Autumn Lanterns

This week we have been enjoying the colours of Autumn!  We took a trip to our local park and admired the changing of the seasons.  I asked the boys to gather together different-coloured leaves (this was initially part of Wugs’ Autumn Scavenger Hunt, arranged by his preschool), but the boys seemed eager to pick up more and more leaves and fill their baskets, so we used the leftover leaves to create these beautiful Autumn lanterns.

I purchased a couple of glass jars from Sainsburys and using a paint brush I covered the inside of the jar with Mod Podge.  (You could let the child do this part, but mine were tired after all that walking!)  Then I asked the children to choose the leaves they wanted to put inside their lanterns.   I pressed the leaves into the inside of the jars and then brushed Mod Podge over them until they stuck.  I found non-waxy leaves worked best as they stuck to the side better.  This part was quite difficult to do as the mouth of our jars was fairly narrow, so I pushed down the leaves inside the jar gently with the paint brush.  A jar with a wider opening would have worked better and the child could gently place the leaves inside him/herself. When we had finished we left the jars to dry overnight. 

The next day we placed LED lights inside the jars which illuminated the leaves to show their intricate designs and colours. 

What we used:

Coloured leaves 

Glass jar

LED light

Mod Podge

Paint brush