What you’ll need -
The beauty of this little activity is that you can use any paints or inks you have in the house already so its cheap and simple to do.
For our prints we used water based block printing ink because that’s what we had already but it will work just as well with poster paints.
Step 1 -
Add a good dollop of ink or paint to your tray, we then used our rollers to roll the ink out over the tray to give a nice even covering but you can also use a brush to even it out.
We then took an assortment of our leaves and pressed them firmly into the inks making sure that all areas had a good covering.
Top tip - the undersides of leaves sometimes have more pronounced patterns so put them in facing up.
Step 2 -
Once you have made sure all of your leaves have a good covering of ink carefully lift the out of the tray and arrange them inky side down on a piece of paper. Give them a little press to make sure they are all flat to make maximum contact with the paper.
Step 3 -
Once you have your leaf pattern arranged lay another piece of paper on top. We then need to press the leaves to make sure the ink transfers onto the paper - for this we used a pile of large heavy books which were big enough to cover the paper - and pushed down on the stack to press the leaves.
Step 4 -
After pressing, lift off the stack of books and extra sheet of paper. Carefully peel the leaves from the paper. You can keep them to repeat the process if you wish.
Once you have taken off all the leaves you have your finished print. Get your little artist to sign their masterpiece and if you want repeat the process over again.
So there we have it, a quick but effective project to keep little hands busy. Why not try it after making your own leaf collection? We’d love to see your prints so do tag in @buffandblueprints on Facebook and Instagram.
Happy printing!
]]>
We all seem to have an endless stream of to-do lists that never completely get finished, houses to clean, kids activities to schedule, mundane tasks like supermarket shopping or laundry (seriously my laundry is ridiculous ) but when do we take time out of a normal week to just sit, relax, read or create? Hardly ever that's when!
I'm lucky enough that I can work from home with my Buff and Blue products but this isn't my only gig. I'm what is apparently called a Slasher - not in the creepy murderous sense - but in that I have multiple streams of income and regularly work all 4 different professions on a regular basis which means that down time is rare and cherished.
Now I know that since we've been in lockdown you're probably sick of people online bragging of how they've baked sourdough or suggesting we learn a new language (Gwyneth I'm looking at you!), but maybe if we can just learn to take a little bit of time for ourselves that's not such a bad thing right?
So my promise to myself is that I won't waste my own time while I have it. I probably won't show my disastrous attempts at Macrame with the rope I bought last year or the horrible job that I'll probably make of the clothes that have laid aside to customise and so far my experiments of Natural Botanical Dying have been wholly underwhelming but there's always time to try again.
Even if you just think about the things you want to do but don't actually get around to making any of the things you planned because you're too busy binge watching the entire Marvel Universe film back catalogue or trying to exhaust your little darlings with a combination of Joe's P.E. and desperate attempts at understanding your 10 year olds homework at least we now have time to think.
Now in no way am I trying to make light of the horrible situation that we as a planet have found ourselves in but if there are any positives to be had its the gift of time - time to slow down, time to be together, time to create and time to dream. So if your attempt at a foraged spring wreath looks more like a blind bird tried to make a nest or your vegan cake would be better used to anchor a large ship don't worry too much about it - enjoy the process and move onto the next Pinterest board. Now where did I put that macramé rope??
]]>