Painted Leaves

Painting leaves is a process orientated fun fall activity.

We didn't know whether we should use green or fallen leaves so we tried both.
With painting leaves, remember you may not get a work of art to keep forever and they need to be handled delicately in order to make them last.

You will need:
leaves- green or dried
acrylic paint
paint brushes

First we tried to do a splatter painting.....
We collected leaves and laid out on a sheet of watercolor paper.

Then we moistened watercolor paste from a tube with a little water and mixed with a toothbrush.

We then scrubbed the paint onto a screen and when the screen was full of paint, we knocked or shook the paint of in shower of droplets so they landed on the paper.

Let the paint dry and then remove the leaves.

We weren't really happy with how this turned out, but we can tell you the key to making a great splatter print is something we didn't do. Choose very flat, large leaves to accentuate the effect of the blank space.
We did however love the beautiful splatter painted leaves!

When painting leaves you can use green or fallen leaves but look for flat leaves. You can place them under a heavy object overnight if they are green. Dried leaves are too fragile, so collect flat leaves if you can.

Use acrylic paints because when tempera paints dry, the flake very easily off of the leaf's surface.

We really liked the look of bright fluorescent and metallic paints.

When the paint dries, place leaves under a heavy object in a single layer for a day or so.

Don't stack the painted leaves on top of each other. We used magazines and glossy covered books. 

You may want to use wax paper between your leaves and your heavy object to prevent any unintended paint transfer. We didn't have an issue with paint transfer with the objects we used.

Grab some leaves before they are gone!