Fallen Leaf Art

The air is crisp, the leaves are changing, and it is sweater season again....yes, FALL has arrived. I love this time of year. I also love fall-inspired crafts. Over the past few days, the beautiful leaves have started falling from our maple trees. I know far too soon the trees will be bare and their beauty lost. It didn't take me long to decide I needed a craft to preserve the beauty of those leaves. I actually came up with several leaf crafts. Now, let's see if they all turn out as well as they did in my head.

Fallen Leaf Art

Materials Needed:

Leaves

Piece of cardboard

white construction paper

mod podge

sponge brush

hot glue gun

scissors

Step 1: Go on a Leaf Hunt! 

We gathered leaves and pine needles from each of the trees in our yard and even from a couple bushes. Make sure you use freshly fallen leaves or leaves pulled directly from the tree. Leaves that are already starting to dry and curl up are no bueno.

Step 2:  Homemade Canvas

Place cardboard in the center of construction paper. Cut the corners off of the paper and hot glue the flaps down. Crease edges. Flip over. Voila! Canvas on the cheap.

Step 3: Mod Podge

Coat the white paper canvas with a healthy dose of mod podge. Then immediately place the leaves on the canvas in a decorative way. If you overlap leaves, make sure you brush mod podge in between those leaves. Once all the leaves are placed, carefully brush a layer of mod podge on top of the leaves. Use your fingers to press the leaves down to the canvas while coating.

Step 4: Dry and touch up as needed

Let canvas dry. Add extra mod podge if needed. Some of the leaf tips lifted off the canvas after drying. I think that actually looks pretty cool. If you do not want the leaves to lift, just add a bit more mod podge and press down with your fingers. 

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to hang this canvas from a ribbon or frame it but I think it turned out great!

Happy Crafting!