Leaf art for kids.

Fall brings with it a feast for the senses: cooler weather that calls for sweatshirts, comfort food, and best of all, colorful leaves! Watching leaves turn brilliant yellow, orange, and red is enough to inspire anyone’s inner artist. 

Help your budding artist express the colors of the season through some fun and simple leaf art! Not only are these crafts a creative way to celebrate fall, they’re also an excuse for some much-needed outdoor time.

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FALL LEAF COLLAGE

LEAF CRAYON RUBBINGS

MAKE YOUR OWN LEAF MASK

FALL LEAF COLLAGE

Foster your inner forager! Collect leaves and other outdoor treasures to make your own nature collage. This simple craft is great for young children, and the freeform style is a dream for kids who like to think outside the box. Collage art helps build tactile fine-motor skills, making it a perfect activity for our littlest creators.

Materials:

• Leaves, sticks, flowers, etc.
• Construction Paper or Cardboard

• Kid Made Modern Wondrous Watercolor Kit or Kid Made Modern Washable Paints (For both, Studio In A Box contains nearly everything you need!) 

• Glue

Kid Made Modern Washable Paints

Kid Made Modern Wondrous Watercolor Kit

Here’s how you make it: 

1. Fall Foraging

Get outside, explore, and gather! Encourage your artist to collect small pieces of nature they connect with, like leaves and sticks. Focus on materials that are small and flat so that they can be easily glued.

2. Get to gluing

Have your artist arrange their nature materials on the construction paper, then use the glue to secure the materials.

3. Color your collage

Once the glue has dried, add some color to the collage! Use paints or watercolors to paint over and in between the leaves. For some added sparkle, put a thin layer of glue over the collage and sprinkle glitter onto it. 

Image source: The Imagination Tree

LEAF CRAYON RUBBINGS

Leaf rubbings are a great activity to help get into the spirit of the fall season. This craft also features an essential creative element: surprise! Once the patterns on the leaves are revealed through crayons, your little artist will have a whole new appreciation for the beauty of nature. This craft requires only a few materials and is simple for crafters of all ages.

Materials:

• Leaves
• Construction Paper
• Tape

• Kid Made Modern Crayon Library

Here’s how you make it: 

1. Collect your leaves - Get outside and gather leaves! For this project, look for unique leaf shapes. 

2. Tape to the paper - Tape the leaves to one side of the construction paper. Be sure to tape only where you need, as you don’t want the tape to show through on the final product!

3. Flip and have fun! - Here comes the fun part. Flip over the construction paper so you’re left with a blank canvas. On a hard surface, use the crayons all over the paper to “rub” in the leaf pattern. The patterns on the leaves will reveal themselves through the crayon! 

LEAF PRINTS AND STAMPS

A leaf scavenger hunt is a great use of time, and encourages young minds to commune with nature while finding leaves with interesting shapes. This craft is similar to the crayon rubbing, but takes a bit more initiative for the slightly older crafting crowd.

Materials: 

• Lots of unique shaped leaves
• Construction Paper
• Paint brush or brush

Here’s How to Make It: 

1. Paint your leaves - Find your leaves outside. Using a brush of any kind, pick your favorite colors and paint one side of each leaf with your color choice using the Kid Made Modern Washable Paint Set. Feel free to get creative by painting two or more colors on one leaf!

2. Make your mark - Flip the painted side of each leaf down onto the construction paper and press down for several seconds. Slowly lift the leaf up to reveal a colorful painted print of your leaf! Repeat the process until your paper is filled with fabulous foliage.

3. Mix up your method

Experiment with using negative space, and try a different kind of leaf print! Press down un-painted leaves onto the construction paper and paint over the leaves with the Kid Made Modern Wondrous Watercolor Kit. Use different colors, and make sure you paint over the whole piece of paper! When you lift up the leaves, you’ll have a lovely watercolor backdrop that showcases beautifully shaped leaf silhouettes. 

MAKE YOUR OWN LEAF MASK

Why simply watch the leaves when you can wear them? This is the perfect craft for older kids — there’s no better way to get excited about autumn than with a stylish leaf mask. And with Kid Made Modern’s Make A Mask Kit, it’s never been easier. 

Materials:

Kid Made Modern Make A Mask Kit, which includes:

• Mask design sets
• Elastic cords
• Fuzzy sticks
• Sequins
• Brushes
• Tacky Glue

Here’s How to Make It: 

• Select your mask - The Make a Mask Kit features nine felt mask options that are inspired by the four elements -- so it’s time to get down to earth! Select your favorite masks for a leafy accessory.

• Decorate away! - Use the tacky glue to attach sequins to the mask. You can also bend the fuzzy sticks around the crevices in the mask to create 3-D texture.

• Fasten the mask - Tie the elastic cord on either end of the mask and adjust the length of the cord based on the size of the head. Now that’s what we call fall fashion!

Kid Made Modern Make A Mask Kit

When the weather turns chilly and front porches are lined with pumpkins, it’s time to welcome autumn. Get your kids into the spirit of the season to be thankful with these fun foliage crafts. Whether you’re an experienced crafter or a beginning artist, these creative leaf crafts will have you wishing that fall will never “leave”!