Leaf Prints

Guess what we found while playing outside Sunday? Fall colored leaves! It is clearly too early for this, right? Didn't summer just begin? I still have summer stuff to do! But while outside watering my roses, the little guy scooped up some yellow and beginning to turn red leaves. "I have a collection, Mama!" he exclaimed with delight. Of course when it was time to go in, he did not want to part with his colorful collection, so I let him tote them inside.

I knew this type of collection wouldn't last. It had happened all summer with his bouquets of flowers. He'd wake up one morning and they would be wilted and his little face would crumple with sadness. I figured we better have some fun with them while they lasted. I asked Logan if he wanted to paint them and of course he was completely enthusiastic about it. This kid loves paint. BIG TIME.

This is before I busted out our handy dandy cheapo table cloth to cover our dining room table.

But he reminded me that this was going to get messy.

He had a choice of a couple of colors. Of course pink was one of his choices,but it was really too light to yield any results. Logan painted the underside of the leaves that were all vein-y and had lots of texture.

Then he pressed them down onto paper.

Gently, he pulled them up to reveal what was underneath.

We did this a couple of times, and it seemed the ones with less paint were more easily visible. 

So I just had him press it down a couple of times, before covering them with more paint.

Do any of you have leaves changing color yet? What fun projects have you tried with leaves? In a couple of weeks, our yard will be covered with them, so I better start collecting ideas now!