Fun winter activities with fallen leaves

Winter is the time when the world turns snowy, enveloping everything in its path in a blanket of white. It’s the season when people get to spend quality time indoors. It’s also the perfect occasion to put on your thinking caps and come up with fun and interesting ideas for arts and crafts. Parents with kids can use it as a chance to strengthen family bonds after a whole year of slogging away at the office. In this article, we will take a look at how to create novel items with fallen leaves. The colorful foliage of the closing of autumn can make for some pretty stuff like garlands and bookmarks. You can send them as gifts or keep them as reminders of a time well spend. Read on to find out how you and your family can go green by designing one-of-a-kind pieces.

1. Leaf-themed cards

The holiday season is the ideal occasion to send cards to family and friends. Despite living in the computer age, sending cards shows people that you care. Pick up colorful fallen leaves from your garden or neighborhood as autumn draws to a close and sew them onto the front of plain cards. Mix and match colors and using a sewing machine, carefully stitch the leaves to the card. Next, use clear or white adhesive and apply a thin line to the edges of the card, both outside and inside, and sprinkle glitter of any color. Wait for everything to set, write down your message on the inside and send your cards to near and dear ones.

2. Garland of leaves

Collect as many colorful leaves as you can. Next, take three strings of twine and knot one of the ends. Begin plaiting them and weave the leaves into the braid at intervals. When you’re done, knot the other end of the twine and string up your finished product above doors, the fireplace and any other location. While braiding the leaves may seem tricky in the beginning, it beats threading the leaves as that could tear them. Just practice a few times and you’ll soon get the hang of it.

3. Leaf bookmarks

Bookmarks are a great gifting item and those made with leaves are a perfect way to show your green side. While this next idea may take a while to complete, the end result is worth it. Take a leaf that catches your eye and place it between the pages of a heavy book. If required, you can weigh down the book by adding more tomes on top of it. Wait for a few weeks till the leaf is properly pressed and dry. Then, stick it onto a piece of stiff card paper and add flat embellishments to brighten it up. Using a perforator, punch a hole at the top and tie a knotted piece of string through it. Let your kids write down their favorite quotes or wordings at the bottom of the bookmark and have them send it to family members.

4. Family tree

Children ought to know their ancestry and what better way to enlighten them by having them create a family tree? Collect leaves of medium size and family photographs. Draw a picture of a bare tree on a large sheet of chart paper and beginning at the top, paste the photo of the oldest ancestor onto a leaf. Trace down the line of your family history by pasting the pictures of your ancestors onto the remaining leaves. When you reach the present generation, help your kids hand up the finished product onto a wall. You can also frame the family tree as a reward to your kids for their creativity.

5. Window hanging

Take a sheet of sticky contact paper. After picking up a selection of leaves, place them carefully on the sticky side of the contact paper in whichever manner you want. Then, punch a hole at the top and tie a length of ribbon through it. Finally, hang it up against a window for all the world to see and admire.

6. Newspaper leaf

This next idea can make for a cool wall hanging. Take an interestingly shaped leaf and trace the pattern on a sheet of newspaper. When done, mix watercolors of your choice and brush it over the drawn shape. Leave to dry and cut out according to the shape. Next, take another sheet of newspaper and paint a biggish white square. Place your leaf cut-out onto the wet paint and wait for it to dry. Punch a hole at the top and string a length of twine.