Watercolor leaves

In my opinion, you should hang your children’s favorite creations up, at least for a while.  It will show them that you love what they’ve done!  There are plenty of years to have a pristine house, but only a few to have your kitchen “cluttered” with their beautiful work.  Picasso once said “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

Using only white cone coffee filters and children’s watercolor paints, your kids can have fun creating beautiful leaves to hang on your windows this October!  My mother-in-law, an early childhood educator, gave me this great idea. 

We simply put a little water in the bottom of some small cups and made our fall colors: red, yellow, orange and green.  Brown would look great too!  The kids got their watercolor brushes wet, rubbed lots of paint into them and added it to the appropriate cup.  The more paint you add, the more intense the color will be!  Then, they simply splattered or painted the watercolors onto the filters.  We used a different brush for each color, so the lighter colors wouldn’t get muddy.  For really beautiful, intense splatters, have your kids just use the paint directly from the palette, adding just enough water to work with. 

Let the filters dry and cut, or let your children cut, leaf shapes from the filters.  You might want to draw the leaf shape for younger kids so they don’t get too frustrated.  Then they can simply cut on the lines.

I think the leaves look beautiful hanging on my kitchen windows!

Tags: art, fall, green, kids