The themes of leaf collages and crafts are simple and understandable for children, and the creative process itself brings joy and allows them to transform into artists and decorators. Creating a simple leaf collage on the theme of autumn with their own hands is not only entertaining but also educational. It helps develop fine motor skills, reinforces color perception, understanding of shapes and sizes, and cultivates patience and carefulness. Children learn to observe natural phenomena, experience what they see, and develop a love for nature. Moreover, while collecting materials for autumn leaf crafts, they can become acquainted with local flora, learn the names of trees, shrubs, flowers, and learn to identify plants by their leaves.
We suggest creating an autumn craft – a 3D collage of flower smileys using leaves and colored paper. Previously, we have made leaf collages including a family of birds and a hedgehog made from leaves. We have also made an owl from leaves.
To work on this project, we will need the following materials:
- Autumn leaves of different colors.
- Colored paper.
- Scissors, glue, markers.
- Paper cups for decoration.
For our autumn collage, we have chosen wild grape leaves. It is the perfect time to gather leaves of various shades, ranging from green to vibrant pink. In this craft, we will be using fresh leaves because dry ones tend to crumble and break. We have pre-pressed the leaves to flatten them before starting the project.
Next, you will need to cut circles out of colored paper. These circles will serve as the centers of the leaf flowers. For each flower, you will need two circles of the same color since we will be gluing them on both sides of our collage.
On these circles, you can draw smiley faces – little expressions. Feel free to depict various emotions on them. We have decided that all our leaf flowers will be cheerful and happy-looking.
You will also need to create stems for our flowers by rolling up green paper tubes. These tubes will serve as the stems. Feel free to add variety by creating stems with different shades of green, and you can even make some of them spiral-shaped for added visual interest.
Great! Now let’s get started on the actual crafting process. Take the leaves and begin gluing them in a circular pattern onto one of the paired smiley face circles.
Leaf smiley faces from autumn leaves
Next, use tape to attach the stem stick to the back of the smiley face circle. Then, glue the second smiley face circle onto the other side of the stem. Here’s an approximate visual representation of how it should look like:
Leaf smiley faces are cool! Placing these flowers in paper cups would make a wonderful room decoration. They can also be given as heartfelt gifts to mothers, grandmothers, sisters, teachers, or caregivers. Handmade gifts are always appreciated, especially when they are as beautiful and unique as these flowers!
