Making nature prints

Creating prints from natural materials can be a whole lot of fun for you or your kids.  I had an opportunity to conduct another free class at the little library a couple of weeks ago.  This was the last of a series of free kids art classes this spring.

The idea was to collect some interesting natural materials, cover them in paint, and use them to make prints.  The materials I used were just collected from my yard.  Ferns, leaves, flowers, weeds.  I also added some feathers and even a snake skin for texture.  Maybe you can take a nature walk with your kids to collect the materials. 

Some of the kids used artist canvas boards, but we found that paper or cardboard works best as supports for the prints.  The paper can be plain white or colored, or even textured.  Some of the kids did a pre-print drawing or rainbow on their papers.  There are just so many ideas.

This was a pretty messy project so as before, I recommend a disposable table cloth, lots of newspapers, disposable plates for palettes, and disposable cups for water.  Actually, after our class was done, nearly everything got wrapped up in the tablecloth and tossed. Easy cleanup.

I also recommend that you AND the kids wear some protective clothing or aprons.  An old shirt turned backwards works great, too. Things may (WILL) get messy.

The paint we used was acrylic but tempera or poster paints work pretty good, too.  And we used cheap makeup sponges instead of brushes.

Before we started, I showed the kids some of the sheets where I had practiced with some of the materials.  Then I demonstrated the process.  Afterwards, they painted their leaves or whatever, pressed it into their papers, and used some newspapers to really rub in in. Then they needed to gently lift the leaf or natural materials off.  The most difficult part was to judge how much paint was enough and not too much or too little.  They caught on very quickly.

This would be a great project to do outdoors on a summer day.  The kids didn’t sit down as they kept moving around, trying new materials.  I was so happy to see them having so much fun.

If you try this out, please let me know how your project turns out.