Autumn Art - Leaf Prints

Unable to EVER get enough of autumn leaves, I wanted to try painting leaves for prints this year. It was awesome!

It's actually a pretty simple project. 

First, obviously, collect all sorts of leaves. You want many different shapes and sizes. (Before painting, we actually did a leaf and tree identification activity as well.) You'll want to have leaves that aren't dry and brittle. 

Have large pieces of black paper for printing on. We mostly used construction paper, but I did do one on cardstock and I liked that one the best. You could use any color, but the black really makes the prints pop.

We used acrylic paint. I've seen some people use tempera, but I don't like how tempera tends to crumble after it's dried.

Paint the BACK of the leaves, coating well, but not with so much paint that you have dripping blobs or puddles. (You can paint the front, but by painting the back the veins of the leaves are more prominent.) Put your leaf painted side down on your black paper, then take a piece of scratch paper and place it over the top so that you can press down and apply pressure all over the leaf to transfer the paint and make your print.

Remove scratch paper and carefully lift your leaf.  Repaint the same leaf, or try another one.

This is one of my creations.
This one was done on cardstock.

The kid who created this didn't want to use a black background.
This kid always manages to get a smiley face into every art project.

Another child's creation.

The child who did this one wanted to paint a frame around the leaves.

Another of mine.

If something happens in the process to make the artist not like every
bit of the full paper, don't fret. You can cut out the leaves that turned
out they way you like them and glue them to a different background.

I had a couple of frames laying around so I decided to frame two of
my creations for decoration. I taped everyone else's up in the school room.

When you're finished painting, the painted leaves
make a lovely decoration, too.

Please, Mrs. Mitchell!

PLEASE, Mrs. Mitchell!  Homeschool Dennis!

Today's Dennis the Menace cartoon has me buzzing, if you can't tell. The idea that education, or life, is all about sitting still and conforming chaps my soul. There is a time and a place to be still, and children can and should learn, but being forced to sit still and stand in lines and sit still for 6-plus hours a day is abusive, plain and simple.  I can't do it, and don't know many adults who can. Why do we expect it of children? And to imply that a lack of focus is the fault of a child and not in any way the result of being in a stuffy room with 30 other children... all day... being tested, tested, tested instead of engaged in something worthwhile and interesting... at what point did simple sense escape Earth's atmosphere?  For my part, I often think and focus better when I'm... MOVING.

So I say to all the Mrs. Mitchell's out there, get your boy out of the classroom and outdoors. Don't feel badly. Edison's and Einstein's mothers were also told their sons weren't fit for school. Hallelujah that they weren't! 

The Spirit of God

It kind of feels like Christmas. That full, happy, peaceful feeling at the end of something wonderful and enriching, where you're standing at the intersection of holiday and tomorrow, blissful and still glowing but ready to cross the street to the "regular" days afterward. After a refueling, renewing weekend of General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I am always ready to go to work, at being better and doing better.

I continue to be amazed at how much Conference is filled with the Spirit of God. So much so that just a couple of chords from the organ at the Conference Center can start the tears flowing as I feel an enormously warm peace envelop me with the feeling that I am as close to "home" as I can get here on Earth--home being that Heavenly Home in the presence of my Father. There is something so powerful in the unity of the gathering of the faithful and the outpouring of  direction from prophets, seers, and revelators; try as I might I cannot find words to describe what I feel, but I know when I feel the Spirit of God.

If this isn't the sound of Heaven, I don't know what is.

Ponderize!

During the Sunday Afternoon Session of General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today, Devin G. Durrant issued a very specific challenge. Interestingly, the challenge is very similar to something I've found myself doing lately already. The challenge is to ponderize scripture. 

To ponderize is to take a verse (or selection of verses) of scripture and to ponder/memorize it for a week. 

I can testify to the benefit of doing this. I have always been a proponent of memorizing scripture. I can't possibly list every instance in which memorized scriptures coming to mind has guided and comforted me. But lately I've come to understand the blessing of really studying and pondering one verse in detail.

One day I came across a verse in my reading that struck me with great force. Mostly it's because I realized that I am not what this verse says I should be. But I knew, in reading it again and again, that I would be so much happier if I could change and I want to be the kind of person this verse describes. So for a period of time, I went to that verse again and again, day after day to read and reread, look words up in the dictionary for greater understanding, and cross reference... and to ponder. I have done a lot of pondering on this one verse and on who I am and who I want to be. Thus a verse that chastised me at first (though that's not how it's written) has become a favorite, trusted friend.

So it is with great enthusiasm that I am going to choose a new scripture tonight to print, post on my fridge, and ponderize this week.