Magic and Mayhem

Here’s a simple craft we made up yesterday to decorate the windows.

Needed:

• Coffee filters (can use white paper towels, tissue paper or another absorbant paper)
• Washable markers in fall colors (we used red, yellow, orange and brown)
• A spray bottle of water or a medicine dropper and bowl of water

1.  Either lay out lots of newspaper or do this outside, as it can get messy.

2.  Cut the coffee filters into leaf shapes.  You can either do this freehand or trace leaves.  I stacked several at a time and cut some basic leaf shapes but Victoria chose to trace maple leaves.  I must admit I prefer hers!  Anna and Jack also just cut freeform leaf shapes.  For younger kids, it’s nice to just cut a stack for them unless they like to cut.

3.   Have the kids color the leaves.  They can do patterns or whatever they like.  The more color, the better.

4.  Once the leaves are mostly colored, show them how to spray the leaves with the water or have them squeeze drops of water onto the leaves.  Watch the colors run and mix.  You’ll get different results from dropping and spraying.  Both are pretty.  You may want to have a paper towel or rag to blot puddles (after blotting, press it on any white areas to leave new color).  Make sure the leaf gets completely saturated, even the parts that are still white.  This helps the colors run all over and also keeps the texture uniform and gets out the pleats.

5.  Allow to dry and tape to the window.  These will be colored on both sides and are bright and translucent looking (more so if you don’t forget to use a flash ).

Tips:  You can also just drop colored water onto the leaves for another version.  Also, once you’ve done a few of these your newspaper is likely to be pretty darkly colored under the leaves.  We made a few by just spritzing them with water and pressing them into the stained newspaper.  It was a lighter, pretty effect.  The leaf on the right on the top picture was done this way.  You can also press a plain wet one over a newly sprayed one and make a light copy.

And here’s what the baby did while the big kids made leaves…

Used homemade playdough and a chopstick!  :)  I switched it up every few minutes and made it into balls, snakes, bowls, etc. to keep him interested.