We’ve been doodling and drawing on our beautiful fall leaves. In fact, we loved our Thanksgiving leaf garland so much last year that we are in the process of making another one. Although this time we somehow moved away from writing down all that we are thankful for and mostly just enjoyed the leaves as canvases for Autumn leaf art.
Autumn Leaf Art :: Leaf Drawing and Doodling
MATERIALS
- Autumn leaves, preferably pressed
- Metallic Sharpie markers
- Mod Podge
THE LEAF ART HOW-TO
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After we gathered the leaves we’ve been pressing and drying…
…we drew, wrote, and doodled on them with silver sharpies.
I love the metallic sharpies!
They work so well on the Autumn leaves and show up beautifully.
There was a fair amount of doodling on the mat board underneath the leaves as well…
Once we were finished drawing, I decided to try something that I found on Gingerbread Snowflakes via Pinterest: coating the dried leaves with Mod Podge to bring back the vibrant color of the leaves (they fade a bit with drying) and also to make them less brittle and more flexible. I spread my leaves out on wax paper first, brushed mod podge on one side, let dry, then turned them over and brushed on another coat.
It really works! The leaves are supple again and vibrantly colored. Beautiful! This last batch is mine by the way. Maia had moved on after drawing and I didn’t want to mod podge hers without her permission (she gave it shortly afterward).
Now we just have to assemble a garland from our leaf art . . .
By the way, if you wanted to draw on fall leaves but don’t have any pressed, you could either press them after drawing, OR, you could draw on the leaves then use them in a contact paper suncatcher or stained glass. The contact paper keeps the leaves flat as they dry and displays them at the same time.
How about you? Do you like to create with leaves? What is your favorite kind of Autumn leaf art?
so funny – we mod podged leaves yesterday (way cool!) and are in the process of stringing them today… this year we didn’t write on them though. the post will be up later this week. yours look so great with the metallic pens and mandalas! love them!
These look great!
these are stunning… and such a simple idea! I am pinning this for when Autumn rolls around again down here!
beautiful and creative– as usual! Thanks for sharing.
Sarah M
WOW!! i LOVE mod podge and i just love how beautiful the leafs came out!! WOWZA!! i can’t wait to try this!! :)
Can’t wait to see your post about your mod podged leaves, Jen!
I’d actually be interested in trying this with green leaves, too! Perhaps press them first, though…
:)
Thanks!
I’m so mod podge leaf addicted this year! If you haven’t done it yet, try the shimmer
Mod podge- it gives them a golden glow my kindergartner can’t resist! She calls them the “magic” leaves.
I’ve never used Mod Podge before (and sounds like I am seriously missing out) and just discovered there are many options available – what kind do you use? Thanks!
Could you modge podge these first THEN draw on them?
We didn’t do it that way, but I bet it would work just fine! And it would probably be easier to draw on the supple, mod-podged leaves. Definitely going to give your idea a try this year!
I’ve used both Matte and Satin Mod Podge, and I think a shiny one, too. So far I like Satin the best, but it probably depends on what you would use it for.
Ooh! Shimmer mod podge? Gotta try it!
What’s the best method for drying the leaves?
Wow! I totally love this! Believe it or not, an online friend in Holland sent me the link to your brilliant idea!!! I don’t happen to own a metallic sharpie, but the very minute I get my hands on one- you can bet I am giving this a try!!!
I have used regular Sharpies over areas of gourds that have been first covered with Mod Podge and they worked well so I am thinking the metallic will work.
Thank you so, so much for the link. I love being just a tiny part of your very cool project!!! I am actually going to place a link in the two Mod Podge leaf posts so others can see there are more possibilities!
Can you buy Mod Podge in England? Is this what we call pva glue?
Cool, great ideas!!!