Fall Crafts

As autumn draws to a close, now is the time to pounce on those beautiful fallen leaves and create beauty of your own.  Nature can create gorgeous materials for crafting and fun activities to do with kids.  I reminisce to a time on the playground where we would stuff the wire fence with leaves to make a colorful wall during recess.   Here are a few crafts to try out for yourself:

WAX DIPPED LEAVES: to preserve the color for making wreathes or any other craft, try this to keep the brilliant color longer.

SUPPLIES:  Leaves, Double-Boiler, Beeswax or alternative wax, Optional Cinnamon Oil.

HOW TO:

1. Make sure your leaves are completely dry.
2. Melt some beeswax in a double-boiler. You can use new wax or old candle stubs (optional-add a few drops of cinnamon oil.)
3. After wax is fully melted, take the leaves by the stem and immerse them, one at a time, in the wax.
4. Hold them over the pot to get the excess drips off, and then lay them on the waxed paper to dry.

EASY HOLLOWEEN PAINTED LEAVES: with Halloween drawing nearer, a fun craft to do with the kids is to paint dried leaves to look like spooky ghosts, or other Halloween festive shapes.

SUPPLIES: Leaves, Paint, Paint Brushes, and Newspaper.

HOW TO:

1. Layout newspaper to catch fallen paint drips
2. Paint leaves base color
3. After base color dries, follow up with detail marks

KIDS FALL WREATH: An easy and fun way to get your kids to craft and get in the fall mood.

SUPPLIES: Fall Leaves, Paper Plate, White School Glue, Scissors, Pretty Ribbon

HOW TO:

1. Begin this autumn craft by collecting about twenty colorful leaves from outside.  Try to get nice fresh one that have just fallen; they will be easier to glue on.
2. Cut the middle out from a paper plate. Fold the plate in half to get the cut started in the middle, then cut along the rim to make about a 2 inch paper plate border.
3. Continue building the wreath by gluing each leaf to the paper plate. Slightly overlap each leaf. For this leaf craft, I ha each leaf point in the same direction, with stems pointing inward.
4. Next, clip off the stems from each leaf using scissors.
5. Tie a pretty fall ribbon in a bow and then glue the bow on to the wreath.

DOOR WREATH: here’s how to create a thick and vibrant fall leaf wreath.

SUPPLIES: Fall Leaves, Wreath Frame, Thin Wire.

HOW TO:

1. Find a suitable workspace to lay out wreath holder and leaves
2. Start by attaching the wire to the wreath holder where you would like to begin
3. Put the leaves round and round and tight to get the right volume.
4. Pinch leaves near the core to get some volume so leaves don’t lay flat.
5. After leaves are bunched to your liking, wire them into place and do this step until the whole wreath is finished.

I hope you enjoy these fall crafts!  Dried leaves are also a great addition to a fall scrapbooks, center pieces, and outdoor décor.  What festive leaf crafts have you come up with this fall?

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