painted leaf rubbings

We managed to get out of the house again this morning, although F really wanted to stay at home, playing (something to do with shops that he needed loads of receipts for, which I was only too happy to oblige, as my purse was bulging with them, as usual). Anyway, he did that later, as promised; we were home for lunch. In the morning we had aranged to meet up at a 'making morning', where people make stuff to sell at the playgroup's Advent Fair. It was an even worse turn-out than yesterday's event- we (plus the organiser) were the only people there. So there seemed to be so much to do and so few people to do it. I found it a bit too much, but the children were obviously inspired as they did some paintings there and some more when we got home. We had not got round to painted leaf rubbings this year (it's best now, when there's loads of fallen leaves around) so it was good to have a go at this:

1. Collect leaves preferably on the day you need them. They can be all the same or different. Look for interesting shaped ones, (eg, oak), or lots of viens (chestnut, see picture). They may need rinsing if very muddy. Dry them, but not on radiator or they will curl up.

2. Lay leaves under paper. (Experiment with different types of paper!) They can be stuck down onto surface or another bit of paper. Using block crayons, or chunky crayons, beeswax ones work well, do rubbings of leaves. Each leaf must be held still while you are rubbing it. Use the long edge of the crayon, not the pointy bit.

3. Use different colours of crayons for the leaf rubbings and try to cover the paper.

4. Using watercolour paints, a large brush, and lots of water paint quickly over the leaf patterns. The wax crayon should resist the paint and show through. Allow the paint colours to blend and cover the whole paper, but try noy to let it get too muddy. (Limiting the colours to red, blue and yellow helps). I havent tried this with watered down poster paints (readymix stuff), but the block paints seem to work. (I used Stockmar watercolours, which I bought in a fit of indulgence) I think Myriad do them, also the block beeswax crayons, which I thoroughly recommend. I'm sure any watercolours or inks work just the same.

Keep experimenting, and, most importantly, have fun! Sometimes the activity is better than the finished result, but, hey, just how much room to you have on the fridge, anyway?