Fall Nature Art for kids and adults

Do you love fall colors? I do. As much as I don't like the idea of winter coming, fall is beautiful here in western Pennsylvania! We have a yard full of trees and shrubs and I can't help picking up certain spectacular leaves as I walk past.

This year, I decided to do some art with them, with my 3 year old granddaughter who loves to create.

We picked up several we liked -- be sure to let them choose their own, and picked a few coral impatient petals to add variety. Then we painted our cheap 8x10 canvases with blue and green and red and orange, let it dry, and simply used Elmer's glue to attach the leaves and petals. Attach them whole or tear them into smaller sections.

Here's what the 3 year old came up with:

And this is mine. It's not done yet. I want to play with it and experiment more, but there's only limited time when you're working alongside a toddler.

If you don't want to use canvas, you can use heavy art paper instead. We used acrylic craft paint, but tempera would work, or even watercolor. The watercolor might smear with the glue, but that could add to the piece.

Do be sure to protect your surface area. We use a big plastic tablecloth on the floor to allow room to move without painting my carpet.

When it's done and fully dry, you can spray it with acrylic sealer or carefully brush on acrylic varnish. (An aside: glue does evaporate the flower petals if it's too heavy.)

If you make your own, I'd love to see photos of them in the comments.