Wax leaf rubbings are a fun art project for kids that lots of you will already be familiar with but I wanted to take this traditional art project a step further.
I loved the idea of the children being able to combine leaf rubbing with leaf painting and hence this Wax Resist Leaf Painting art project for kids was born!
This was an Autumn activity for us but it could of course easily be done at any time of year. I love nature art and crafts because they get the children outside first really engaging with what’s around them.
Bringing items like leaves and pinecones from the outside in for arts and crafts is a great way to encourage children to look really closely at what they find and hopefully it will help install a sense of awe and wonder about the natural world and a desire to care for it as they grow up too.
Other favourite leaf inspired arts and crafts are Leaf Sewing, Leaf Sensory Bags and Leaf Window Paintings.
Supplies For Your Wax Resist Leaf Art Project
- Leaves
- Paper
- White Candle
- Watercolour Paints
- Brushes
How To Plan Your Leaf art Project
The children can collect leaves from outside for their nature art project, any sized leaves will do as long as they’re fairly flat. Then they need to choose what colour paper they want to work with. I like to give them a choice.
When the leaf is laid under the paper the children can lay the candle down and using its whole length rub it all over the top of the paper. They’ll quickly see the amazing pattern of all the leaf’s veins showing up.
They might just want to pause there before moving onto the painting part just to admire the leaf’s structure. It really is quite fascinating and beautiful!
There’s a few different ways the children can experiment with for painting the leaves.
- They could give the paper a water wash first or just leave it dry.
- They could experiment with big and small brush sizes.
- They could use one colour of paint or a mixture of two or more.
We were using liquid rather than solid watercolours and found that painting the leaves worked best for us when we worked on dry paper but diluted the paints a lot on a saucer of water first.
If the paper looks like it’s getting too wet just use a sheet of paper towel to mop up the excess.
Wax resist leaf painting is a great nature inspired art project for children to enjoy all year round. The results are subtle and gorgeous!
More Fun Autumn Crafts For Kids:
