Easy Autumn Craft Ideas
Create some beautiful seasonal decorations for your home with these easy Autumn craft ideas.
Step by step instructions to guide you.
Choose from:
- Autumn leaf mandala decoration
- Autumn leaf window hanging
- Autumn leaf wax dipping
- Autumn leaf garland
- Autumn leaf mobile
- Autumn leaf jam jar lantern
- Autumn leaf tissue paper lantern
***As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. This means that we may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through the link. See Disclaimer and Affiliate Links Page for further details***
Easy Autumn craft ideas
Autumn is the perfect time to gather together and create some beautiful Autumn crafts.
These easy Autumn crafts are perfect for doing with children of all ages, or why not light a candle, grab a warm drink and spend a cosy evening doing them yourself?
Autumn Leaf Mandala Decoration
If you want to do a quick and easy Autumn craft activity then this is the one to choose.
Use the leaves to scatter around your Nature Table or on your dining table for a special meal, as coasters or in one of the Autumn crafts below.
You will need:
- A selection of fallen Autumn leaves – in various colours and a mix of different types
- Some metallic markers
- PVA glue, mod podge or some laminating pouches and a laminator
Instructions:
- Lay out leaves between pieces of newspaper and place under some heavy books. Leave to flatten and dry out for a week or so.
- Decorate with patterns using the metallic markers – try tracing over the leaf veins, or adding stripes, spots or mandala patterns
- When dry, paint over one side with either PVA glue or modge podge. Allow to dry and then paint over the other side. This will preserve your leaf indefinitely and make it pliable so it will not crumple or crumble. Alternatively you could laminate your leaf.
Autumn Leaf Window Hanging
This is one of my favourite Autumn crafts.
We have made these several times now, as they are so easy to make and add a lovely rustic feel to your seasonal decorations.
You will need:
- A selection of dried and pressed leaves in a range of colours (see above)
- Laminating pouches and laminator
- 2 twigs (about 25cm long) per window hanging
- Acrylic paints and paintbrushes
- Embroidery silk, knitting wool or natural jute string
- Hole Punch
Instructions:
- Follow directions above for drying and decorating your leaves, arrange them inside a laminating pouch and then carefully laminate them.
- Choose two twigs – one to go above and one to go below your laminated leaves. We like to have them slightly longer than the laminated sheet so that they frame it better.
- Decorate your twigs: by either painting them with acrylic paints or by winding embroidery silk, knitting wool or natural string around them
- Make a hole in each corner of the laminated sheet using a hole punch.
- Attach the twigs to the top and bottom of the sheets to make a frame.
- Add a length of string at the top so you can hang your leaves.
Autumn Leaf Wax Dipping
There are several ways to preserve the beautiful colour of Autumn leaves so that you can still enjoy them long after Autumn. Laminating and painting with PVA or modge podge are the easiest. We tried with glycerin and found it messy, took ages and we just seemed to end up with slimy brown leaves at the end. Last year we had a go at wax dipping. It does need a bit of preparation and children need more supervision, but the results are gorgeous and you end up with beautifully scented and wonderfully glossy leaves that look amazing.
What you will need:
- A selection of dried and pressed leaves in a range of colours (see above)
- Beeswax
- Tin foil
- Bain Marie (bowl and suacepan)
- Tongs (optional)
- Plastic mat, carrier bag or greaseproof paper
Instructions:
- Decorate the leaves if wanted (see above).
- Line the heatproof bowl with tin foil. This will prevent it from being ruined by the melted wax, enable easy clean up and allow you to easily collect the remaining wax to reuse at a later date.
- Place 2- 3 small bars in the lined bowl and place over a saucepan filled with hot water.
- Heat the water until the wax melts.
- Once melted, keep heat on low to prevent the wax solidifying again. If it starts to cool when you dip your leaves in, they will end up covered in a thick layer that prevents the colour of the leaf from showing through.
- Hold the leaf by its stalk and carefully dip into the hot wax. We found that it worked better if we slid the leaf in quickly (just a couple of seconds) as this gave a thinner layer of wax.
- Hold the leaf over the bowl to let the excess wax drip off. The leaf will dry very quickly.
- After about 30 seconds carefully place the leaf onto the plastic mat, plastic bag or greaseproof paper.
- When you are finished, let the wax in the bowl cool down and then wrap ready to use again.
Autumn Leaf Garland
Use your decorated, laminated, mod podged or waxed leaves to make some beautiful natural bunting to decorate your home.
Use a pin to make a hole and thread some cotton, string or wool through. Either join in one line or hang from a line. Alternatively use some mini wooden pegs to attach to a line of string.
Autumn Leaf Mobile
Another way to use your decorated, laminated, modge podged or waxed leaves is to make a rustic mobile to decorate your home. The leaves hanging down look beautiful as they spin from the mobile.
What you will need:
- Plain or decorated twigs (see above)
- Plain or decorated leaves (see above)
- Embroidery silk, wool or natural string
- Pin/needle
Instructions:
- Use a pin to make a hole and thread some cotton, string, embroidery silk or wool through each leaf.
- Attach the leaves to the stick.
- Attach string to twig so that you can hang your mobile.
You could create a simple mobile with one twig or for something a bit more elaborate you could suspend a second twig below the first one.
Autumn Leaf Jam Jar Lantern Craft Activity
This is a really easy Autumn craft idea for little ones to do and they will love seeing how the lanterns light up. Use them on a night walk or use them as a centre piece on your dinner table.
What you will need:
- A clean jam jar with the label removed
- PVA glue and brush
- Tissue paper in Autumnal colours
- Battery operated night light or battery operated twinkly lights
Instructions:
- Cut out some leaf shapes in different colours (I made cardboard templates for my children to draw and cut around).
- Paint the PVA glue onto the outside of the jam jar.
- Carefully arrange the leaves around the outside of the jam jar. You may want to overlap a few leaves to create different colours when the light shines through.
- Paint over the top of the leaves to seal them in and to bring out the colours.
- OPTIONAL: You can add a handle to your jam jar with a piece of florist wire or a pipe cleaner by wrapping around the rim of the jam jar and twisting up into a handle.
- Place a battery operated night light or battery operated twinkly lights inside
Autumn Leaf Tissue Paper Lantern
This Autumn craft is more fiddly than the lanterns above but most children are able to do these independently, although younger children may still need a bit of support.
Once complete they will add a lovely rustic feel to your seasonal decorations and are lovely to use on a night walk.
What you will need:
- 6 fairly straight twigs roughly the same thickness and length (any length between 15cm and 30cm works well)
- Tissue paper (white works well). Normal tissue paper works fine, but if you want something a bit stronger and easier to work with then use Carnival tissue paper
- Tape – either masking tape or florist tape works well
- Plain or decorated leaves (see above). Make sure you use leaves that aren’t too big or heavy
- PVA glue and water
- Paint brushes
- Battery operated night light or battery operated twinkly lights
Instructions:
- Start by making a triangle shape out of three of the twigs.
2. Join the twigs together with the tape.
3. Create a teepee above the triangle with the other three twigs and tape together at corners.
4. Mix together the PVA with a little water to make it easier to spread (we used a ratio of approx. 3 parts glue to 1 part water).
5. Tear off enough tissue paper to fit over one of the triangular sides, allowing a little extra for overlapping onto the twigs.
6. Paint the glue mixture onto the twigs and also onto one side of the tissue paper.
7. Attach the tissue paper onto the twigs with the sticky side facing outwards.
8. Arrange the leaves on the tissue paper.
9. Paint over the leaves with the glue mixture to seal them in and preserve them.
10. Next add another layer of tissue paper.
11. Then paint another layer of the glue mixture on to the tissue paper. This will help the tissue paper to become more translucent and give it extra strength.
12. Repeat the process with one of the other sides. Leave one side empty so you are easily able to place the night light or twinkly lights inside.
13. Allow to dry.
14. Place night light/ twinkly lights inside.
Autumn Crafts to Build Connection
These easy Autumn crafts are perfect to do together as a family on a wild and blustery Autumn afternoon.
Crafting together is more than just creating something beautiful to display or gift. It is well documented how spending time together is good for the soul . . . building closer family bonds, and working with natural materials can also help build a better connection to Nature.
More Autumn Crafts
If you would like more easy Autumn craft ideas then here are a few more ideas to inspire you:
- Why not have a go at making these beautiful Autumn Felted Leaves?
- Let little hands have a go at the classic leaf rubbing activity using wax crayons; Older children might want to have a go at this more unusual Autumn leaf art activity which develops observation and watercolour mixing skills.
- Explore maths and art with this leaf symmetry activity
- Use this wonderful zentangle colouring page to practise watercolour mixing skills using a range of Autumnal colours.
- Try this Broccoli tree painting technique
- Get your younger children to sort leaves by colour and make this gorgeous autumn leaf rainbow frame. We used conkers to spell out the word Autumn.
I would love to know how you get on, so please feel free to drop me a line, or a photo, of what you made.