Paper Leaf Print Lanterns Tutorial

~Burger and I made leaf lanterns last week and I wanted to share this fun easy project. The idea sort of evolved out of a project from this super terrific kids art book. Her project is simply put the paint on the leaf with fingers and then the leaf on the paper . The lantern idea came because we had a not so much paper but a bunch of little brown bags. I thought I could still use the bags and they would have nice leaf prints on them. I liked them so much I thought we should hang them up like bunting. Then I sad to myself " how cool if they had little lights in them?". So put lights in them but they were a little dark. I decided to try again with white bags.

I made quite a few changes but the best one was we used a roller( the brayer in the photo) to imprint the leaf on the bag.



Materials
paint ( we used tempera)
leafs assorted shapes and sizes
5-8 white pare bags
a small roller( used a brayer but a small rolling pin would work fine)
twine or cord to hang your lanterns on
hole punch
a few sheets of paper( plain ole paper or news print)
led lights optional ( i got some cheap at big lots)


process

1. ink(paint) your leaf
2.lay the leaf paint side down on bag
3.back it with a piece of paper( we forgot to do this a lot)
4.roll brayer over leaf with even pressure
5.remove leaf


6.repeat 1-5 till all bags are printed all over. ~We put one leaf at a time on each bag then went through them all several times til we felt fulfilled

7. punch 2 holes through the top of each bag at the corners
8. put a little light in each bag and string um up! I tied knots on the first attempt but did not on the second. As it turned out we did not need the knots so much.


9.hang it up and enjoy your falling glowing leafs. I think they are lovely with or with out the lights but the kiddies always love the lights so I think that made it more fun for the burger.

~ This project is all about the process so you may only have a few leaf prints that actually look like leaves. It was fun for us to gather the leaves and then print and watch how our brightly colored paints melded together into a beautiful fall palette. ...have fun!