by Melissa, Jaramillo and Julie Snyder
Finally! You can immortalize the treasures your children brought in from their last trek through the woods -- and make a great craft project out of it, too!
In addition to your child and her nature collection, you'll need a solid, colored t-shirt, a labeled spray bottle of bleach, a bucket of clean water and rubber gloves.
Place the t-shirt on a flat surface and encourage your child to arrange the leaves, flowers, grasses, seed pods, branches or other objects in a simple design on the shirt. Remind her that only each object's silhouette will show. When she is done, ask her to step back while you spray the bleach lightly around the edges of the design. (Be sure to protect your hands with those gloves!)
In about a minute you will notice the color beginning to change. Remove the flowers, leaves and other objects (out of reach of child) and thoroughly rinse the shirt in the bucket of water. This step is essential to stop the action of the bleach -- otherwise it will eat the fabric.
Spread the shirt out to dry and then launder normally. Now your child's nature walk is preserved -- and not gathering dust!
Julie Snyder is a mom of six, interested in kids, pregnancy, birth, people and lives in the outlying Seattle area. Melissa Jaramillo is mom to many. She's passionate about building, encouraging, and strengthening families on this adventure known as parenthood!
Copyright © Melissa Jaramillo and Julie Snyder. Permission to republish granted to Pregnancy.org, LLC.
