martinzoo

Nope!

Paper lunch bags and glue. Yep, I swear!

This was my part of the “yes” day. I wanted to do a craft.

First we made a pattern from a poplar leaf.

And cut out a bunch of them, enough to have two sides for eight or nine leaves.

We squeezed glue all over one leaf….

………. bent a floral wire and lay it in the glue…….

……..then covered it with another leaf.

Here is the fun part. You paint the entire surface of the leaf with school glue on one side (you’ll do the other side later). Don’t leave any of the brown paper showing because you are going to burn the glue, which won’t catch on fire. But if you leave the bag part exposed, that might catch on fire. So just don’t.

Now holding the leaf by the stem, hold the glue side against the flame. This is probably an activity to be done with a child who listens to directions well. GB had no problem at all. The wire did not get hot, and the leaves never caught on fire. But if they did, you’d just quickly blow them out. It’s all in the glue application.

The flame will blacken the glue, which is normal.

When you’ve finished with all the leaves paint and burn the other side of each leaf and leave them in a good spot to air dry.

The very hardest part of this craft was waiting for the glue to be completely dry. Don’t go to the next step until they are absolutely dry.

Next you’ll want to wipe them all off gently with a soft tissue or paper towel. Some of it will remain blackened, which only adds to the cool effect.

Here is a close up of the leaves. They really are so cool. It’s hard to believe that you can get that kind of color and shine from glue!