Leaves for crafts: Beautiful decorations with natural materials

If you want to get creative and add a personal touch to your decorations, simply step outside this Fall to find everything you need for making crafts from nature.

• Crafts from nature: Right on your doorstep
• How to use leaves for crafts: Decorative pumpkin
• How to use leaves for crafts: Fall wreath

Crafts from nature: Right on your doorstep

As Fall approaches, bringing celebrations such as Halloween and Thanksgiving with it, it’s only natural if you want to decorate your home accordingly. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with store-bought, pre-made decorations, making your own crafts from natural materials adds a personal touch to this season.

Even better, when you use leaves for crafts, you can collect these from your front or back yard, or just a short walk away. With the right adhesive you’ll create your own leaf artwork to showcase your creative flair.

How to use leaves for crafts: Decorative pumpkin

While everybody loves a classic hollowed-out, candlelit pumpkin for Halloween, why not shake it up a little with these leaf-adorned pumpkins?

1. Collect. Gather a variety of leaves that you think will go well with your pumpkins. For this project it is best to go with leaves that are still fresh and flexible, rather than dry and brittle, so that they adhere well to the surface of the pumpkin. Ferns and vines are particularly suited.
2. Paint. While this is optional – using standard orange pumpkins is fine – you can paint your pumpkins to add some variety. Off-whites and cream work well to contrast with and highlight the leaf arrangements, while bronze, silver and gold really add pizzazz to your decorations.
3. Glue. Having pre-planned how you want to arrange your leaves on the pumpkin, lightly mist the back side (one leaf or vine at a time) with spray adhesive, then press them down on the surface of the pumpkin so that they lay flat against it. For extra adhesion, you can lightly mist the front side of the leaves too, using a soft paint brush to spread the glue evenly over them.
4. Dry. Once all the leaves are in place, leave to dry for the time specified on your glue’s instructions.

How to use leaves for crafts: Fall wreath

When it comes to outdoor decoration, a wreath on your front door is a classic option and will be the first thing any guests and visitors notice.

1. Collect. Pick a good amount of leaves for your wreath – they can all be from the same type of tree or a selection of different ones. For this project, larger, dried leaves are the best choice.
2. Paint. Again, this is optional. You can leave the leaves as they are for a natural Fall look, or paint them with the colors of your choice. For example, gold and silver will create a wreath that can be kept for the holiday season, as well as Fall.
3. Glue. Using either a homemade wreath base (e.g. a circle cut from a sheet of cardboard and painted) or a store-bought woven branch wreath base, apply a dot of glue to the end of one leaf and press it against the wreath to adhere. Repeat this process until the wreath is fully covered with leaves.
4. Decorate. You can take your Fall wreath to the next level by using the glue to add berry sprigs amongst the leaves, and a bowtie made of burlap or ribbon to the bottom of the wreath.
5. Dry. Once all the leaves are in place, leave to dry for the time specified on your glue’s instructions.