Nature Collages

We're loving the beautiful Autumnal weather around here! Where we live, there are lots of Oaks, Maples and Elm trees shedding their glorious golden leaves and we can't help but bring some home.
On a recent picnic with my girls to a local park...

... Miss Eden collected various bits and pieces: leaves, of course, but also clovers, flowers, tree bark, gumnuts and twigs. What to do with them? We made a collage!


To make your own, tape a large piece of contact paper to either a table/easel/window, sticky-side facing up, like so...

Then simply let them get to it...

It turned out that doing the collage on the window allowed the light to filter through the leaves for a very pretty effect, which made the experience a little more magical for Eden. She quickly realised through trial and error that the gumnuts/bark/twigs were not going to stick to the contact, and so she made liberal use of the leaves instead.
If you are planning on doing a nature collage with your kiddies, a few tips:

• Make the collage while the leaves are at their freshest - once they dry out your kids will have trouble getting them to stick to the contact paper.
• For interest, try to find other 'nature' things besides leaves like feathers, grass, seeds, sand, petals.
• Reserve another sheet of contact paper of the same size to overlay the first sheet. Once your child is finished with making the collage and exploring the various textures on it, place the second sheet atop the first. It'll keep everything in place, and prevent younger siblings from peeling pieces off it (I speak from firsthand experience).

Thanks for reading! ~ L.