All Fall we have been waiting for the leaves to change colors and fall off the trees. They finally decided to change colors a couple of weeks ago and over the weekend they all started blowing away. We were able to grab some of our favorite colors and we attempt to preserve them. I found this Autumn Leaves Notebooking Unit a month or so ago and although most of it is a little too advanced for my two, I thought the Preserving the Colors of Autumn Leaves page was worth a try. It is a neat little workbook and if you are looking for a fun activity to do this week with your children, you should give this notebook a look through. This is a super easy project that did not take a lot of time and it was a great opportunity to talk about the leaves and changing colors and changing seasons. My children also really enjoyed looking at all the colors afterwards.
What You Need:
- Waxed paper
- Leaves
- Paper towels
- Hot Iron
*Supervision Needed with the Iron, of course!
Directions: (a rough summary. Check out the notebook above for other variations and specifics)
Step 1: Gather leaves. My kiddos were outside for over an hour looking for leaves. It was cold, but after 5 or so minutes they really got into it and had a lot of fun gathering! If your leaves are really dry or you left them out on the table and they dried up (like I did), then put them in a bag with a damp paper towel. They will soften up enough in a few hours.
Step 2: Place leaves in between two paper towels. Iron them on medium heat until dry. The directions say 10 minutes per side, but it was only a few minutes for our leaves.
Step 3: Once dry (and flat), place the leaves in between 2 pieces of waxed paper with the waxed side facing the leaves. The directions say to add another piece of wax paper on top to protect the iron. Press the leaves again for another minute. To be honest, I had a really hard time determining which side was the waxed side! I tried each side, but I really couldn’t tell the difference, so if you have a trick for this let me know. Maybe it was because I had cheap waxed paper?
Step 4: Enjoy your colorful leaves. Create some fun art work or display them. My kids attempted to make a crown! They thought it was pretty cool. =-)
Robin@Pink Coupon Cafe says
November 8, 2010 at 3:35 pmWhat a great idea. The fall leaves are so goregous right now, but they don’t last long. I think I’ll try this with my daughter to make Thanksgiving cards for our family.
Thank you for sharing.
Robin
CK says
November 8, 2010 at 5:08 pmLove it! Awesome idea!!!
Cristie says
November 8, 2010 at 5:18 pmThank you, I have always wanted to try doing this. Most of my leaves have already fallen, but there might be a few hanging on. Have a great week.
Judy says
November 9, 2010 at 1:46 pmWe did this last year with the old fashioned pressing in the phone book, but then we ironed our leaves in wax paper and cut them to the size of place mats which adorned our table for over a month. It’s such a fun way to preserve the beauty around us during this time of year!
Caz says
November 12, 2010 at 9:20 amWe just did some wax paper ironing this week as well! We made a window hanging using dried flowers though, I just love your idea of using leaves and then cutting them out – we will have to give this a try if we can find any nice leaves around!