Fall is approaching, which means the leaves are changing colours and soon will be falling everywhere. Why not use some to make fun leaf crafts? As lovely as it is when the leaves change colours, it can be a bit of a mess when they fall all over roads and lawns. In our old neighbourhood, at our old house, we had so many leaves. We bagged them for days on end. It was so much work. We had some huge trees in our yard.
In the newer area where we live now the trees are just a little bit younger and the leaves aren’t quite as much trouble. Leaves themselves are really gorgeous. Instead of raking and cleaning up your leaves, there are ways to just simply have fun with the leaves. They are great for crafts too. You can make many things with them or just simply play with them!
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Here’s a few things you can do with all of those leaves you collect this Fall.
1. Make Piles and Jump in Them:
When I was a kid, my mom would have my brother and I go out and rake up the leaves and put them into trash bags to clean up the yard! I never understood this as a child. Leaves were for jumping in. Plus, even when you pick them up more are just going to fall, so you will have to clean them all up again. Like most kids, we would put off the bagging process and instead, scoop them into big piles and jump in them instead. We did the same at my Grandma’s house. We would try to get our piles to be as big as we possibly could and then we had loads of fun taking turns jumping in.
2. Leaf Angels:
While jumping into piles of leaves, take a break and make some leaf angels too. Just like snow angels, but with leaves instead. Same concept. Just simply move your arms and legs and then get up and you will have an angel shape. This is such a simple activity but believe me, it is fun.
3. Make Leaf Characters:
At Halloween you can find trash bags with faces and things on them and you can make leaf characters. Gather up some old Jeans or Overalls, a plaid shirts, and some accessories like a hat and gloves to make a character stuffed with your leaves. You can sit him on your porch and display your creation all season.
[tweetthis]Have you ever tried to make a leaf bowl?[/tweetthis]
4. Make a Leaf Bowl:
I did this last Fall and I thought it was such a fun concept! All you need is a good amount of leaves, a balloon, and some Mod Podge CS11302 Original 16-Ounce Glue, Matte Finish
[tweetthis]Leaf crafts and activities are fun to try with kids this time of year. [/tweetthis]
5. Create Leaf Art:
Leaves lend themselves to many different art projects. You can make a collage of various leaves by putting them on a canvas and slap a coat of mod podge on top, or you can even dip your leaves in paint and push them against a canvas to make a print! You can use paper and crayon and just create an etching by rubbing the crayon over the leaf onto the page.
There are tonnes of leaf activities and crafts this time of year.
Do you have any special or unique leaf crafts? Let me know in the comments below.
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My daughter will love the “leaf characters” idea but we’ll just draw directly on the leaves as we don’t collect ours (we’d be raing for years, smile). Thanks for sharing such creative ideas.
Besos Sarah.
We love to do leaf rubbings putting leaves under plain paper with wax crayons they look gorgeous!
We press leaves between sheets of wax paper and hang them in the windows, they last for a long time, very pretty way to preserve the fall colours.
I am SO excited for fall amnd family activities 😀
If you have really large leafs try cement. I have pinned where you use leafs & cement to make dishes. Looks nice too. I just haven’t done this yet.
I definitely recall pressing leaves in wax paper when I was young. Those things seemed to last forever!
It’s also fun to do a leaf scavenger hunt and see how many different varieties you can find to trace the shapes of.
we have so much wind here that are leaves are just blow out to sea
Oh I love the idea of a leaf bowl! I never would’ve thought of that!! What a beautiful little accent piece that would be. Thank you so much for the incredible crafty ideas!
Love the Leaf Bowl Idea. I cant wait to try this with the kids 🙂 Thanks for posting.
Great fall crafts for my crafty kids, thanks!
Wow! Great ideas….saving this as old man winter is not that far away! Uughhh winter…oh well craft time!!!
I adore the different coloured autumn leaves!
I actually cannot wait till the leafs fall. I am a fan of all seasons (yes even winter because I am a Christmas freak) but it will be exciting this year when my toddler can experience all these to do with leaves such as leaf angels 🙂
Fall is my favourite time of year for the colours
Love fall best time of the year
who doesn’t love a good jump in a pile of leaves
I remember the kids were small we would go out walking to find fall leaves of all kinds, the maples were are favorite and press some in books, or make other crafts with them
I love walks in the woods with the kiddies in the fall collecting leaves for crafts 🙂
Some excellent idea! I emailed this to my daughter and she’s passing it along to her friends! Thanks so much!
It has been a long time since I made a leaf bowl. I should make one with my kids.
Great ideas! It is always fun collecting the leaves in the fall and these would be great activities to so with some of them!
We made sand angels this summer, leaf angels will be next!
There are some cute ideas at http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryankincaid/easy-crafts-to-make-with-leaves#.vpw8bb8N1. I’m a fan of the leaf animal drawings.
My daughter is always picking up leaves, she loves to make crafts and do art with them.
Since reading this post, we’ve started a little leaf collection of our own. Looking forward to making some crafts with the girls this weekend!
leaf angels is a fun idea
Definitely going to have to try making one of the leaf bowls this year with my niece, sounds like a fun activity.
I always loved colorful fall leaves. They look nice in a vase.
Making leaf piles and jumping in them is SOOO fun! Instantly reminds me of being a kid…
my sister and I loved making leaf piles as a kid to jump in!
I’m so sad to think the leaves will be falling soon but thank you for the great fun ideas when they do!
I never would have thought to do a leaf angel, but sounds so fun!
Leaf art is SO much fun… I LOVE fall activities.
We will try a leaf bowl once we get enough leaves here.
These are some very creative ideas. I have fond memories as a child jumping in the piles of leaves my parents raked up!
I LOVE the fall because of all the beautiful leaves. We used to take leaves and place them between waxed paper and put crayon shavings on and around the leaf and then iron it. It was so much fun and looked great too.
I remember having fun doing leaf etchings when I was child. Jumping in the leaves was always lots of fun too.
very pretty!
Great stuff to do and perfect time for photos.
I never thought of doing leaf angels with my kids… they love the snow kind!
Hubby always makes a huge pile with the leaves for when the grandkids come over, they have such fun jumping in them!
Love the leaf bowl idea!! Thanks 🙂
I also love cutting leaf shapes into a potato and doing stamps.. SO fun
We made sand angels this summer, leaf angels will be next 🙂
I LOVE the leaf bowl idea!! This is our first fall in this house and we have a HUGE tree with LOTS of leaves on it. I just told my husband yesterday that it wasn’t going to be fun raking up all those leaves, but maybe now it won’t be too bad!
I love Fall, the temperature and colors are so nice!
You have inspired me to create a center piece for the dinner table at Thanksgiving. Last year the kids and I collected acorns and made a center piece using them except I didn’t know you need to cook the acorns first before you used them so at the bottom of the vase there were maggots. Thankfully I removed it before anyone notice but still gross LOL
Over the weekend we took a twig and glued paper flowers on it… not a leaf craft but was very fun! We made buds by using tissue paper crumpled around the end of a pencil…
Thinking we should make a leaf character for our yard this year!
Can’t wait to start fall crafts! Love the leaf rubbing!
Fall is my favourite season. I love the changing colour of the leaves.
the smell of autumn is awesome
Unfortunately leaf jumping is not going to happen here – not many trees around, but maybe we can go somewhere… to the park…
Leaves are starting to turn here already, beautiful!
Fall is so beautiful! Great for photos and FUN!
When I was in junior school, my friends and i loved to make “leaf houses” where the walls were made of leaves
I loved, loved, loved piling all the leaves and then jumping into them. It was so much fun!!
I love fall and all the crafts that go with it. This year I want to make stepping stones with leaf imprints. I also love your idea of the leaf bowl. Happy Autumn!
We made an attempt to leaf collect last night after school, we don’t quite have enough laying around yet, today it rained… ugh
Of course you can press them and make art out of the pressed leaves.
That pic is beautiful! I love walking trails in the fall with all the falling leaves.
time to break out the leaf blower!
I love the leaf bowl craft, that is a fun way to use leaves, I might just have to try it out!!
We also use leaves to fill up Halloween bags to decorate our yard in the fall. Then we take it to our recycling depot.
thanks you for the great blog!
oh leaf characters. I remember I use to stuff the leaves into these Halloween bags and set them out on the lawn during Halloween
We have 4 dogs. If you leave it long enough they trample the leafs to mulch 🙂 Just saying 🙂
Love the color of the leaves in fall!
So cute when the kids love to play in piles of leaves.
The leaf angels are a great idea!
I loved doing leaf collages when I was a child.
We got a massive drop in temps, hopefully it won’t be long and we’ll have some great leaves to work with, we’re going to take some fall piccies and add leaves as accents to frames!
I really want to try the leaf bowl! What a neat idea!
I have made a wreath with leaves before.
Thanks! Great ideas for fall crafting!
My dog loves to jump and play in leaf piles too, it is a lot of fun piling them up and then watching our dog.
Leaf bowl, that’s really cool. I’ve seen video clips of something similar but didn’t think about leaf bowls
Our two poodles love to hide their balls in leaf piles and then jump into the pile to find it – so fun to watch!
You can take wey leaves and stick them to a pumpkin, then spray paint or put spray mount and glitter – then peel teh leaves off and it looks pretty.
I pinned this! By the time we get leaves to try some of these with I may lose it!
I always loved colorful fall leaves. There are a lot of them here and that’s what makes fall so beautiful!
Love when the leave fall and we rake them with the grandkids. We have a ton of fun.
I love putting leaves between wax paper and ironing them! So pretty!
I forgot all about it – they look so perfectly flat after it. I loved doing it as a child!
Awe so cute! I just did a leaf craft with my children last weekend!
I am really liking the leaf bowl idea!
Such pretty ideas. Goes to show you don’t need expensive, fancy products to make beautiful things.
I love the leaf bowl idea! going to be trying it with my nephew this fall
i love the fall colours
so many great ideas! Love the Fall colors
I love the leaf bowl idea… It sounds so pretty! I’ve seen it on pinterest once. I would love to try it with some friends.
Exceptionally cool and rainy today… looks like no hunting leaves today!
It doesn’t matter how old you are jumping in a pile of leaves is always fun!!
fall is a great time for stunning photography
Lots of leaves falling down today, will soon have to start keeping an eye out for nice ones to do crafts with.
Fall gives such a beautiful backdrop for family photos.
I like the cute turkey craft mentioned here: http://www.examiner.com/article/thanksgiving-leaf-activities.
The leaves aren’t falling here yet, but these are some great ideas for when they do!
Great craft ideas. Love the leaf bowl.
It’s fun making leaf people for halloween!!
love the idea of making leaf angels
A leaf bowl is a neat idea!
Unlucky and no fun for us it rained all weekend, no leaf crafts this weekend!
Thanks So many great ideas that I would never thought of
My mom used to make a leaf bowl. she would put little glittered pine cones in it too. Once a spider marched right out of it on to the table.
Love doing crafts that reflect the seasons!
I always loved colorful fall leaves. There are a lot of them here and that’s what makes fall so beautiful.
Love the Leaf Bowl idea. You could make them all different sizes too. Love it for Thanksgiving table. Thanks for sharing these creative ideas. (I’m lacking in that dept. lol)
a great time to jump into a pile of leaves
Leaf angels are the best! Getting ready for winter’s snow angels 🙂
I wish, after changing colour, the leaves would stay on the trees longer. They fall too quickly!
I think a leaf “Art Attack” would be fun!
Really starting to see those leaves change! Autumn crafts here we come!!!!
You can temporarily stick wet leaves to window glass to make a fall design.
When did I start thinking about all the creepy crawlers in that pile of leaves? The signs of getting old I guess. But I love fall and kicking thru those leaves on a walk thru the woods.
Maple leaf and oak leaf were always my favorites to gather and play with.
I love the ideas mentioned in the other comments as well… some pretty creative people out there!!!
The leaf bowl is a great idea! I’m going to make one with my kids!
a leaf bowl sounds so cool
Leaf bowls can really turn out beautifully. I wish we had maple leaf trees here because they would create the most gorgeous piece! Great autumn ideas 🙂
We used to put leaves between wax paper with some crayon shavings and then iron it. It made for pretty window decorations.
Falling leaves are a great visaul
Growing up in Northern Ontario we did a lot with leaves – ironing them between wax paper one of them. Here in Edmonton we do not get the same colourful, beautiful leaves we did back home. I miss the smell of the maple leaves composting into the earth – one of my most favourite smells!
I remember collecting leaves as a child on the walk home from school.
Our leaves are starting to fall. I think I will be making your leaf bowl soon.
The leaf bowl sounds like a lot of fun!
Like your leaf character we made leaf scarecrows when I was a kid, with pillowcase faces (not trash bags – they didn’t even make trash bags then, that’s how long ago this was.)
I’m not a creative person at all.. but I did look up leaf art.. I was blown away at all the things you can do! My daughter is going to do a framed piccie of a Canadian leaf and mail it to her friend in Arizona…
Maple leaf and oak leaf were always my favorites to gather and play with
We love crafts and have never tried the leaf bowl. What a fun idea! We’ll have to add that to our must do list. thanks!
I love when the kids create any type of leaf art. Unfortunately the autumn season here very quickly turns to winter so we only have a limited time to utilize leaves before they turn to snowy mush!
Collages are always so cool and always up to the creator themselves as to what they want to create. I want to make a collage now
Every year we make a leaf wreath…..good times!
I can remember gathering leaves as a kid and gluing them various artwork. We also traced them on our walls and painted them different colors.
Making a leaf character is a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Thanks for sharing.
We took our 3 and 2 year old on a leaf walk over the weekend and they collected many different types of leaves! I like the idea of making a leaf bowl, I’ll see if they would be interested in doing that! I love fall!
Leaf bowl is a great idea! Adding fall colours 🙂
Saw some really pretty leaves today, now just to wait until they fall and we can collect some 🙂
i can’t wait to jump in a pile of leaves
Can’t wait for the leafs to fall to try these!
Hope to do some leaf jumping soon!
It would be nice to make a collage of leaves on canvas too, something to hang on the walls in the Fall
I wish fall would last longer. It is my favourite season.
Leaf rubbings are a fun craft too.
My son said to me today “I love the sound of crunching leaves when I step on them” So cute!!!!
I loved pressing leaves in wax paper. I used to try to see how many different leaves I could find.
The possibilities are endless I suppose when it comes to leaf art. Using some gold spray paint comes to mind too. Thanks for getting my creative juices flowing
We like to decorated with leaves we dried in a book 🙂
We love making a leaf wreath every year, but I think we will try a leaf bowl!
I love you idea of a leaf bowl. It would definitely add a seasonal flavor to the home. I have an Amore Maple in my front yard and they have the gorgeous vivid red leaves in fall.
A Leaf Album of different specimens is a great way for kids to learn about different kinds of trees.
leaf angels sounds so fun
Hoping we get some decent leaves to do some crafts, right now the trees are slow to start turning in our area.
When we were kids we’d press fall leaves in wax paper. I think leaf crafts have come a long way since then!
best memory – the scent of a crisp autumn morning
Maple leaf and oak leaf were always my favorites to gather and play with 🙂
Fall weather is my favourite – not too hot, not too cold!
What about making mazes with piles of leaves!
Our first hard frost is tonight so I should be able to make some leaf turkeys with my grandson soon.
Love the smell of leaves as they collect on the ground!
It’s going to be fun watching my granddaughter play in the leaves for the very first time!!!
A leaf bowl is an enduringly charming centerpiece, in our house though you have to check very thoroughly for bugs!
We used to place leaves between two pieces of waxed paper and iron them with a tea towel on top. Preserved them well. We spent hours doing this one as kids. (with mom’s help of course)
A cool idea for upcoming Halloween is making a Decoupaged Pumpkins, applying the leaves to the outside of the pumpkins & displaying them.
We will try a leaf bowl once we get enough leaves here. Our maple is still green, though. Not complaining 🙂
Feeling inspired – great ideas! Thanks!
i can’t wait for the nothern fall colours
Love using pumpkins and fallen leaves together to make a fall display for outside.
we love jumping in leaf piles! so much fun
Maple leaf characters would be a great one to try with my girl, she loves making faces!
I think this year I might try making a fall wreath with all those beautiful leaves. Beats raking ’em. lol
We will try a leaf bowl once we get enough leaves here. Our maple is still green, though. Not complaining!
Another fun activity for young kids is to make a Parachute Leaf Toss game; gather leaves up in the middle of a an old sheet & parachute the leaves into the air to watch them float.
I noticed today our leaves are really finally beginning to turn, I can’t wait to make that leaf bowl!
So many great ideas 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Would love to make a Leaf Character to sit out at our trailer but not sure we are going to get enough leaves to do it before we leave, they are slow coming down this year.
I recall pressing leaves between wax paper and ironing them so they stay preserved. Maple leaves are my favorite.
Games with leaves are so much fun to play in nature!
I can’t wait for that crisp autumn air
There are so many fun crafts with leaves!
Leaf art projects are always entertaining, and you can compost them later!
They are starting to fall now out in my backyard!!
Love tracing them too cut out and make decorations 🙂
A leaf bowl would be super cute filled with acorns or pinecones. Thanks for the ideas.
We’ve got another rainy weekend.. I’m hoping this warming up and cooling off stage brings on the pretty leaves!!
The colours are starting to change out here in the Beautiful British Columbia!
Haven’t done anything with Modge Podge for a long time, doing something with leaves might be fun.
everyone should jump in a pile of leaves
A fun game is seeing who can rake up the most leaves! Haha just kidding!, raking leaves isn’t very fun. Just when I think I’ve got them all, a wind comes up & shakes a hundred more down from the tree!
lots of neat ideas, might have to try some of them
I love autumn! This year, I’m going to try the leaf bowls, with my little granddaughter.
We will try a leaf bowl once we get enough leaves here. Our maple is still green, though.
leaves are starting to fall here……almost craft time!
These are some great ideas to take advantage of crisp autumn weather!
You know what is pretty; a glass bowl with leaves and clementines in it.
I loved doing leaf collages and herbariums when I was a child.
It is an odd fall her, we still haven’t had a good frost. The leaves are changing though, so I will wait a little bit longer for leaves this year.
I also love the idea of making a leaf collage on a canvas, you could do varying sizes and group them too.
My little girl is gonna have a blast jumping in all the leaves we rake up!
I love using them to make a garland for Thanksgiving 🙂
What great ideas, I especially like the Leaf Bowl idea. I remember as a kid pressing leaves myself and that is over 50 yrs ago. 🙂
So many great ideas. Thanks for posting.
Making Leaf Puppets is another fun idea for kids! Glue a leaf to a popsicle stick & add some googly eyes to create a neat little leaf character.
Not sure what happened over night but we’ve finally got some leaves changing… I can’t wait to try that leaf bowl.
I always look to nature (especially fall leave colours) for inspiration in my home décor colours!
Me and my nieces do crafts for fall with leaves. They love painting them and hanging them in their room. They look forward to it every fall.
fall leaves means halloween!
The most beautiful pieces of art come from nature.
We have started collecting leaves and are going to make a leaf bowl!
My children used to love jumping into the pile of leaves that I’d painstakingly raked together – lots of fun for them, more raking for me. 🙂
I loved doing leaf collages and herbariums when I was a child 🙂
I seen an idea this morning, crunching leaves up in baggies and putting glue to construction paper in the shape of a leave and putting the crushed leaves over top.. really looks neat!
It would be cool to do a scavenger hunt type of game with leaves, so the kids have to search to find different varieties of leaves.
So many pretty ideas!
We use make huge leaf piles and dive in when we were kids. I love the smell of the leaves too.
It’s nice to make a leaf collage and then paint on it with water colors.
I cant wait for the leaves to change color and be able to make some of these.
Some of these leaf projects would look great with spray painted twigs, like silver or gold.
I wish the fall leaves stayed around much longer!
I love crafts – they foster family time! Autumn is the perfect season for crafts too 🙂
I haven’t done leaf rubbings since I was a kid…..must happen!
Found some leaves today that look like hearts, great for rubbings!
I picked up supplies today to do some crafts this weekend with my nieces. They’re super excited.
Love the leaf bowl idea! Going to try it with my son this fall.
I’ve not heard of Leaf Angels before but I’m sure children would enjoy making them just as much as they enjoy making snow angels 🙂
I can’t wait to paint some leafs with my grandson , then make a collage with them.
What a great article. Thanks for sharing
I have made place cards with a preserved leaf for Thanksgiving dinner. Just a nice touch.
The kids can use leaves to design their own autumn placemats which can then be laminated so they’ll last.
Well with the drop in temps, we should see some beautiful fall leaves soon, a few have started turning I am hoping more follow suit this week. Canada can be breathtaking in the fall!
At least our school is getting some fallen leaves now. Kids are having fun, not sure about the school 🙂 Our own maple is still green…
I would love to try some of these ideas out. Thanks for posting 🙂
So far it has been a great end to summer/start to fall, let’s hope it continues!
Leaf angels sound like so much fun! Great idea!
i’ve never made a leaf bowl before!
a leaf collage sounds like fun! I love fall colors!
It’s turning very pretty here in BC!!!!
Just a few hours left before fall begins!
there’s lots of stuff you can do with leaves. can’t wait to start pressing leaves in books
Thanks to these fabulous ideas, I’ve got about 12 bookmarks of leave crafts! My daughter has a playdate with my cousins children this weekend, hoping we can find a few leaves to do a few things.
I can remember pressing leaves in a special wooden contraption, do kids still do that?
I think we could have a lot of fun making leaf characters. we could make some spooky ones too.
It’s also pretty to place leaves in patterns on the table, You can iron them too!
leaf angels, will have to try that this year. bet it is as fun as snow angels 🙂
Love making garland out of leaves and hang on my deck outside 🙂
Haven’t heard of Leaf Angels before, that would be fun with the kids.
a garland would look great……I’d love to make one using all the red leaves in the yard!
Making laminated bookmarks out of pressed leaves & construction paper is another fun idea for kids that make nice gifts!