We’re in the throws of a wonderfully colourful autumn and the leaves are magnificent.

Here’s a colour, cut and stick project inspired by these marvellous hues, with a 'collage' nod to Henri Matisse.

BITS you need: 

Scissors (and a grown up to help with the cutting)

Paper (one A4 sheet of white, other bits of printer paper, old envelopes, whatever you have to hand)

A variety of pens, crayons, paint sticks, colouring in pens in autumnal colours

Glue stick

Instructions:

1. Take your sheet of paper A4 and fold in half lengthways. Cut in half then stick together to make a long strip. Fold into a concertina with each fold around 7cm apart, and set aside for later. I ended up with 8 'pages' in my folded book.

2. Colour sections on your paper with your pens and pencils, each colour block slightly bigger than 7cm x 10cm. Try to vary the texture here and there, and have a go at layering a couple of colours on top of each other on some. 

3. Draw a leaf shape slightly smaller than one of the pages in your concertina book, and cut out. This will be your LEAF guide. Using your guide and with a little help from a grown up, cut out 8 leaves and a stem for each leaf too.

4. Stick a leaf (with matching stem) to each page in your concertina book. Voila!

A colourful CARD (of sorts) to send in the post, or maybe have a go at inventing a leafy story/ poem or limerick to write on the back!

Here's a super quick time-LAPSE to show you how I got on:

For different leaf shapes see examples below:

Lisa x