Doodling on heart-shaped leaves
Leaf doodling is a really simple and calming activity to do and all you need are some leaves and opaque pens. In winter and early spring, you’ll mostly find thicker leaves from evergreen trees and shrubs. These are lovely to draw on as they are nice and smooth and not as delicate as the wonderfully colourful autumn leaves.
What you will need:
Leaves
Paint or chalk pens (We used Posca pens)
Scissors
What you need to do:
Go for a walk outside or for a wander in your garden and collect some leaves. We found some heart-shaped ivy leaves which looked perfect for doodling on, especially as Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. The mature leaves were a different shape but looked easy to cut into a heart shape. If you can’t find heart-shaped leaves, see if you can find leaves where the leaf is indented where it meets the stem as then it can be easily trimmed into a heart shape.
If any of your leaves are a bit dirty, then you can wipe them down with a damp cloth. Leave them to dry and then they are ready for doodling on!
The best pens to use on fresh leaves are opaque pens, such as chalk pens or paint pens. For older leaves which don’t have a shiny surface, gel pens or sharpies also work well.
Draw different designs on your leaves and have fun with it! You can experiment with different lines like straight, diagonal, zip zag or wavy and then add a variety of shapes such as circles, dots, or even hearts! My 10 year old enjoyed following the veins on the leaves.
Once you’ve finished your leaf doodles, you can press them between the pages of a book if you want to or you could make a leaf mobile by tying some thread around the stems of the leaves and hanging them from a stick. We put ours in some tiny bottles to display them. Sometimes, however, it is nice to draw and create without needing to have an end product to display so just enjoy the process of doodling if you prefer!
Author: Denise Hope, home educating mum of two boys