Art with Kids 101: October Leaves

This is a very simple craft that I recently did with my younger siblings.

From collecting the leaves, to coloring, to cutting and pasting this is something they can really get into and enjoy. We made it as a gift to our grandma and they were so excited when they presented it to her :)

You'll first want to collect some leaves from the great outdoors. No kind in particular, just whatever grabs your fancy. I also pressed our leaves in a book for a day, so they laid nice and flat for us.

Place your leaf of choice between two pieces of paper- this makes it easier to hold them in place. Rub crayons over the area, hard or soft to get different effects. It was a lot of fun to see the pattern of the leaves emerge and exclamations of "Wow!" or "Look at this one!" could be heard while we were doing it.

When the outline appears and they're all filled in you can go ahead and cut them out.

Keep going until you have a sizable pile- the wreath will look better if it's full.

 Then cut a wreath shape from some cardboard as shown. You can make it as big or as small as you want, depending on the number of leaves you have and the size of your cardboard. We just used an old pizza box.

Cut it out, never minding if it's not perfect because the leaves will cover the imperfections.

Arrange the leaves however you wish. 

Once they are in the place you want them, go ahead and glue them down. We just used a regular glue stick and it worked fine.

Keep layering and covering the cardboard with leaves until there are no more leaves and the cardboard has disappeared.

Hang it up with some string or ribbon and viola! you have a fall "leaf" wreath that doesn't turn brown like real leaves.

This is so versatile it could be adapted with totally different colors and leaf shapes. And the best part? The kids loved helping with everything and enjoyed it immensely.