Making a nature collage

Not long ago, the kids and I took a discovery walk and Mini Me gathered a bag full of interesting things he saw along the way.  

We had green and brown leaves, a stick, some rocks, flowers, grass, and tree bark.

I wanted a way to keep all those interesting outdoor things inside so we made a contact paper collage.  We used clear contact paper, scissors, and masking tape (to hold the contact paper down while we added the things from outside). 

I folded the contact paper over to make it double-layered and easier to press together at the end.  Mini Me wanted his collage in the shape of a triangle so we drew a triangle on the back of the contact paper.  He really wanted to cut it out and gave an awesome effort hacking through two layers of contact paper with his little scissors.  

I placed the contact paper sticky side up, and secured the corners to the floor with masking tape.  Mini Me then added all of his outdoor treasures.  

After he had added all his treasures - even the rocks - I folded over the other half of the triangle so that the sticky sides of the contact paper were together.  We pressed around all the edges and in between all the items to seal it.  (This photo simply will not upload correctly, so gently turn your head to see it the right way).

 We hung it on the window to admire it.  Mini Me slung his arm around my neck and we began to reminisce about where we found each item in the collage (mind you, we had gone on the walk about an hour earlier).  His favorite things were the rocks, he said, and I said mine were the yellow flowers.  We also talked in depth about tree bark.

Mini Me decided that he wanted to hang his triangle nature collage by his workbench so he could look at it while he worked.  So, that is where it hangs.  How beautiful it would be if we did another one with the brightly colored fall leaves!