Paper Punch Art Using Real Leaves

Just last night I saw this very cool idea on Grow Creative to use a paper punch on leaves! So this morning I took my class on a little walk to collect some leaves. We have beautiful trees all around us, especially this maple right across the street from our center:

Lots of oranges, yellows and reds! I'm in awe of its beauty every time I see it. So we took a walk right underneath it and grabbed freshly fallen leaves (we didn't want the old crunchy leaves) and put them in a paper bag. We also took some bright red ones from a nearby burning bush. Back in our room, I dumped out the bag of leaves on the table and set out some paper punches.

I also brought some of my own punches from home and we immediately got to work. The kids did a great job punching out the leaves themselves, but found it easier if I cut off the tips of the leaves, leaving a nice straight edge to put into the punch. If you turn the punch over you can see exactly what you are punching out and can be sure the leaf is covering the entire punch.

Once they had a bunch punched out, they glued them to a piece of paper using a glue stick.

I wish I had cut the paper into a leaf shape or something, instead of keeping it as a rectangle. Oh well, next time! I had fun arranging them by design.

It reminded me of the 3-D butterfly art I make as gifts for people. I ended up laminating these so they would last. I might try to paint a layer of watered-down glue over them next time.

It was a very fun project and we were left with a beautiful mess!