Crafty Fall Fun

We don't get a lot of fall leaves in California. We can occasionally find a red maple or a few other signs of autumn, but our milder weather means we generally don't get the brilliant colors you'd see in other parts of the country. Since the girls and I can't go outside to gather scarlet, brown, gold, and orange leaves, I decided Kathleen and I would just make some -- at least some "stained glass" versions.

Like most projects with a toddler, this one required a fair amount a preparation. Last night I grated crayons. I stood in the kitchen to do that, using a box grater and some broken crayons from our "colors." Jim and some classmates were working on a problem set as I did it; I'm fairly sure they think I'm crazy. (But I do feed them when they come over to work, so at least there's that going for me.) The crayon grating was a bit tedious. It felt like it took forever to get a decent pile of wax shavings in red, orange, yellow, and brown. (If you're thinking about doing this, though, just know that you don't need nearly as much as you'd think!) I left the grated crayons in disposable cups and set about cutting out the black construction paper frames for our stained glass. I cut a half a dozen leaf-shaped frames. We were ready!

I had thought we'd wait to do our project until late morning or even the afternoon, but Kathleen had other ideas. She noticed the cups right away and, once I'd explained what they were for, couldn't wait to get started. And so, as soon as we'd finished breakfast, we started crafts.

I gave Kathleen one of Madeline's baby spoons to scoop the shavings. She set right to work, arranging the colors on pieces of waxed paper.

She was a little tentative at first, but by the end Kathleen was scooping with abandon!

Once Kathleen had the shavings arranged to her liking, she'd hand the waxed paper off to me. I'd lay a warm iron on top of our waxed paper sandwich, melting the crayon shavings inside. Kathleen loved standing next to me, watching the colors spread and change. We don't have any pictures of that, although I wish we did. I just don't have enough hands to use an iron and fend off two inquisitive little girls and use a camera!

When we finished the ironing, Kathleen used a glue stick to prepare the construction paper frame.

After I trimmed up the waxed paper, Kathleen set it inside the frame and pressed it shut. Instant fall color...

What fun!