Colourful wax resist leaf art
Make colourful art using the abundance of leaves around at this time of year! This activity is a twist on the popular leaf rubbing activity with crayons that is great for little ones to do, particularly in autumn when it is so much fun to collect the colourful fallen leaves.
What you will need:
Leaves
White paper (lightweight paper is best as it’ll allow the details of the leaf to come through)
Crayons (we used block crayons but stick crayons with the paper removed would also work)
Watercolour paints
Paintbrush
A jar of water
What you need to do:
First, you will need to go for a walk to gather your leaves! Choose ones lying on the ground rather than pulling them from the trees. The leaves that will work the best will have prominent veins.
Put a leaf face-down on a hard surface with the veins facing up. Place your paper on top of your leaf and then, while holding the paper and leaf in place, use the side of a crayon to rub firmly across the leaf. You’ll quickly see the amazing pattern of all the leaf’s veins showing up! Make sure that you rub firmly over the entire leaf to show the outline as well as the veins.
Younger children may need some assistance holding the page still whilst also rubbing firmly or you could tape the paper onto the surface you are working on.
Paint over your leaf rubbing with watercolour paint. The wax crayon will resist the watercolour paint so the outline and veins of the leaf will show through the paint.
Pick another colour of paint and paint around the leaf. These would look great painted with autumnal colours!
We left a white edge around the paper to frame the painting but you don’t have to do this or, if you prefer a cleaner look, you could mask off the edges before your paint.
Don’t they look lovely?!
Author: Denise Hope, home educating mum of two boys