Leaf Necklaces

My boys (aged 8 and 10) amused me this morning.  I suggested that we made a craft present for each of  their girl friends.  You should have heard the protests they made about definately not having any girlfriends! Not to mention the vigorous shaking of heads and protestations at the idea of making anything for the girls that we do know.  I showed them the finished craft which looked easy & fun and wouldn't take them very long.  I had found it on this great (american) site, Frugal Family Fun Blog today (the site link is also in my sidebar). 

They are initial leaf necklaces

 (for Cara, Megan, Ellie and Isabella :-)  )

The full instructions can be found on the link above but basically you use alphabet biscuit cutters to cut the initial out of a leaf and then laminate both sides using clear contact paper.  Cut the leaf out and then hole punch the contact paper at the top and thread & tie string through.

Despite their protests they DID make them. They fetched the leaves from the garden (hazelnut tree) and the older one was quite happy to make the initials.  (If I had got the leaves I'd have picked better specimens but you have to let them do things themselves!...)

Things we learned from doing this:

1. Make sure you check the leaves for teeny insects before you bring them inside!

2. You need a hammer or something tough to tap the initials with if your biscuit cutter shapes aren't as sharp as they should be.

3. Allow quite a bit of clear contact paper on the top where you punch the hole and if you accidently rip through it mend it with a clear reinforcement ring.  We put rings on all ours to make them stronger.

4. 'Big Bites' might be tough, but they aren't very good at punching holes in two layers of contact paper!

5. I need to learn some basic knotting techniques!

I'm pleased with the results (I even made one for myself!) and think they would also look

fab with seasonally coloured Autumn leaves.

Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave