Fantasies from leaves. Making paintings from dry leaves, flowers and herbs (MK and ideas)

Autumn is a truly magical time. And not only for romantics, but also for those who like to work with their hands. This season provides us with a lot of natural materials that, with a little imagination and patience, can be turned into beautiful crafts, appliqués or home decorations. When walking through a park strewn with fallen leaves, you will have the opportunity to spend time not only pleasantly, but also usefully: having collected an armful of beautiful leaves, you can either simply put them in a vase or try to turn them into something unusual.

In addition, in schools and kindergartens they are often given the task of making crafts from leaves - and this is an excellent reason to take a walk with your child in the fresh air, collecting the gifts of autumn.

We have collected for you 25 ideas for crafts made from fallen leaves, cones, acorns and nuts that will give you many unforgettable moments spent with your children.

1. First, let's try to make a butterfly from autumn leaves. This simple option is suitable even for the little ones. The only thing is that you first need to dry and straighten the leaves, placing them between the pages of books or under any other press for a day.

3. This unusual snail can be made from leaves of different colors and shapes.

5. By using a shaped hole punch for paper or cardboard on fallen leaves, you can get a truly magical result!

7. Candles will help create a special homely atmosphere in autumn. Using a glass jar, leaves and ribbon for decoration, you can fill your home with coziness and warmth.

9. In autumn, chestnuts just fall under your feet. Let your child show his imagination by drawing funny faces of people or animals on them - rest assured, it will be impossible to tear your child away from this activity!

11. Having made such a cute hedgehog, you will ensure a good mood for yourself and your baby for the whole day.

13. The variety of colors and shapes of fallen leaves opens up space for imagination. Take your child to a whole zoo - it will be an absolutely fabulous experience for him!

15. This idea is suitable not only for children, but also for decorating a gift for an adult or as a decorative element.

17. Use fallen leaves to create your own autumn landscapes. To do this, it will be enough to apply paint to one side of the sheet and then press it to the paper. Feel like a master of painting without making any effort!

19. Don't be afraid to experiment with materials. For example, to create such a tree, you will have to take scissors and cut the leaves into small pieces. Paint the tree trunk with watercolors, let it dry, and then glue the cut leaves onto its branches.

21. A little glue, plasticine, imagination and magic - and ordinary acorns turn into a miniature set for tea drinking or fairy-tale characters!

If you like to craft and use natural materials, then a picture of autumn leaves is something you can do very quickly and easily. And you don’t have to buy expensive material or put in any effort to make a real masterpiece that can decorate your home.

Why should you engage in such creativity?

First of all, it should be noted the advantages that a picture of autumn leaves has. This:

• — environmental cleanliness;
• — naturalness;
• - economy;
• - decorativeness;
• — exclusivity;
• - ease of manufacture.

With just a little effort and imagination, you can create paintings to suit your taste, and each of them will be different from the other. The process of such creativity is very exciting for children, especially if you first go for a walk with them and collect beautiful leaves, herbs and flowers.

Having dried the material with an iron (express drying) or between the pages of an unnecessary thick book and having prepared glue, a brush and cardboard, you can begin the creative process, which will certainly give you and your children joy and pleasure, and will also contribute to the aesthetic development of your child.

Applications made from autumn leaves are a very effective way to decorate your home in a short time. At the same time, you do not have to pay a lot of money for the materials from which your masterpieces will be made.

How to collect and prepare the necessary material?

Applications from autumn leaves should be made only after the necessary material has been collected. It is better to collect material in the fall, when the leaves acquire delightful bright colors, and you can make paintings all year round. Well, flowers and herbs can be dried throughout the entire period of their growth and flowering.

It is better not to collect dry elements, because they may crumble. When collecting, pay attention to the size, shape and beauty of the leaves.

In addition to leaves, flowers and herbs, you can also use fluff, cone scales, seeds, as well as ordinary decorative materials (feathers, ribbons, etc.), creating a variety of combinations.

You need to work with dried material very carefully, as it becomes very fragile even after gentle drying in a book. Make sure that the plants are completely dry, otherwise the finished work may be ruined.

Make sure that during storage of the material it does not begin to rot due to poor drying or moisture ingress.

How to quickly dry leaves for crafts

Wipe the leaves with a damp cloth or cotton pad to remove dirt and dust. There is no need to wet or rub too much so as not to damage the fragile surface.

Line your ironing board with clean paper and place the leaves on it.

If you use newspapers, be careful, as printing ink can print on both the leaves and the surface of the ironing board.

Cover the top with another sheet of paper.

Switch the iron to the minimum temperature and check that there is no water in it. If your iron does not have very high power, then you can set the temperature closer to average, but not maximum, because an iron that is too hot will ruin the leaves.

Iron the leaves several times, then remove the paper and turn them over to the other side. Cover with paper again and iron.

Repeat the procedure until the leaves are completely dry.

Materials you will need:

• - dried natural material:
• - PVA glue, as well as a regular brush, which will be used to apply it to the base;
• - sharp scissors for cutting out the necessary elements;
• - thick cardboard or regular landscape paper (but cardboard is undoubtedly better), for use as a base;
• - plasticine, which can be used to secure three-dimensional elements;
• - You should also prepare some kind of weight so that you can press down the future painting.

Features of making paintings, paintings from flowers and leaves

First, come up with a plot for your future painting and choose the type of appliqué you are going to make. Here you can rely on your imagination, take a certain image (painting, photo, etc.) as a basis, or create images based on the capabilities of the material - when it prompts ideas.

If you have come up with a plot, make a simple pencil sketch on the base, marking where each detail will be located. Then think about the sequence of gluing leaves and herbs (especially for multi-layer complex appliqué). Well, then you can start gluing.

If you don’t have enough leaves, or you don’t have something specific, you can simply draw on the missing details or make them from other materials (for example, a flower vase or a head for a man).

If you are going to start creating a painting from leaves for the first time, then first try to depict something simple in order to understand how the material behaves, how it should be handled and what nuances may arise.

Having mastered the process, you can move on to more complex images and increase the quantity and variety of natural material.

The construction of the picture is quite simple: first, larger parts are usually glued to the base, and then smaller ones. If the leaves have extra parts, they can be carefully trimmed.

Naturally, you should select elements according to color so that the picture turns out to be as natural and harmonious as possible.
And of course, you need to work carefully and with soul so that your little masterpiece will adequately decorate your home interior.

Print painting

You can not only make appliqués from leaves, but also paintings and prints. To do this, apply paint to a beautifully shaped sheet with a brush and make an imprint.

The second option is made using watercolor paper. In this case, fallen leaves are placed between watercolor paper and a napkin and carefully tapped over the entire surface with a hammer so that the coloring pigment remains on the paper.

Landscape “House in the Village”

Let's figure out how to properly assemble a landscape from leaves and herbs.

Any floral landscape is glued from top to bottom.

Glue the sky and the river (to imitate the sky, place the sheet at an angle, for a river - horizontally. Thus, thanks to one material, you will achieve a double effect - the movement of air and the smooth flow of the river).

Proceed to distant shores. Choose soft pastel colors. Raspberry leaves (from the reverse side), peony and rose petals are suitable.

Glue green leaf onto the hills of the near bank.

Making the house: first glue the walls, then the roof and windows.

Plant trees around. Create a crown from all kinds of herbs (lungwort, knotweed, fern), cut trunks from birch bark and banana skins.

The last “strokes” are small bushes, a fence, sheaves.

Frame the picture in any framing workshop (passports, glass, frame).

Do not hang the painting in direct sunlight to prevent it from deteriorating.

Multicolored collages

Autumn leaves are so beautiful on their own that they look great framed and without any plot. Look how beautiful it is! The first layer is dark leaves, then put the contrasting and most beautiful ones, so you will feel the volume. Everything is framed.

Another idea: on a collage of leaves we place a sheet of thick cardboard, in which a letter or a simple figure is cut out with a stationery knife.

Photo frame

For the autumn exhibition, you can make frames for photographs and for the design of essays and poems on the theme of autumn. Here are the options for such work - very simple and effective.

Here we are not talking about children's applications. We will do ADULT masterpieces – for interior decoration. Although there will be children's work here too, you'll see.

So, how to make paintings with your own hands from dry or succulent leaves, flowers and herbs.

Here are DIFFERENT ways... and DIFFERENT techniques for making crafts from leaves in the form of paintings.

And every craft-picture is possible even for a beginner to the master craftsman.

Hey, let's dive into the creative impulse.

Three-dimensional painting of DRY LEAVES AND ACORNs

(the essence of the work is with your own hands)

Let's start with a bright artistic “canvas” - an autumn composition of leaves and acorns...

The essence of the work- We take a sheet of plywood - and the leaves are glued overlapping each other... We leave the edges of the plywood sheet clean - we will stuff our frame there.

A picture made from dry leaves turns out to be three-dimensional, so we won’t place it under glass. And the frame comes separately without glass (just a frame made of wooden slats... and just a piece of plywood (or fiberboard) in the size of this frame.) And then we choose a method to your taste - with acrylic varnish, or with paraffin from candles. Even small children can participate in such a picture. This idea can be implemented in creativity circles.

Method with acrylic varnish. We buy acrylic varnish for crafts at the store. We pasted the leaves onto the canvases...applied a layer of varnish, let it dry...applied another layer...dried it again...and another layer...etc. until it shines the way you want.

Paraffin method. Melt the candles in a saucepan. They dipped each sheet and placed it on the canvas. They themselves will stick to each other with paraffin. A very quick and easy way to make a brilliant autumn leaf painting. Leaves sealed in paraffin may not lose their richness of shape and color for years.

You can lay out such pictures by arranging leaves in a chaotic manner. Or you can come up with a specific pattern. Harmony of smooth color transitions.

You can also try and make circular symmetrical patterns from leaves of different sizes and colors. They are called mandalas. Some other ancient peoples came up with such centric patterns, and it is believed that they have the magic of harmony and beauty. Mandalas are nice to look at. In our case, the magic of our mandalas will be made of a light and pure material: natural foliage - therefore such centric paintings will only heal and soothe, like nature itself.

Of course, painstaking work has been done here - it is necessary so that the size of the leaves were the same in each circle. And to each circular row differed from each other in the size and shape of its repeating element.

Such paintings can be made from leaves and dry herbs TO COLOR YOUR INTERIOR. So that the painting fits perfectly into the room.

In bright orange tones - for an orange-yellow interior.

Or for an interior in dark chocolate-muted tones... another composition of autumn leaves will do.

Well, now another great idea...

Paintings from FLOATING leaves.

Look at the photo below. Like? Me too)). Do you want to do it yourself - exactly like this? Then read on.

If you dry the leaves - without pinching them between the pages of a book - but simply put them in a flat box (for example, a candy box) and cover with semolina ... then this is what happens...

The cereal will press the leaf just enough to keep him from curling up when drying - and then the leaf will dry, retaining its smooth, elegant shape.

Such leaves can be mounted behind glass in a frame... and they will be beautiful and even inside the picture.

You say…“Yeah... but here in the photo you can see that the leaves are not clamped by the frame... but seem to be floating inside the frame. How to do it?

Very simple. We need a frame - with emptiness inside(search for sale or make it yourself...

In order to make such a deep air frame-box we need... take a regular frame with glass (slats and glazing)... a thin sheet of plywood (or fiberboard)... and four pieces of lumber (thick slats... the thicker the slatted beam, the larger the space will be inside the frame)…

And now, having collected everything we need, we create the design of such a frame-box...

We stuff bars onto a sheet of plywood - i.e. we create the sides... and on these sides we attach our upper covered frame on top. And in the end we get a frame with air inside - a frame-box.

How to make a sheet “float” inside a frame-box...

First, create the background– our plywood bottom of the frame...either PAINTED white...or COVERED with white paper.

We place the leaves in the center... and look at where this leaf has the most central place. Mark this place with a pencil at the bottom of the frame.

We will glue our leaf to this stump (foam or wood). And it turns out that he seemed to be hanging in the air and does not touch the wall of its frame.

And you can make it even cooler...

You can create the illusion of a leaf with a frame, lying on the sand...Here's how to do it...

Before we can glue our sheet to the “stump” SAND BACKGROUND at the bottom of the frame. To do this, take a glue gun... and apply uneven layer of glue on the bottom of the frame... somewhere thicker, somewhere less... And until the glue dries pour fine river sand on it. Let it dry and after drying, shake out the excess sand from the frame. We look, and if there are any unsanded places left... Lubricate these bald places with glue again and sprinkle with sand again.

If you don't have a glue gun (by the way, you can buy it at any hardware store for $7) ... then you can use regular PVA glue - also apply a thicker layer and sand it with sand ... but it will take longer to dry ... and it’s better to take fine sand, PVA glue will not hold coarse gravel.

As a result, you will get beautiful paintings - as if the leaves are lying on the sand...

And also in such a framework and you can place not just CLEAR autumn leaves - but painted ones, with a picture drawn on them.

LEAVES-PICTURES

leaf painting technique.

You can lay out pictures with leaves, or you can draw pictures on the leaves themselves. Paint - oil or gouache.

If you work with gouache, then after completing the drawing you need to spray the picture with hairspray (to fix the paint and give it a richer brightness, as in the photo below).

Such original paintings on leaves can be given as gifts to family and friends; they can even be timed to coincide with the New Year.

And so that the painting, a gift from an autumn leaf, can be preserved for a long time - has not dried out, has not shrunk, has not curled up, it needs to be seal in paraffin(or wax). To do this, melt the candles in a bowl and dip the leaves into paraffin by the tail. We take it out and dry it, hanging it by the tail on threads.

And if you are not an artist, then you can draw simple graphic patterns - the usual symmetry of geometric repeating shapes.

Simple master class

according to the patterns on the leaves.

And you know what, I’ll probably make you fall in love with the idea of ​​paintings on autumn leaves. I'll give you instructions, along with whom he will come understanding, and interest, desire and love will come along with the company.

Let's start with the simplest crafts - paintings on leaves. For example, such silhouette drawings... They have only a BACKGROUND and only a DARK SILHOUETTE. The background is simple. And the silhouette is simple. That’s why we’ll start with such simple artistic tasks so as not to scare you away, but to lure you.

We find a beautiful picture on the Internet. For example, this one. We print it out at a photo printing kiosk (I don’t think you have a color printer at home).

On a blank sheet of paper trace a maple leaf with a pencil, cut out the outlined silhouette - we get a stencil with a hole in the shape of a maple leaf. And with this maple hole we apply a paper stencil to our picture in the place we like. For example like this.

And now you can redraw the picture from this paper sample onto a maple leaf. First the background is the sky and water, then the black silhouette of a dolphin. You can also make a holey stencil out of paper for the dolphin - put it on the background and paint it with black paint.

Using this principle you can do any episodes from any pictures. At least from Mono Lisa. Elements with eyes look impressive - the predatory gaze of a bird, or the mysterious gaze of a woman.

BIT DRAWINGS look very nice, drawn with a cotton swab. Here, too, we first make the background. Let's dry it. And then we draw a drawing with dots. The easiest one to start with. For example, the silhouette of the Eiffel Tower.

Pictures on leaves with a SMOOTH COLOR TRANSITION look very interesting. Gradient play of paint shades (as in the picture below). Here's how to create such a delicate background for your painting at home...

To make a background on a leaf with a SMOOTH OVERFLOW effect From one shade to another you need to use not a brush, but a foam sponge with small pores.

• Apply wide stripes of paint to the sponge - yellow, yellow-orange mixed, orange.
• We print the sponge onto the sheet.
• The first print will be faded, so we reapply stripes of ink and repeat this process several times until the background is the desired saturation.

Then, with a thin brush, we apply black contours of the silhouette (for example, a bird), and paint over the contours. You can cut out the silhouette of a bird from paper and trace it. Or cut out a stencil of a bird's hole - put it on a sheet and paint it over.

You can draw any thing on maple leaves, the simplest and the most complex. Citrus slices or an illustration from the fairy tale The Little Prince.

Paintings PRINTS

from painted leaves.

Children often make prints of autumn leaves during classes at school or kindergarten. Chalk or paints.

In the chalk print technique, we place white paper on top of an autumn leaf - and shade it all with chalk - from the shading, all the roughness of the leaf appears on the paper.

And in the technique with paint - we apply paint to an autumn leaf with a sponge (better than just a brush) and, before it dries, quickly press the leaf with the painted side to the paper.

And it turns out very interesting when we do not make an orange sheet on white paper, but vice versa, first we paint the paper orange with gouache, and then we cover the sheet with white paint and create a white imprint of the sheet on an orange background. It turns out much more interesting and richer in color. Do you agree?

Such leaf prints can be collaged into an interesting picture.

Like in the photo below - the picture was initially divided into zones... for each zone a different background of splashes was chosen (I will tell you how to make a background of splashes in the same article below)...

And then a separate stamp sheet is applied to each zone. The result is an original work of art

And you can make it even more beautiful... if you apply the imprint of an autumn leaf not on a clean white sheet, but on a prepared one. We apply typos of colored soap bubbles to the sheet in advance.... and then when the prints are dry... apply leaf prints to this bubble background. It’s quite simple - pour ordinary soap solution into jars, add colored gouache - and use a cocktail straw to inflate a bubble and, when it is already large, tilt it towards the paper so that it bursts on it.

And it will feel AS IF these leaves float in puddles when it rains... have you ever seen how rain raises bubbles in puddles and leaves float in this bubbly puddle... Like this a picture of leaves and splashes of rain... will become a real decoration of your room...

Leaf paintings

backprints.

“Reverse prints” is the name I came up with for a technique that produces this is the result- stencil technology. (photo below).

The stencil technique is simple - very simple. Look...

1. Take a white sheet of paper... put a leaf, a stem of grass, or a twig on it.
2. We put this sheet inside a large box (the bigger the better) now you’ll understand why...
3. We take a can of colored paint in our hand and spray it on top of the paper with the leaf/stem/flower lying on it. (Since all our work is carried out inside the box, splashes do not scatter around the room and do not stain the furniture).

As a result, the entire sheet is painted in a rich color... and the place where the twig was remains painted over.

And as the spray flies out of the can at different angles– we do not have clear contours of the plant... but a sort of blurred shadow of the leaf... which only adds artistic expressiveness to our picture of leaves.

Or you can use a simpler spray bottle, made from a toothbrush.

Use regular watercolor or gouache, and use a regular toothbrush as a spray.

Paintings stamps - from succulent leaves.

Or you can leave it on paper sheet imprint- at all in a clumsy way. Or rather, “hammer”

We take paper - put a leaf (juicy green, yellow, red) - cover it with a paper napkin - and on top of the napkin we knock and hit the leaf with a hammer. As a result, the juice and pigment from the sheet are reprinted onto paper.

You can print each sheet separately... placing leaf after leaf... gradually coming up with the plot of the composition.

Or you can immediately unfold it all cover the leaf and flower arrangement - in our future picture - with a napkin and thresh selflessly - until the plants are completely torn to pieces.

So that their bright souls remain captured forever - on your imperishable canvas.

FLAT picture

from dry herbs, leaves and flowers.

And of course – a standard version of the painting made from natural materials. When herbs, leaves and flowers dry out in flat between the pages of books. And in such a pressed form they are laid out on paintings.

You will find even more such FLAT flower paintings in my article .

THE BEST WAY TO DRY LEAVES AND HERBS

(so as not to spoil the books).

We wrap the sheet on both sides with a paper napkin, then with thick paper, then with a cotton diaper and iron it.

The iron should not be very hot (otherwise the sheet will turn black). We ironed it a little, and it warmed up a little, as if in the summer sun. Left some moisture in the napkin. Then we changed the napkin to a dry one and repeated.

And after that you can also put it in a paper napkin between heavy books.

Marker paintings with leaves

(simple graphics).

You can simply draw any picture with a black marker - and the leaves will only play the role of individual elements included in your graphics.

Leaf paintings

In mosaic technique.

Mosaic technique is the most beautiful, in my opinion. Very soft, airy, real lace made from natural materials. And it’s so nice to lay out piece by piece - gently, precisely, achieving the right similarity.

First, put everything on dry paper - then photograph the final version. Remove everything from the sheet - carefully placing each element in a box. And then, with glue in hand, lay out the mosaic picture, checking the photo sample.

As a basis, you need to take a sheet of paper with the silhouette of the animal transferred to it. Place a piece of paper on the computer screen with a picture and draw the outline of the animal with a faint pencil line. And then slowly fill all this space with pieces of leaves.

Deer and owl are quite complex jobs. Your very first job should be simple so as not to discourage you. The simplest thing is a symmetrical animal. Same left and right. So you will simply start from the center - and at the same time lay out identical pieces of plants to the right and left of it.

As a material, you can use dry leaves, or leaves sealed in paraffin (dipped in melted candle wax).

Leaf paintings

In multilayer technique.

Or you can make an applique of leaves - using a three-dimensional technique - when the texture of the leaf conveys the texture of the animal... like here in the picture of leaves with owls - when the texture and shape of the leaves conveys the texture and shape of the feathers.

And you can also sell your work - so I found a very interesting site where the author sells - not the crafts themselves - but postcards depicting these works. And not cheap - but at a good price. A great example of a beautiful hobby and business in one. https://www.floraforager.com/

Paintings from leaves with birds

Master Class

(based on children's coloring books).

You can create a picture that you paint with leaves - like an artist with brush strokes. Each leaf is a broad stroke of an artist's brush. For such a picture, you need to print out an ordinary children's coloring book with a bird on a printer - in large size.

And then decorate this picture, but not with pencils, but with leaves. Lay out each element of the decoration with leaves of a certain color. And you will receive an exclusive painting of leaves.

There are a lot of coloring pages with birds on Google - print them out and try using dry autumn leaves to turn this ordinary children's coloring book into a real masterpiece. You can be proud of your work.

You can make spring paintings from leaves by drying whole branches of cherry blossoms. Flowers are pressed between paper napkins. If you want the flowers to be voluminous, then you can sprinkle them with dry semolina, or sifted with very dry river sand.

These are quite simple applications from leaves - for 1st grade of school... For such simple applications I will write a separate article... and then there will be a link to it here.

You will find even more options for applications from autumn leaves in my article

Landscape paintings - from dry leaves and flowers.

Here are the paintings he makes from leaves, flower petals and herbs one French artist... Below you will see her contacts... if you like such works... you can contact the author to order a similar masterpiece for yourself.

It's a shame that you can't enlarge them to see everything in great detail.

You can also make small landscape works from leaves. Which do not require so much effort and such expenditure of natural material.

Paintings PORTRAITS - from dry leaves.

And here are the compositions of autumn leaves that are folded in the outline of a woman's head.

You can make a whole gallery of paintings from leaves in the theme “Very Woman”. And display it in your living room for all the guests to gasp.

Leaf painting

LOVERS.

And we will end our article with love. It all starts with her. Let everything continue with her.

Two lovers. A picture that is pleasing to the eye in any era and in any civilization.

As you can see, there are a lot of ideas...

Create. Don't be lazy to be happy. Life is given - not for plans for the future.

And I will definitely look new ideas for you...

I found it right now...

Yes, yes, and it’s all made from leaves - take a closer look... Read more at the link above.

AND MORE...

I have other articles on autumn bouquets and crafts made from natural autumn materials...

Application on the theme “Autumn”. Master Class

Head: Victoria Aleksandrovna Ostanina, teacher of preschool education school No. 53 “Silver Hoof”

Autumn time is beautiful. It also provides a lot of opportunities for creativity. It is at this time of year that there are so many colors and shades in nature. This master class will introduce children and teachers to the original technique of using leaf crumbs to create beautiful works. This master class will be useful for kindergarten teachers working with older preschoolers and for parents who, together with their children, will be able to do interesting and unusual work.

We did this work with our daughter as homework on technology - leaf applique.

For work you will need the following materials: colored cardboard (silver, orange), glue, scissors, pencil, dry leaves of various shades, semolina, dried flower petals, pictures of an autumn landscape (for children to look at so that they can choose an interesting landscape for them).

Target: create conditions for the development of children's creative abilities.

Tasks:

Learn to see the beauty of nature;

Teach how to perform work from dry leaves in an unconventional way;

Develop children's creative abilities;

Develop accuracy when working with fragile material - leaves.

Progress of the event.

Educator: Guys, in the summer we collected leaves and flower petals and put them in books to dry, let's take them and see what happened.

Children get up from their seats and take their herbarium.

The teacher draws the children's attention to the pictures for them to look at: Guys, what time of year is in these drawings and pictures?

The children answer.

Educator: That's right, autumn. The topic of our lesson is Autumn landscape. Carefully consider each landscape and choose the one that you like best. Have you chosen?

The children answer.

Educator: Then let's start work.

1. Choose a background for your work. I suggest choosing a silver background.

2. Now draw the main lines with a simple pencil. For example, in my landscape there will be a lot of trees and a river, the sun. There is no need to draw individual details, you only need to outline the objects on the sheet.

3. Now we will make a river. Apply glue to the place where you have marked the river and generously cover it with semolina, lightly press it with your hand, let the glue dry for a couple of minutes and shake off the remaining semolina.

4. The next stage is preparing the working material: leaf crumbs. To do this, we select leaves of different shades, group them and crush them in our hands, and put the resulting crumbs into separate piles.

5. Now we will make tree trunks. We will need leaf crumbs of a darker tone. We cover the place of the trunk with glue and sprinkle with crumbs, you can select large pieces and put them in place of the trunk.

6. Now we select the lightest leaf crumbs to work with. We apply glue to the place where some trees are located that are not adjacent to each other, to the place where the sun will be located. Cover with leaf crumbs. Let them dry and shake off any excess crumbs.

7. Now we will work with a darker tone of the crumb. We apply glue to the place where the trees are planned; you can choose those between the finished trees. Sprinkle generously with crumbs, let dry and shake off excess leaves.

Types of applications

Overlay applique. Try to start by coming up with pictures that do not require cutting out any details from the leaves, but are created by overlaying the leaves. You can come up with a lot of such pictures: butterflies, mushrooms, chickens and other birds... The missing elements can be drawn in with a felt-tip pen or made from other natural materials.

Having mastered simple pictures, children can begin to come up with multi-tiered images. In this technique, leaves are glued on top of each other in layers. The application will turn out bright and cheerful if the leaves are different in color.

Silhouette applique. In this type of appliqué, excess parts of the leaf are cut off so that the result is exactly what the little artist intended.

Modular application (mosaic). Using this technique, a picture is created by gluing many leaves of the same or similar shape and size (or, for example, maple seeds). This way you can make the scales of a fish, the tail of a cockerel or a firebird.

Symmetrical applique. It is used to create individual images or entire paintings with a symmetrical structure, as well as to obtain two completely identical images (for example, reflection in water). To do this, you need to select similar leaves to get an image with its “reflection” or symmetrical in itself (“Butterfly”, “Dragonfly”, “Landscape with a lake”, “Boat on the river”).

Ribbon applique - a type of symmetrical appliqué. Its difference is that it allows you to get not one or two, but many identical images - ornaments. You get a whole “round dance” of trees, flowers, mushrooms, butterflies, etc.