If you are looking for an easy way to jazz up your Thanksgiving table, then this is the craft for you! In under an hour, you and your children can make a pile of beautiful placemats to use for Thanksgiving dinner. If you want to make these placemats, make sure you have the following materials:
-8x11 tag board sheets
-Autumn leaves
-Paint
-Paper towels
-Newspaper
-Paper plates
Step One: Go on a nice autumn walk with your kids, or just rake leaves in the front yard. While doing so, pick up a variety of leaves from maple, oak, poplar, and any other tree. Try to pick up a variety of sizes of leaves.
Step Two: Cover a table with newspaper and use this as your worksheet. Give each child (and yourself!) a sheet of tag board. Tag board is not as thin as paper but not as thick as cardboard. If you are not familiar with tag board, ask for it at your local craft supply store.
Step Three: Pour a bit of paint into the paper plates, using one plate for each color. Try to find a washable paint, but more importantly, make sure that the paint is non-toxic because the placemats will more than likely be used around food. Suggested paint colors include orange, red, yellow, and green because of their seasonal significance.
Step Four: Choose a leaf and choose a paint color. Press the leaf into the paint and then blot it on a pile of paper towels so that the paint is not very thick. You want as much leaf detail to show as possible, so the thinner the layer of paint on the leaf, the better it will look on the tag board. Press the leaf onto the tag board. Make sure you apply pressure to all parts of the leaf so that you get an even print. Keep printing the leaves in a pattern of your choice, but try to fill up most of the white space on the tag board. Try not to mix colors on the leaves, as the paint may mix and mess up the placemat of someone else. You may want to assign a few leaves of different types and sizes to each color.
Step Five: Let the prints dry and enjoy your new table artwork!
Tips:
-When you are done doing prints with one color, try mixing paints on the same leaf. You could do half of the leaf orange and half yellow. The mixing of colors looks great on the placemats because the colors really resemble the changing colors of autumn leaves.
-Many office stores will laminate objects for a small fee. If you want to preserve your family placemats for years to come, check out laminating fees in your area. This will keep your beautiful placemats safe from turkey grease and gravy!
-You can use crayons and markers to fill in the white spaces of the placemats with pictures or holiday greetings.
-Try sprinkling gold glitter over the leaf prints as the paint is drying to add some sparkle.
