Look What I Did with a Leaf! by Morteza E. Sohi

Welcome to Fantastic Nonfiction Friday!

Last fall, when the leaves began to change colors, I posted about Lois Ehlert’s Leaf Man and I showed you how to create your own leaf man. I also showed you how to press leaves between wax paper and suggested a few ways to use those pressed leaves.

Today’s book teaches you how to make animals out of leaves. It does a much better job than I could ever do. I recommend it highly.

Morteza E. Sohi’s Look What I Did with a Leaf does more than just show you how to create an elephant, a peacock, a fox, a frog, a rooster, and many more animals using leaves. This book also teaches about the life cycle of a leaf and includes a field guide to many types of leaves that are found throughout the United States.

When learning about the life cycle of a leaf, what kid wouldn’t love taking a leaf walk and creating his or her own leaf animal?

Return to main page.
_________________

12073 / 50000 words. 24% done!
I didn't write a single word yesterday...
But I'm still ahead of schedule going
into the second weekend!

Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert

Though not an art-related book, Lois Ehlert’s Leaf Man does relate to the projects of the last two days, Make Your Own Leaf Pressing and What to do with All Those Pressed Leaves.

Leaf Man, the star of this picture book, is a man made out of fall leaves. Leaf Man goes on a journey, letting the wind take him where it pleases. The book’s illustrations are pictures of fall leaves arranged into shapes such as fish, and turkeys. These are the things Leaf Man sees on his journey. Do you have a leaf man living the pile of fall leaves in your yard?

This book will give you inspiration when creating your own leaf man, as I have done here:

Return to main page.

What to do with all those Pressed Leaves

Yesterday you made, or learned how to make, pressed leaves. So what should you do with all those pressed leaves? Here are a few ideas. If you come up with others, please tell me about them in a comment.

You could identify what kind of trees your leaves came from and create a colorful guide to fall foliage. Pick up a field guide to trees at your local library or bookstore. It's tough for me to recommend anything in particular because nature guides are usually meant for only one region of the world. A guide to Canadian trees would not be helpful in India, for instance. Look for one that helps you identify trees by their leaves. This will be best for this project and for future use since leaves are usually the easiest aspect of a tree to identify.

Next, buy a large photo album. If you buy one that has sticky pages when you peel up the protective plastic, you won’t even need glue. You can just stick a pressed leaf on each page. Write the name of each tree on a rectangle of colored construction paper and stick the corresponding name on the page with each leaf. If you want, you can even take pictures of the actual tree your leaf came from and add the picture to the page. When you’re finished, just stick the protective plastic back down.

_________

A very popular school project is to create a family tree. A family tree is a chart that illustrates how all your relatives are related to one another. What better material to create a family tree from than actual leaves? I would recommend writing the name of each member of your family on a rectangle of colored construction paper and placing this name plate on top of your leaf before sealing it between wax paper as you learned to do yesterday.

Once you have prepared all the leaves of your family tree, use glue or double-sided tape to attached them to a piece of posterboard. Use brown construction paper to create the branches of your tree and show who is related to whom.

_________

You may want to save your pressed leaves to make a holiday wreath. This is especially good for a Thanksgiving decoration but you can cut out some scary bats and ghosts and attach these as well for a Halloween door decoration.

Use a large, round bowl or plate to trace a circle onto a piece of posterboard. Trace a slightly smaller bowl or plate inside the original circle. Cut out your basic wreath shape. Use glue or double sided tape to attach your pressed leaves to the wreath shape. Hang and enjoy!

Return to main page.

Make Your Own Pressed Leaves

Today is Blog Action Day and thousands of bloggers will be posting articles that relate to the environment and the earth. The weather has suddenly turned cold and, for us northerners, that means the leaves are going to change and fall from the trees. That, of course, means that the fall leaves will be available for art and craft projects! So I thought this would be a good opportunity to post a leaf pressing project. By sealing fall leaves between wax paper you can keep all those natural earth colors around to enjoy and appreciate through the winter.

You'll notice that all the leaves in my pictures are yellow or still green. The yellow leaves seem to have begun to change before any other color. It's still a bit early here for this project but it shouldn't be long before all the leaves have changed.

I know this isn’t a serious post about the environment and what you can do to help, but it will allow you to take some time to appreciate the art that nature has created. Maybe the beauty of nature will inspire you to try to protect it. Plus, we can’t be serious all the time!

Supplies Needed:

Leaves in a variety of shapes and colors
Wax paper
Iron
Ironing Board
Dishtowel

Scissors

Begin by cutting two pieces of wax paper. Place one sheet on your ironing board and set the other sheet aside.

Choose a leaf to press. Put the leaf on the sheet of wax paper, making sure the leaf is as flat as possible. Lay the second sheet of wax paper on top of the leaf. Line up the edges of the two sheets of wax paper.

Cover the top with your dishtowel. Set your iron to the hottest setting and iron over the dishtowel to melt the sheets of wax paper together. Try to create a tight seal as close to the edge of the leaf as possible. My towel was too thick so I used a paper towel. This worked a lot better but there is the added risk of starting a fire.

You can then cut off the extra wax paper, leaving just your beautiful leaf. Please note that the wax paper does not melt to the leaf itself. It will only stick to itself or another sheet of wax paper. When you cut out your leaf, leave enough wax paper around the edge to maintain the seal. You’ll be able to enjoy it through the winter and all year long.

Repeat these directions with as many leaves as you’d like to preserve.

Tomorrow I’ll post some projects that will let you use your pressed leaves.

__________

You can create a leaf mosaic between your sheets of wax paper, too. Just arrange different colored leaves into patterns, shapes, or pictures. When you’re happy with your mosaic, lay your dishtowel over the top and iron the two sheets of wax paper together.

Try cutting the leaves into different shapes and then arranging the pieces of leaves into patterns. This will work best if you cut out the stems because the wax will create a better seal if all the pieces are the same thickness.

__________

If you really want to get creative, combine leaves with melted crayons to create a fall leaf sun catcher to hang in the window. Choose a beautiful fall leaf to be the centerpiece of your sun catcher. Lay the leaf in the center of a sheet of wax paper.
Use a pencil sharpener to create crayon shavings in different colors. Arrange the shavings around the leaf. It’s okay if they overlap the leaf but no light will shine through the shavings that are on top of the leaf.

Place the second sheet of wax paper over your artwork. Lay the towel on top and iron until the crayon shavings and wax paper have melted to seal your sun catcher together.

Now you can use some construction paper and glue to make a frame. Then punch a hole in the top of the sun catcher, thread some ribbon through the hole, and tie a knot.

Hang your sun catcher in the window to enjoy.

Return to main page.