Craft "Owl" from leaves

Owls are very popular heroes in fairy tales for children. They are very smart, sympathetic and therefore like children. Original crafts in the form of wise owls will perfectly fit into any interior and will cause only the most pleasant emotions in all family members. It is actually not very difficult to make this beautiful bird, and many materials can be used for this, ranging from woody (needles, cones, various branches) and dry foliage to newsprint and files.

Autumn leaves are a fairly popular material that rustles under the feet of passers-by in an immense amount in autumn. It can be actively harvested, gently dried, and used to decorate crafts throughout the long winter. The dried foliage will store the warmth of golden autumn with high quality and will continue to delight those around you with bright autumn colors. And on cold evenings with its help, you can engage in active creativity with your children, making beautiful autumn compositions.

Leaves of not very large sizes are best suited for appliqués. Small leaves have a smoother outline, so they can be neatly laid out on any pre-selected image and get a great result. In this case, not very large maple leaves are well suited. Place the most beautiful ones under a press or in a thick tome to dry. Most of the foliage can be wrapped in newspaper to add material to the 3D craft figurines.

The Autumn Owl Handicraft of Dried Gilded Leaves is beautifully crafted with detailed step-by-step instructions.

1. First, you should draw a sketch of the future contour of the owl on ordinary cardboard and carefully cut it out with scissors. This cut out part will become the basis of the entire workpiece.
2. Now you should apply some glue to the base and start filling the layout with dry leaves. If you are creating a craft together with your baby, then it is better to choose regular glue in the form of a pencil.
3. It is best to lay the leaves on the future craft first from the bottom, then layer by layer, going up. The material is laid "overlapping" (the leaves are placed on top of each other) until the workpiece is completely filled.
4. For bird ears, you can choose an oblong leaflet.
5. From a set of colored paper we select a suitable basis for the peephole, beak and large paws and cut them out according to the sketches. In the role of huge owl eyes, you can use large acorn caps.

You can choose the sizes of the materials used on your own - depending on whether you need a large owl or a small one, it should sit with open wings or folded them.

You can complicate the tasks a little. To do this, you just need to pick up a thickened branch and a skein of yarn. Large legs are made from a sheet of thick cardboard, which are pulled together with a thread from a skein into a small ring. Now you can thread the prepared branch through 2 circles and fix this structure well on the owl. You get the illusion that she sits crumpled on a branch in a forest.

Craft "Owl" is quite simple to perform and will look very impressive. To create it, it is not at all necessary to collect and dry the most even or beautiful leaves in the park. For work, even a seemingly very nondescript-looking brown withered foliage is perfect.

To complete the master class of the original owl made from dried leaves, you will need:

• any leaves that you can only find in the park;
• a skein of thread;
• transparent bag (garbage bag or file);
• a set of multi-colored paper;
• adhesive composition;
• adhesive tape: transparent and double-sided.

First you need to dry well all the leaves collected in advance. You don't even have to waste your time and start drying them under the existing press - you can just sprinkle them all over the bottom of an ordinary cardboard box (for example, from under shoes). This is one of the mandatory stages in the work, since even the driest foliage can contain a small amount of moisture, which will then be enough to start the decay of the foliage. If you do not dry the leaves, after filling them to the top, condensation will soon appear on the walls of the bag in the form of drops.

How to create an original volumetric owl using foliage:

• fill the entire bag to the top with dry leaves, but do not fill it too tightly;
• just carefully tie the upper corners of the bag with a thread, thereby forming the "ears" of the craft;
• now it will be possible to cut out the eyes of the required size from sheets of multi-colored paper with ordinary scissors, as well as a sharp little beak and paws;
• the lower corners of the package or file used will have to be slightly bent and glued tightly with adhesive tape;
• using the same adhesive tape, you can firmly fix all the existing elements, and ready-made legs too.

This kind of owl can be safely placed on any tree. It's just perfect if this tree already has a hollow - then it is better to place the owl on the edge of it. Then your creative craft will really decorate your garden in an unusual way throughout all seasons of the year and will be the very first to meet all guests.

Based on the same principle that was described just above, you can easily build a model of an owl that flies. To create the desired effect, you just have to cut out the cardboard base with the bird's wings already wide open and also attach rings to them - you will need to thread a twig through them.

Bright in appearance and voluminous owl made of leaves of different colors will easily decorate any autumn exhibition at school and will make all the children and their parents smile at it.

In order for you to end up with a really voluminous owl, you will need:

• newspapers or any other soft paper;
• dry leaves;
• 1 acorn for the beak and 2 caps for small acorns (for the decoration of owl's eyes);
• a skein of thread;
• PVA glue.

For children, it is better to take PVA glue, adults may well use Moment glue or a gun with glue.

1. At the very beginning, it is necessary to create the basis for the future bird, it is on this basis that dry leaves will be glued in the future. We create an owl frame from 100% dry paper. You just need to take the paper and very energetically begin to crumple it, turning it into a kind of round ball. The parameters of the ball will directly depend only on your own preferences, while the more you need a bird, the more paper sheets you will need for this process. One larger ball will fit the body, the second smaller ball will serve as a head for the bird.
2. Further, these balls will need to be slightly trimmed - for this, the balls will have to be wrapped in newsprint and well wrapped around the lumps with threads, thereby forming an even circle.
3. After that, a small ball should be glued at a certain point to a large one, and now the frame for creating an owl from leaves is completely ready.
4. How your bird will look at the end of the work depends on the use of certain leaves in the finishing touches of the craft. The simplest option is to make beautiful feathers from a large number of leaves of the same size (cherry). They just need to be glued to the base in rows, starting from the bottom and overlapping. Below there may be small greenish leaves. The tummy can be decorated with yellow leaves.
5. You can add 2-3 bright red maple leaves to the breast of your bird craft.
6. With a child, everything is glued with PVA glue. Basically, everything should adhere fairly firmly, but this will take some time. You will have to wait for this type of glue to set a little. If you use a glue gun, things go a lot faster.
7. The head can be pasted over according to the example of the body, that is, the yellowish leaves can be overlapped in front, and the greenish ones can be placed on the rest of the head. Or you can glue one maple leaf in front, and small green ones on the sides to better match the style.
8. A green maple leaf can be glued on top, then its edges will hang a little over the eyes of the bird. Your owl will look rather funny - as if she is wearing a judge's or a professor's hat, as, by the way, this wise bird is often drawn in cartoons.
9. The leafy owl is almost complete. Using glue, 2 acorn caps are attached to her head for pop-eyes, and the acorn itself can play the role of a nose. On both sides of the body of the product, you can glue oak leaves - like owl wings.

For the frame of the future craft, you can pick up the cuts of ordinary tree trunks. If you decide to choose a fairly large branch, then your owl will come out very large. But the parameters in this craft will not play a major role, so you can pick up cuts of not very large diameter.

The step-by-step instructions include 3 steps.

1. First you need to work with a hacksaw. One saw cut (more) will mimic the body of a bird.To create the head, huge bulging eyes and wings, you need a little less details. The width of the cuts will not play a huge role, but at the same time they should all be of the same type and, best of all, not very heavy.
2. To make feathers, you can pick up the finest cuts from branches, as well as thin twigs, small cones, dry leaves. All this must be carefully cut and secured to the wings with high quality. In addition to saw cuts, you can pick up a thick bark for the construction of the wings. Also, the feathers can be simply beautifully drawn or use a device for burning. Another original way out is to stick separately real feathers on the chest. Or you can use small cuts mixed with autumn foliage.
3. Glued large buttons can become eyes, a bump can be used instead of a beak, make brush ears from twigs. The legs can be made from soft plasticine or a piece of wire.

An ordinary small plastic bottle can also be great for decorating a beautiful owl from it. You will have to cut off the bottom from the product (it should turn into the top of the head) and the upper part without a neck (it will play the role of the body). Next, you should put the received parts one on top of the other and paint "under the owl" with gouache. We supplement the resulting craft with small dry dark leaves.

Creativity, which is carried out at home, is not just considered a rather necessary process for the full development of any baby. It is extremely important in order to help develop a sense of beauty in a child and help him communicate with an adult in the process of creating a craft.

For information on how you can make the "Owl" craft out of leaves, see the next video.