Around the Kids Table

Instructor: So for this activity, you'll need something simple as tape, your leaves that you pick up on your walk or in your backyard even. I have an Elm leaf and some Maple leaves here. I'm gonna grab what looks like a Virginia Creeper leaf. Pretty cool, five little leaflets on that one. And I'm turning these leaves upside down because the venation on the backside of the leaves is a lot more in relief. And you're going to get better leaf rubbings that way. You get more detail in new leaf rubbings. 
 
And I'm just using basic printer paper, just white printer paper. Doesn't have to be anything fancy. You can use construction paper. It might be a little bit too thick. And for little hands, this activity would be good to tape the paper down so it doesn't move around too much. As you can see, I have a bucket full of naked crayons because my three-year-old likes to pull all the paper off of them. It's perfect for this activity actually cause you want to use the side of the crayon. You get the best relief and rubbing with that, with the side of the crayon. And if you're finding that you're not getting all the detail that you want in a certain part of the leaf, you can turn the crayon to get that part of the leaf. You can do different colors. As you can see, I'm doing a couple of different colors here. And I'm actually gonna go back and add more leaves to my rubbing. 
 
So what you'll do is just pick up a corner and put it underneath. You could even shift the paper and get kind of like a, a ghost effect where you double print the same leaf in a rubbing, and you can be really, really artistic and creative with this exercise. It's pretty neat. So I'm using a Columbine leaf here. And you can use the tip of the crayon but you're not going to get as nice a contrast and the detail between the venation and the leaf itself. Here, actually I used yellow. So I'll use a little bit of red over top of that Columbine leaf to get a little bit more relief or a little bit more contrast in my rubbing. And we can use chalk also for this kind of activity but it will have a tendency to smudge. You can even use chalk pastels, but again, same issue. So I like to use crayons. Colored pencils could even work. You see, you get kind of like a stained-glass effect.

And here I got Sassafras, Pin Oak and Elm leaf. Just making sure my composition's just right. And I'm not taping it down this time 'cause I'm just doing a quick one for myself. Turn that crayon to the side to get into that midrib there, get more of the venation. And I really like Oak leaves doing leaf rubbings 'cause they have such a great, graceful shape to them and they really just pop out. Sassafras you can see I was talking about was pretty tender. So you can see where the leaf goo's coming through the paper. I didn't mind though. Add in another leaf to cover in some of that white space there. Another Virginia Creeper leaf. And you can just keep goin'. You know, the possibilities are endless. I really like to do lots and lots of layers. 
 
So to get it like a stained glass look, and if you, I mean, if you were to matte and frame some of these, it'd be quite beautiful to hang up in your house. All the ones that my son and I created are now hung up in our playroom, which is where I am in this video. So I had a lot of fun with these. I did probably way too many. 
 
And here's my little boy having his own turn. And like I said, it would have been easier had I taped the corners for him instead of holding it. That way you can go, just go to town on rubbin' the leaf. He decided to go with a Liriodendron tulipifera or a yellow Poplar or Tulip Poplar leaf. And as he finishes his leaf rubbing you'll see a cat face show up. The leaf has a silhouette shape of a cat face, like two ears and whiskers. So, pretty cool little activity. 
 
So here are some examples of what I came up with and my little boy's leaf rubbing. As you can see it's just pretty cool designs that you can come up with. These might be great for upcoming Father's Day cards to make a nice background for some text and just have fun with it. It's a really beautiful activity and a way to connect with the family, an excuse to get outside and collect leaves and learn about trees. Maybe not just collect some leaves but figure out what tree's there, that you're collecting. And be sure to post your leaf rubbings on our Facebook page. We'd love to see what you guys come up with. Happy leaf hunting! Have fun.