Leaf Placemats
Materials:
- Leaves
- Hairspray (unscented!)
- Self-stick laminating plastic
- Tissue paper (optional)
- several pieces of newspaper
Directions:
1. After collecting your leaves, take them outside and lay them out on a piece of newspaper. Cut or pull the stems off the leaves. Spray each leaf front & back with the hairspray. This will keep them shiny, and will keep them from getting brown & crunchy too quickly. When the leaves are dry, take them inside to your work surface (or kitchen table!).
2. (OPTIONAL STEP) While you're waiting for the leaves to dry, let the kids rip up some pieces of tissue paper into small pieces (use your own judgement, ours were about 2" or smaller). We used red, orange, and yellow for ours!
3. Cut 2 pieces of laminating plastic (per placemat) to your desired size. Peel the paper backing off 1 piece, and place it in front of your child. Make sure to tell them that it's super-sticky, so to keep their fingers on the table, not on the plastic!
4. Let the kids have fun arranging the leaves and tissue paper on the sticky plastic! Be sure to remind them that once the leaves & paper are placed, they can't be moved! Also be sure they are leaving about 1" all the way around on the edges with no leaves or paper.
5. When they're done (or when they run out of leaves, whichever comes first!), take the second sheet of laminating and peel the paper backing off. Carefully align this piece on top of the decorated piece. Press firmly (or leave under a dictionary or 2 for an hour) so they will stick together.
Voila!!! You have some fun, festive placemats that the kids will be proud to show off!! Here are ours:
We also used the same concept on a smaller scale, and made these cute leaf hangings for our kitchen window:
Have fun!
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