Glitter Leaves

Well, it’s now September. Fall will officially be here on the 22nd. However, the leaves have been turning for over a week now. And I use the term ‘turning’ very loosely.

Are the leaves brilliant orange? Nope.

Vibrant red? Nope.

Golden yellow? Nope.

They are brown, brown, brown.

Dismal brown.

So I thought that this year I’d bring the glorious fall colors to my grandkids by way of a craft — glitter leaves!

Here’s what you need to make them:

• Fake leaves from the craft store (mine were silk)
• School glue
• Glitter
• Sponge paintbrush

Be sure to protect your work area with something such as paper towels or newspaper.

Squirt some glue on a leaf and spread it around with a sponge paintbrush.

(Let me pause here to make a comment about dollar store glue. YUCKY! Enough said.)

Then sprinkle on some glitter. We used gold and silver.

Let me pause here for a moment and talk about glitter. My silver glitter was in a bottle with holes in the lid so you could shake the glitter out. The holes were super small and it took FOREVER to cover the leaf.

I had tons of gold in a tall tube. I emptied some into a small bowl so that the kiddos could grab a pinch and sprinkle it on. That worked okay. But, they got glitter all over their fingers. (Which then went into their hair, on their clothes, on the floor, on the chairs, and all over the house. Sigh.)

See how easy that is to do?

Ta da! Great job on your glitter leaf, Simon. (These pictures don’t do the leaves justice. They look so sparkly pretty with the glitter!)

Elliot does a fantastic job, too!

Even though the kiddos didn’t spread the glue evenly and even though they didn’t sprinkle the glitter on evenly, they loved their leaves. (See the one that is almost solid gold? Tons of glitter there!)

Now a word about glitter.

Boy howdy! It’s a bugger to clean up. I wiped off the table. And wiped. And wiped.

I swept the floor. And swept. And swept.

I used a shop vac. Still couldn’t get it all up!

Glitter was everywhere. All over the kitchen where we did the craft. In the front room. Down the hall toward the bedrooms. Dear daughter-in-law, please don’t strangle me! Next time I do a glitter activity with your kids, I’ll do it at my house. Promise!

So a word to the wise. If you’re doing this when the weather is nice outside, DO IT OUTDOORS! That is unless you enjoy having glitter up the wazoo for eternity!