This year marks the first year I will be homeschooling my children aged 6 and 3. While I do have some doubt in my mind I am doing me best to remind myself that I am my child’s best teacher. Our philosophy of school is to make and keep learning fun and within our real everyday life. Given that school starts in fall we decided to start our projects surrounding the fall theme. First we printed out a leaf identification booklet so that we could collect leaves from our trees within our yard and identify what types they were.
As it turns out we found out we have three giant White Oaks in our yard along with one Basswood, one Shagbark Hickory that drops very fragrant nuts and two Maples. My kids loved finding the leaves, and matching them to their booklet. After we had identified the leaves/trees learned about what each tree was good for and what benefits they had as wood types. I decided the learning was fun but we should add a fall project onto that list as well. Below are the steps to making your own air dry clay leaf bowls.
Below is our supplies list
- a bowl to form the clay bowl shape
- Any type of Air Clay you prefer
- A roller of some sort
- leaves of choice
- (not pictured a knife or exacto blade)
Step 1: With our particular clay we needed to soften the clay a bit by kneading it for a few minutes.
Step 2: Roll the clay out in an even thickness ( little ones may need some help with this step) Also laying down some wax paper will make removal easier!
Step 3: Make sure the clay is large enough to cover the space of the leaf. And use roller to press leaf into clay.
Step 4: Trace around leaf edge with exacto blade or knife.
Step 5: Peel up leaf
Step 6: Marvel at beautiful delicate leaf veins
Step 7: Lay the leaf within a bowl that works well for the bowl and leaf shape you desire. Let air dry until dried (ours took a couple of days)
Step 8: Remove leaf from bowl and get creative, we used acrylic paints to paint ours as they thin easily for better coverage and can have a top sealer applied without issue.
My son loved to have as many non traditional fall colors as possible on his. Let the creativity fly!
My daughter started with traditional leaf colors but then got wild after!
Our finished pieces! Now after the acrylic paints are dried you can apply a top coat sealer to ensure that the paint doesn’t ruin or to make it a food safe surface.
Things I learned from this project:
- The thicker your clay bowl the better, ours ended up being a bit fragile since we used so little clay for each piece.
- Wax paper helps to pick the pieces up off the table and lay them in the bowl without ruining the edges trying to peel them up.
- If you don’t like strong smells I wouldn’t recommend the air clay we used as it had a very strong chemical smell that caused us to need our pieces to dry in a closet so we could avoid the smell which probably caused the delay in dry time.
I love homeschooling so much so far, the things we can learn are directly chosen by my kids but I’m able to incorporate all subjects within that lesson plan! Does your family do any fun seasonal crafts?! I can’t wait for thanksgiving and snow themed crafts!
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I am a stay at home mother of two, who loves to create in every form, from cooking, to henna, to painting or sculpting, creating with my hands is my passion! I love to dance and let loose when the music flows right. Being outside is a special kind of therapy I think humans need more of as well as mindfulness! I love all things new and adventurous and am always looking to experience more of life 🙂
This post currently has 12 responses.
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Sue Hull
What a fun craft! I have a 3 yr old granddaughter who would love doing this. So would my niece. Thank you for a fun idea ☺
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Angela Nichols
I love this! This is such a fun and creative idea! I think using flowers would be awesome too!
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Lauryn R
Wow, this is such a fun and creative Fall project to do with the kids! I have three kids that I homeschool, although the youngest two are only 4 & 3. My oldest is 8 and very artistic so she is always wanting to do crafts! I can’t wait to do this one with them, thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
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Peggy Nunn
Oh, I want to make these with the girls. That will make a great watch holder. Thank you for the idea.
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Sarah L
I’m not familiar with air clay. It makes for a fun project.
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Michelle S
The leaves look so realistic when you’re ready to paint them. What a great idea!
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Margaret S Porter
So cute. My grandson loves to craft. We need to try this one weekend.
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Margot C
Aren’t thosel lovely, and would grandma go mad for them. I love that air dry clay, very handy.
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gloria patterson
OK guilty I wanted to be there making my own leaf bowl! I loved doing crafts with kids and when my nieces were little we did so many different crafts. And today both of them are in their early 30’s and still do crafts.
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ellen beck
I love these! I have never heard of air clay, but then again I havent heard of alot of tings maybe it goes by another name. I love the bowls, non traditional colors or the traditional ones. These would make cool gifts for Aunts or Grandparents from kids (hint we Aunts love homemade kids things!) I like the creativity of this.
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Dorothy Boucher
I love this idea and what a great way to spend time with the children. I do love how the leaves came out and shaped.
@tisonlyme143
What a fun craft! I have a 3 yr old granddaughter who would love doing this. So would my niece. Thank you for a fun idea ☺