Craft Project: Reversed Leaves - The Cleveland Moms

This past week has been amazing for fall lovers – cool dry days, crunchy leaves, and it just smells like fall outside. I had seen a lot of leaf rubbings, and leave prints for fall craft ideas, but I decided to mix it up a bit – and yes, I wanted to get a little messy.

I am still upcycling this craft a bit in that I found uses for found leaves outside and took a canvas from an older painting that I didn’t really like and used it on this project.

 

Supplies needed: A blank canvas (any size you want), paint brushes, acrylic paints in fall colors (orange, yellow, red, green, brown), leaves from outside.

 

 

To create a masterpiece, you must have INSPIRATION!!! Get out! Go for a walk, play in the backyard, even walk around where you work. You want to find leaves that are just fallen. They need to be pliable, not crunchy. If they are crunchy, they will fall apart when you paint them.

Wash the leaves off to make sure no stowaways came into the house. After they are washed, place the leaves on damp paper towels. This will help keep the leaves soft and pliable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are reusing a canvas from a prior project, you want to lightly sand the canvas and paint over the whole canvas with primer and let dry. If not, you can pick up a canvas in any size you like at your local craft store.

Lay out your leaves on your canvas. For this first part, leave room in between the leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pick out a color you want to start with. Put a small amount on a dry paint brush. You will not “wake-up” your brush with water for this project like you do with other painting. Paint the edge of the leaf starting with your brush on the leaf and painting outward onto the canvas. Paint all around the outside of the leaf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pick a different color and go around all the other leaves you placed on your canvas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now for me, this was way too basic. You can jazz up your work a few ways. You can add detail work such as drawing the veins of the leaves in the blank centers, or lightly highlighting the outlines. A third way is to add more layers.

I wanted this to look like a pile of leaves, so I added more leaves and painted their outside edges. You can add lighter or darker colors to mix it up as well. I brought yellow in on this second layer. I went with 2 layers, but if you have smaller leaves, you easily add a 3rd layer to your painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ta-Da!! You did it! Magnifique!

Reversed mini lesson created by RenKroDesigns

Check out more Eco-friendly artwork and ideas on Facebook @RenKroDesigns or Instagram @RenKroDesigns

 

 

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