Weather-wise, this is my favorite time of the year, still warm from summer but cooling off in preparation for winter. Fall brings leaf color changes, festivals, and crafts. While artisans and craftsmen are hocking their wares at apple festivals, leaf festivals, or mountain festivals, you can make your own fall-theme crafts at home!
Leaf Etchings Grab some leaves, place them under a piece of paper, and rub a crayon across the spot where the leaf is. The shape of the leaf will begin to take shape on the paper as you color.
Hand Print Leaf Wreath Have the kids trace their hands and cut the tracings out multiple times. Once you have around eight hands, all using fall-colored construction paper, glue the hands together into a circle. Your hand print leaf wreath is done!
Paper Bag Owl Add a face to a paper bag. Glue leaves to each side of the back of the bag so that the leafy part hangs out to the left and right as the owl's wings. Then, bend pipe cleaners as the owl's ears and feet and glue those on as well.
Button Tree Draw a tree and let the kids color it in and place the fall-colored buttons around the tree as its leaves. The best way to glue them down is a hot glue gun, so help the kids with this step or simply do it for the smaller kids.
3D Leaves Fold Fall-colored construction paper into an accordion-type fold. Then, cut the folded paper into the shape of a leaf. This proved difficult for us if there wasn't a leaf drawn out. So, after the first leaf turned out...not quite leaf-like, we drew a leaf on the paper before folding it.
Fall Leaf Tree Art The leaves in this fall tree were made by bending a toilet paper roll into an oval, dipping that oval into paint and using it to stamp the page with a leaf mark.
Leaf Wreath Make a ring to affix your leaves to. We made ours out of paper towel rolls. Next, stroll around your yard or neighborhood with your kids collecting colorful leaves as you go. Then, glue or tape those leaves to your ring. You'll want enough leaves so that they don't look sparse on your ring...like ours here. Hey, this may not be Pinterest level, but that's the good thing about Fall, it comes every year, and we can try, try again.
Leaf Pressing Whether you put them in a scrapbook or simply use self-lamination sheets or put them between 2 sheets of wax paper and iron the 2 sheets together, storing your favorite leaves for years to come by pressing them in an airtight sealed page helps preserve the leaves and the memories.
Leaf Hedgehogs
Cut a body and face out of a fall colored piece of construction paper. Add a little, cute face. Then cover the body with leaves, making sure to leave some points at the top of the body to mimic the hedgehog's spines.
Hopefully, you and your children have fun making these crafts. Remember they don't all have to be "Pinterest-level", the important thing is the fun you have and the memories you make.
Be sure to check out our other seasonal craft ideas!