Fall Greeting Cards

After we had as many leaves as our hands could hold we brought them in so we could talk about them. Here are a few facts about leaves that we found interesting:

 

• Leaves make food for plants using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide
• The process of making food is called photosynthesis
• Leaves are green because of chlorophyll
• Leaves have veins that carry water and nutrients
• Carotenoids produce the yellow-orange color you see during autumn
• Carotenoids are present during summer but an abundance of green chlorophyll masks the yellow-orange
• Anthoncyanins produce the red-purple color seen during autumn
• Don’t forget to discuss how all leaves are different sizes and shapes, did you know pine needles are leaves!?

We wanted to be able to share our leaves with everyone we know so we made greeting cards with them. We used three simple techniques to create our cards; Sharpies and watercolor resist, crayon rubbing and watercolor resist, and foil rubbing and Sharpies.

Here’s what you’ll need to make our cards:

• Blank note cards (or paper thick enough for watercolors)
• Permanent markers
• Watercolors
• Crayons
• Aluminum foil
• Scissors
• Glue

First we traced our leaves with Sharpies, then drew the veins in the outline, we painted the inside of our leaves with watercolors.

For crayon rubbing, we placed a leaf (bottom side up) under our note card and rubbed the top of the note card with the side of a crayon, then we painted them with watercolors.

The foil rubbing technique was a favorite. Placing our leaves under a piece of aluminum foil and rubbing it with our fingers revealed the leaf’s shape, we used Sharpies to color the shape. Wait for the ink to be dry, cut the leaf shape out and glue it to the note card. 

 

Now we can send autumnal greetings with our leaf themed cards to family and friends! For some added fun write a leaf fact on the inside of a card or even add a quote or poem about fall!