Falling Colors

Our family is in awe of the beautiful colors that are falling all around us. We wanted to share some of this beauty, so we started crafting.



First, I took quite a few of the crayon nubs I've been collecting in a tupperware and shaved them on an old grater I had in the kitchen. This task turned out to be a bit harder than I thought it would be, but the end product was definitely worth it. I wanted to take the lazy man's way and use the food processor, but then I would have never been able to use it for cooking again.
While Kenly was napping I cut out leave shapes from some templates I found on the internet. A simple search for leave templates will turn up quite a few options. We picked an oak leaf and a maple leaf for our project. Kenly was really excited to get started.
I let her put the crayon shaving on the waxed paper leaf. She took her time sprinkling it all around.
She loved spreading the shavings all over the place. Quite a few times, I had to keep her from overdecorating her leaf.
After the shaving were in place, I carefully lined up the other half of the waxed paper. I made sure to have a cloth I no longer use under the leaf. I then place another discarded cloth on top of the "sandwiched" leaves. I used the iron to melt the crayon shaving and the waxed paper together. Crayon can get on the iron, so I had to make sure to clean the iron well when this project was over.

We created a "stained glass" leaf for some very special people in our lives.

I set the leaves on the counter to cool while we searched for the perfect stems outside. We also browsed the internet for a cute fall poem to send with these works of art.
I typed up the poem and put it on card stock. Kenly decorated the card stock with some foam stickers. It was a battle to keep her from placing the stickers over the words.
All in all, the project was fun and painless. The hardest part was the clean up. We sent these beauties to most of our family to celebrate fall. We suggested that our art be used as a sun catcher or a magnet for the refrigerator.
How do you celebrate the falling leaves?