My children and I recently took a walk through our neighborhood and marveled at the rainbow of colors at our feet and on the trees. We decided to start a "leaf scavenger hunt" and came home with a few (a whole bag full!) of beautiful leaves. Upon returning home, we pulled out some plain white copy paper and carefully placed a leaf under the paper and gently began rubbing a crayon over the leaf with the ridges side up. Once finished with that leaf, it was removed and another leaf was placed under the paper. Once the paper was filled with leaves and colors, we cut the paper to fit the top of a greeting card and used a double sided tape to adhere it to the card front. We added a strip of washi tape to add a dash of visual interest with our greeting.
Some tips:
>Use "new" leaves and not ones that are easily crumbled or disintegrate.
>Smaller leaves work better if you want more of a collage look to the finished greeting card.
>Crayons worked better for us than colored pencils. You could also use watercolor crayons and then spritzing the paper with water from a spray bottle to create the effect of little water droplets on the leaves.
Now we have a beautiful set of autumn greeting cards to send to family and friends. Happy crafting!