Wednes-DiY: Hammered Flower Art Project

Take your kids on a nature walk to gather some fresh leaves and flowers,

and then use them to "paint" a picture!

 

You will need:

a small pail of fresh leaves and/or flowers

newspaper or a couple magazines

hammer

watercolor paper (or printer paper)

paper towels

Gather some fresh flowers and leaves.  Try to find colorful flowers, and make sure the leaves are soft, not thick hard leaves.

Then, put your newspaper pile on a hard surface and lay the watercolor paper on top.  We used printer paper for this project, but watercolor paper will absorb more of the "plant juice" paint.

Lay all of the flowers out on top of the paper.  You may also choose to use one at a time, because they may shift and slide around on the paper.

Cover the flowers with a paper towel and start hammering them.  Watch your fingers, kids!

You will see the flowers start to bleed into the paper towel (and your paper as well).  Feel free to lift the paper towel to see how it's going under there!

Once you're done hammering, remove the paper towel and peel away the flowers from your paper.

After you remove all of the smashed flowers and leaves from your paper, you are left with a beautiful masterpiece!

*Results will look even better on watercolor paper.