Thursday, November 01, 2007
Autumn Colors Simple Craft
By Agatha Curtis We have a few weeks until it’s time to decorate the house and the table for Thanksgiving. Why not use some of nature’s decorating tips? Take the kids for a rambling walk and gather some colorful leaves. When you get back home, spread newspapers outside out of the wind, lay the leaves out and spray with clear acrylic spray (found in the spray paint department of your local store). It won’t take long to dry. Turn the leaves over and spray the other sides. This spray will seal them enough to last for a little while and you can use them, carefully, to decorate for the holidays. Don’t put them where small children can play with them or put them in their mouths, please. Maybe while you’re out walking, you could also hunt for a few acorns or pine cones to mix with your leaves. These also add a nice touch of the outdoors to your display. A very simple indoor craft for young and old is making colorful leaves from old crayons and wax paper. This one has been around for a long, long time.  Take your leftover, broken crayons in the colors you choose for your leaves and use a cheese grater or slicer to reduce the crayons to shavings. If you don’t have a grater, use a paring knife to grate just like you would a carrot, carefully. Mix the colors together or keep them separate and choose your mixes. Lay a thick cotton towel on your table top to protect the surface and lay a square sheet of wax paper on the towel. Sprinkle your crayon shavings on the wax paper in a thin layer. Lay another sheet of wax paper (same size) on top and then place a thin cotton towel on top of that. Preheat your iron (no steam) to low-medium heat, depending on the thickness of your towel, and slowly move the iron over the towel until the crayons have melted and fused with the wax paper layers. Before you iron, make sure you haven’t dropped any shavings on your towel outside of the wax paper or you’ll have melted crayon on your iron and your towel. If you can keep the sprinklings to the basic shape of your leaf, it will be easier to cut out. After you have fused the crayons to the wax paper, cut around the crayons in the shape desired. You can mount these leaves on colored paper, cardboard, or leave them as individual cutouts. Children love this activity and even the younger ones can, with guidance, handle all phases except the ironing (and maybe the grating). These crayon leaves make wonderful presents, too. Proud relatives and friends will be delighted to receive something beautiful and crafted by your young ones. |
posted by Krista at 12:20 PM
