Leaf Art

The kids and I visited the Houston Arborteum a few weeks ago to learn more about the wildlife in our area.  As we walked along the trails, the kids were looking for anything that crawled, slithered or flew above their heads.  We saw so many beautiful sites that day, a few tiny insects and thankfully no slithering snakes (or large animals)!  After our walk, we stopped at the arboretum's park (very fun!) to eat lunch and my daughter saw an interesting leaf on the ground... a heart shaped leaf!  We took the leaf home and it's now hanging on our living room wall....

To flatten the leaf, we carefully placed it inside a heavy book and let it sit between the pages for a few weeks.  When it was completely flat, we removed the leaf from the book to frame it.  I used a paper adhesive to secure the leaf to black poster board....

..... then wrote "love" using a gold Prismacolor maker (just like here and here).

We framed the heart leaf in a quick frame (it's one of my favorites) and hung it on the gallery wall in the living room.....

It's such a quick and easy project (minus the waiting time for the leaf to flatten)!  What's your favorite way to preserve nature that your kids (or you) bring inside?