Patchwork Acorn

With this project, your child can create a beautiful piece of artwork just in time for the falling of the leaves.

What you'll need:

• Scraps of painted paper from the leaves you cut from the Leafy Door Hanger, a piece of paper finger painted with fall colors, construction paper or magazine pages in red, orange, yellow, green, and brown
• 1 sheet of black construction paper
• 1 sheet of white copier paper
• Black marker
• Pencil
• Paper clip
• Scissors
• Acorn pattern

How to make it:

1. Cut the scraps of painted paper/construction paper/magazine pages into 1/2” – 1” pieces.
2. Print acorn pattern, you will need to enlarge the image.
3. Trace around the pattern using a black marker (see image). Place a piece of white paper on top of the pattern and paper clip it to hold in place.
4. Use glue bottle to trace around the pattern on the blank paper, the black marker should show through allowing you to trace. Fill in the pattern area on the blank paper with white craft glue. Remove paper clip and take printed pattern out from behind the glued paper (see image).
5. Place painted paper scraps onto the glue, overlapping the edges of the pattern and leaving some white space between each scrap of painted paper. Set aside to dry (see image).
6. Take printed pattern and place over the top of one sheet of black construction paper. Use a pencil to trace the outline of the acorn pattern, pressing firmly so that the black paper underneath becomes indented.
7. Remove pattern and carefully cut out the two traced shapes from the black paper, leaving an acorn shaped window in the black paper (see image).
8. Line up the black paper with the acorn-shaped window over the top of the mosaic acorn picture so that the mosaic pieces appear through the window.
9. Glue or tape the white paper onto the back of the black paper with the acorn window.
10. Glue extra pieces of painted paper around the border of the paper as a mosaic frame.

Tips:

• You can use torn pieces of autumn colored construction paper or have children color paper with crayons.
• Want to make the back of the artwork look neater? Glue on another piece of black paper to the back so that you cannot see the white paper at all.
• Try other shapes like fall leaves or apples.
• White craft glue works great, but glue sticks would be less messy if that’s a concern.