Craft: Autumn Placemat

The past few weeks, my 4 year old and I did a few crafts for the fall season. I'm just now getting around to posting them :)

In this post, I'd like to share the autumn placemat that we made on Thursday.

My daughter is always trying to collect leaves from outside and bring them in the house. We usually end up with leaves by the front door, and sometimes she even sticks them in our fridge....So when she wanted to bring some leaves in the other day, I had to think of a way she could keep a few 'pretty leaves' (as she calls them) in the house without them being all over the place. I decided she could make a placemat...that way the leaves would be preserved, and not be crumbled and scattered around.

Here she is the finished product:

Here is how to make your own autumn placemat:

Supplies:

• Leaves (we used 10) or paper cut-outs of leaves or anything autumn-themed.
• two matching lengths of wax paper (whatever size you desire your placemat to be)
• a sheet of newspaper big enough to cover the wax paper
• iron set on medium heat
• contact paper or construction paper
• markers/colored pencils/crayons (optional)

Instructions:

1. Have your child (or yourself) pick a few nice leaves from outside.
2. Lay one piece of wax paper down so that the shiny side (the side with all the wax) is facing up.
3. Have your child arrange the leaves on the wax paper however is desired.
4. Place the second piece of wax paper, shiny side down, on top of the leaves.
5. Place a sheet of newspaper over the waxed paper and, with your iron set on medium heat, press the sheets until the wax paper fuses together.
6. Cut up the construction or contact paper to create a border for your placemat.
7. Glue the border into place and let dry