When the end of October rolls around I’m usually itching to jump into all things Christmas and peppermint and snow, but with nearly two months left of fall and the opportunity we’ve been given in 2020 to slow down, I’m learning to hold onto fall for a little bit longer instead of wishing it away.
Have you ever noticed that it’s the last leaves to change that have the most glorious colors?
The big Maple in our backyard turned a while ago and is nearly done dropping leaves, but the trees a few blocks from our house with the vibrant neon colors, those ones have just started to change and show off their fall glow. Their beautiful shades make them the best leaves to use for fall leaf crafts.
A couple weeks ago I took my girls on a fall nature walk so we could explore the different kinds of trees in our neighborhood. We used the PictureThis app to identify some of our favorite leaves and collected fall nature treasures, then headed back home for an afternoon of fall leaf crafts.
One of our favorite crafts was inspired by the book Look What I Did with a Leaf! by Morteza E. Sohi. In the book are pictures of animals all created with leaves and a how-to guide for making your own leaf creatures.
Here’s what you’ll need for this project:
- Look What I Did with a Leaf! by Morteza E. Sohi (If you don’t have the book on hand, look up a read aloud on Youtube.)
- A variety of leaves, pine needles, pinecones, flower petals, and any other fun nature items you can find
- Cardstock (The pictures will be heavy, so this project is better on thick paper.)
- Glue (I like Tacky Glue.)
- Hot glue gun & glue sticks (Most of the leaves can be glued with liquid glue, but for the bigger, bulkier things like small pinecones, it’s easier to use hot glue.)
Have your kids lay out their leaves first before gluing everything down (it will save you from the inevitable “I-didn’t-do-it-right” tears), then glue everything together. Once they were dry we laminated ours so they will last longer.
And that’s it! A fun, creative project for your kids that will exercise their brains and let their creativity shine.
I loved watching my girls’ creative styles come out. It was fascinating to me that my oldest who is my organized, needs-everything-in-order-and-categorized, very neat and tidy girl just wanted to free-style her art and create her own animals from “scratch.”
On the other hand, my middle daughter who is my make-a-mess-and-never-clean-it-up, gets dirty and doesn’t care, has no organized bone in her body girl, is the one who wanted to follow the instructions that the books lays out and do it “exactly like the book.”
There’s no right or wrong way to create. They both did a great job and this mama has some beautiful fall artwork to hold on to.
Have you been on a fall leaf walk yet? What fun crafts have you done with fall leaves?
PIN THIS!
RELATED:
I’m Hannah — a Seattle native and a mom to three spirited daughters. I love a good oat milk latte from Caffe Ladro, learning to skateboard with my 6-year-old, and exploring new parks with my best friend and partner, Matt. I’ve walked through hard seasons of divorce, single-parenting, and mental illness (in my kids and myself), but in the last couple years I’ve been redefining what it means for me to be a mom in my 30’s and how to find joy right here. (Hello, skateboard lessons and adult art class!) I didn’t expect much of anything about my life as it is now, but I’m learning to savor each moment. There is so much joy to be found here.
