Leaf Alphabet Book

New England is, of course, known for its fall foliage.
I saw a magazine article on making pictures out of leaves, and immediately thought of how perfect that would be - using the New England leaves!
So, that fall, I gathered hundreds of fallen leaves in as many colors as I could find.
I had a lot to choose from - as you can tell...

I put them between the pages of many phone books and left them for months and months, after which I had a box full of dried, pressed leaves to work with.

I took thick paper, and drew a dotted line, like school lined paper, and used letter stickers to create the words. 

I used Elmers Glue to glue down the leaves (glue stick seemed to rip apart my leaves).

I tried to leave the leaves intact as much as possible, but some I cut. 

I contemplated carefully which ones I wanted to share a page, and which ones I wanted to have their own page.  I made a list of all the possibilities for each word, and decided which ones I liked best, and which would be easiest to create. 

My list included:
A: Alligator, Ants; B: Boat, Butterfly; C: Crab, Corn on the Cob, Christmas, Candle, Caterpillar, Cricket; D: Dessert, Dinosaur, Dog, Dragonfly; E: Earth, Eagle, Eggs, Elephant; F: Fruit, Frog, Farm, Fire, Fish, Finch; G: Grasshopper, Gecko, Guitar; H: Hammock, Hawk, Harp, Hen, Hearts; I: Ice Cream; J: Jungle, Jelly fish, Jellybean, Jack-o-Lantern; K: Kangaroo, King; L: Lobster, Lion; M: Mouse, Mushroom; N: Nest, Nut; O: Ocean, Owl; P: Peacock; Q: Queen; R: Rain, Raincloud; S: Sun, Solar System; T: Toad, Tarantula, Turtle; U: Umbrella; V: Volcano, Vegetables; W: Warbler, Warthog, Worm, Weather, Whale, Willow; X:Xylophone; Y:Yacht; Z: Zebra

This was my final result.  After I made sure they were absolutely completely dry, I took them to Kinkos and had them laminated with the thickest laminating sheets they had.  Each one cost a few dollars, and they ran each page through their hot laminating press machine twice. 
I am so proud of the way these turned out.  I am planning on finishing the entire alphabet, but even if you wanted to just do one with your child's first initial - or another single letter - they are fun!