find ways to turn these masterpieces into the things that my son will someday be able to draw on his own. In this case…leaves.

First things first…creating the masterpiece. My son has an attention span of about 5 minutes with a paintbrush so I quickly set him up at the table with a big sheet of white paper and fall colored paints.

While we waited for the paint to dry we headed outside to collect sticks to make our trees. This was also an activity that lasted 5 minutes until I got the face you see below. For some reason plastic bags on each hand was also required for this step… :o)

I had picked up an oak leaf punch at Michaels. It was a bit small and intricate for this project, but I was able to keep him going with it for a bit. It it best to cut the painting into smaller pieces to work with.

I then pulled out some sheets of card stock I had and we glued our sticks down. I set him up with the Elmer’s, but I did have to go back through with a stronger craft glue after he was done just to reinforce the bigger sticks.

I then used an Elmer’s glue stick which I smeared around so he could stick down the leaves on his own…I will admit that his interest lasted for about 5 leaves, so I had to wrap the project up on my own.

I took the left over leaves and made a few cards that I could save to send to friends and family. I used a couple of branch stamps that I have on hand.