Fall leaves are a beautiful sight. They add beauty to any yard, home, or garden. Especially at the peak of the season, when all the colors are so vibrant. Surely it occurred to you to use these beautiful leaves in your crafts, didn’t it? Or maybe not. Well, if you’ve never considered using leaves in your crafts, you’re in for a real treat. Here are some tips for using leaves when doing crafts.
Leaf Collage
This requires only a large piece of paper, paint, glue, and leaves. And it takes more imagination than instruction! Go for a walk and collect a wide variety of leaves. Get as many colors and shapes as you can find. Bring the leaves inside and press them (you can do this using a book, steam and iron or a microwave pressing method). While pressing the leaves, take your paint and decorate the piece of paper. Then glue the leaves onto the paper. You can overlap them to make a busy collage, or you can neatly arrange them on the paper and even label the type of leaf.
Leaf Rubbings
Make your own leaf rubbing to preserve your memories of a trip or simply decorate a note card or nameplate. Collect some fall leaves or all shapes and sizes. Then, take a piece of plain white paper and position the leaves vein side up in a pattern that you find pleasing. Place another sheet of white paper over the top of the leaves. Take some crayons (the color is simply up to you) and peel off the paper wrappers. Turn the crayon on its side and gently rub over the top sheet of paper. The image of the leaf will appear on the paper! You can experiment with different crayon colors and leaf arrangements. Then use the newly decorated paper for cards, notes, or other decorations.
Leaf Mobile
Make a fancy leaf mobile by spending some time in the great outdoors! Go out and collect some fresh, well shaped leaves. Then find two or three branches that are each about 2 feet long. Press the leaves in a book or newspaper, or by using an iron and steam. Leave the leaves until they are dry and flat. Once they are flat, shellac the leaf surface on one side and let them dry. Then repeat on the other side. Now tie the branches together in the middle with a strong piece of rope, so that they cross one another. Now cut different lengths of string. Glue the shellacked leaves to one end of the string. Tie the strings to the ends and middle of the branches. Then hang the mobile on your porch for a unique and attractive piece of home decor.
Now, what if you don’t want to use leaves as main part of your craft? Can you still incorporate leaves into your craft? The answer is of course! Take, for example, your standard centerpiece of a bowl and fruit. You can improve the look or add a slightly different feeling to the centerpiece by sprinkling the bowl with some fresh or artificial leaves. Now think about a fall floral arrangement. No fall floral arrangement is complete without some lovely leaves to top it off! You can wedge them in between flowers, or cut branches with the leaves still in them and add them to the floral arrangement. Table runners also look great with a nice sprinkling of leaves. Almost any craft or home decor can be improved with a little addition of leaves. So you’d better get started looking for some lovely leaves!
