Tree Detective, Leaf Transfers!

Tree Detective, Leaf Transfers

I was at Chick-fil-A (yum) with some friends recently, and they had this neat lil' tree guide as a freebie in with the kid's meal.  Wow, something you can actually use and save! Thanks Chick-fil-A for not stuffing crappy toys in your bags.

So, it inspired me to do this quick and easy craft with a couple kiddos one Saturday morning.

We used fabric paint, fabric, brushes and a roller (brayer). However, you could easily use plain paper, any kind of paint and a rolling pin for a fun transfer too! 

Collect leaves!

My girl was on the run with her bucket, grabbing fist fulls of many different kinds. I did have to show her how to carefully remove the leaf, as not to rip them in half. Patience!

Her friend (a little older), was a bit more interested in the varieties, being careful and very selective.

I didn't snap as many photos as I should have (for our step-by-step), but I think it's fairly easy to do!

I used some leftover fabric and cut them evenly, one for each girl.

We used 3 different colored fabric paints, brushes and a heavy roller (a brayer). You could also use a rolling pin (dont' really  need a brayer)!I had some leftover paper plates, so we used three of those for the painting part. The girls painted their leaves one at a time. Once a leaf was done, we laid it face down on the fabric & put a piece of newsprint (any paper would work) on top. We then rolled on top of the newsprint. The fun part was peeling off the newsrpint & leaf to see what kind of imprint it made!

The girls really liked the way the leaves looked after they had dried from the painting/transfer too!

Once the fabric transfer was finished & dried, we used the tree guide for identification. They were able to find a few and it got them talking about the different shapes and sizes as they attempted to match. True Tree Detectives!