Nature Embellished Owl

PROJECT OVERVIEW:
To print out the owl listed in Supply List and decorate it with natural items found on a nature hunt.

SUPPLY LIST:
- download your FREE owl.pdf
- 1 sheet letter sized paper
- 1 sheet of cardboard or card stock that is larger than letter size
- glue (Elmer's or Tacky)
- scissors
- crayon, marker and or colored pencils
- pine cones, small twigs, pine needles, acorns, leaves & other small natural elements to decorate your owl

DIRECTIONS:
1) Download your FREE owl.pdf and print on a letter sheet of paper.

2) Glue the owl printout onto a thicker backing such as cardboard. Lay a heavy book on top of this so it dries flat w/out any wrinkles. (set aside to dry)

3) Go outside on a nature walk and collect pine cones, leaves, twigs and other items to decorate your owl.

4) Bring your items inside. Color your owl with crayon, marker and or colored pencil.

5) Then add natural embellishments to your owl by gluing them down on top of the paper.

6) Decorate your entire owl with natural elements, trying to decorate him with as much nature as you can!

7) Set aside to dry. Then hang up for some lovely Fall decor!

Leaf Silhouettes

PROJECT OVERVIEW: For kids 10+
Abstract Art: art that does not attempt to represent external, recognizable reality but seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, forms, colors, and textures.

Silhouette: the dark shape and outline of someone or something visible against a lighter background

Contrast: enhancement of the apparent brightness or clarity of a design provided by the juxtaposition of different colors or textures.

SUPPLY LIST:
- BIG piece of scrap cardboard roughly poster size (16x20).
- pencil
- 2 different contrasting colors of acrylic paint (1 light color and 1 darker color).
- paint brush and rinsing cup/paper towels
- sunny day with shadows (mornings and late afternoons work best)

DIRECTIONS:
1) Find a large piece of cardboard/matt board, as described above.

2) Choose 2 different paint colors to use (again, 1 light and 1 dark).

3) Paint your entire piece of cardboard with the lighter of your 2 colors. Let dry (acrylics dry fast but this could be done in 2 days if in a classroom).

4) When your base color is dry, take cardboard and pencil outside. Find a shadowy spot under a tree that has good leaf/branch shadows on ground. Lay your cardboard on ground so that shadows cover it and overlap across it.

5) Lightly trace the silhouette of tree/branch shadows on your cardboard. *NOTE: just trace the OUTLINE of shadows, it might not look like individual leaves to you, just COPY the shadows. **TIP: trace rather quickly, so that the sun/shadows don't move :)

6) When you are finished tracing shadows, bring everything inside and PAINT the shadows in with your darker paint color.

7) Let dry and you're done! You've made your own exclusive abstract print!

Leaf Stencil Squares

PROJECT OVERVIEW: For preschool on up
Study the DIFFERENT shapes of Fall leaves and create art using each leaf as a stencil to trace its shape. This project also studies different 2d textures such as: print, solid color, patterns and pictures.

SUPPLY LIST:
- 4, 8"x8" squares of brown grocery bags (measure and cut the squares from a bag)
- 4, different shaped leaves (the leaf should fill up the majority of your 8" squares, aim for about 5" sized leaves) NOTE: Avoid multiple leaves on a stem, just use single leaf shapes)
- pencil
- scissors
- ruler
- glue or tape
- The following four different scrap (keyword) papers all need to be about an inch larger than each leaf, so about a 7" square). Again, try to use scrap-type papers:
1) - 1 sheet scrap paper with PRINT (newspaper or magazine prints will work best)
2) - 1 sheet scrap paper with mostly SOLID COLOR (can have some different colors or texture but should be mostly solid)
3) - 1 sheet scrap paper with a PATTERN (think polka-dots, plaid, stripes, or random shapes like clouds or balloons).
4) - 1 sheet scrap paper with a PICTURE (could be a scrap photo, illustration, painting, etc) NOTE: let the picture get cropped into your leaf stencil, we don't want the whole picture to be perfectly fit into leaf, rather it should look like it is bleeding off)

DIRECTIONS:
1) Find 4 different shaped leaves (the leaf should fill up the majority of your 8" squares, aim for about 5" sized leaves) NOTE: Avoid multiple leaves on a stem, just use single leaf shapes. Press in book if they need to be flattened some.

2) Cut and measure 4, 8" squares from brown grocery bags. Set aside.

3) Lightly trace in pencil the....
a) outline of leaf #1 on the center of your scrap PRINT paper.
b) outline of leaf #2 on the center of your scrap SOLID COLOR paper.
c) outline of leaf #3 on the center of your scrap PATTERNED paper.
d) outline of leaf #4 on the center of your scrap PICTURE paper.

4) Carefully cut the leaf shapes out of each paper piece (so that you end up with 4 leaves in the different paper types).

5) Apply a thin layer of glue to the back side of each leaf cutout. Adhere ONE leaf cutout to the center of each brown paper square. Press firmly and lay book on top so the cutouts dry flat.

6) Once dried, decorate your room for Fall with these pieces or make a book... its up to you! Go a step further and identify each leaf, and label the leaves with their tree :)