The term “craft paint” is often used on all these paints. Although they are all water based paints, they perform differently.
5 Minute Beautiful Leaf Prints Art (& 3 Secret Tips)
How to make beautiful leaf prints using real leaves on paper or fabric! This easy DIY leaf art is a great arts and crafts project for kids and everyone in the family, perfect for fall, Thanksgiving, and year round!
Fall is a time that really inspires creativity, just look at all the beauty and glorious colors around us!
I have always wanted to try some leaf printing projects. Leaf painting, prints and impressions are often considered fun fall and Thanksgiving crafts for kids, but can you imagine all the beautiful gifts and home decor you could make with leaf prints, at anytime of year?
After lots of testing an fine-tuning, I am excited to share with you how to make leaf impressions and prints on paper or fabric, best paints to use, and 3 secret tips and tricks (one of which I have not seen so far) to get really beautiful rich details without smudging. Stay tuned for more ideas on creative ways to use your gorgeous leaf painting art!
Materials and tools to make leaf prints:
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- Paint: For printing on paper, here are some good choices of tempera paint,gauche paint,watercolor ( soft form, in tubes), oracrylic paint. For printing on fabric, use fabric paint or acrylic paint. ( More paint comparisons in Step 2)
- Paper / fabric: I have used this card stock, regular office copy paper, and this watercolor paper, they all gave great results. Most fine textured cotton or linen fabrics are also great for this project.
- A rubber brayer / roller like this one, (you can actually use silicon rolling pins like these which are a lot cheaper!), or a wooden rolling pin. Paper towel, scrap paper, or plastic sheets for the printing process.
- Paint brushes, and a palette or anything you can mix paints on.
Check out the video tutorial on making leaf prints, or skip to written tutorial below!
Which leaves are good for making leaf prints and impressions? The best kinds of leaves for leaf printing are relatively flat, not too soft, and have nice vein textures (usually on the back side), and not too small, such as leaves from maple, tulip tree, certain oak trees, ginkgo, sassafras, ash, poplar, sycamore, etc.
You can use fresh leaves, or press them for a day before using, which I found quite helpful in keeping the leaves flat and easier to print with.
Also think about how you would like to use your leaf printing: are they for wall art, table linen, Thanksgiving cards, or other fall decorations? This will help you decide what sizes the leaves need to be.
FALL LEAF FRAMED ART TUTORIAL
- Canvas (any size)
- frame to fit the size of your canvas (optional)
- Faux leaf bundles (I used 30 leaves)
- Metallic craft paint (I used copper)
- Mod Podge or and your favorite glue (I used wall paper paste)
- Paint ( I used denim blue Apple Barrel craft paint)
- A sealer of your choice
Since I am using an old canvas I removed my canvas from the frame to use the backside.
I cut the canvas to the size of my frame. I pieced mine because the frame was a bit longer, I am going to cover the part where the seam is.
Traced the inner part of the frame onto the canvas, this will show me my work surface I have.
Mist the canvas before applying your background paint. Using a spray bottle seems to be a great way.
Apply the paint onto the damp canvas, keep misting the canvas to help the paint to go on evenly.
Let the canvas dry thoroughly.
I took my leaves off their bundles. Removing the plastic veins from the back of each leaf as well.
I gave my leaves a copper look to them by painting them with Folk Art metallic copper craft paint. I applied a light coat to each leaf.
Painting the leaves kept the look flowing, with the different shades of leaves adding the copper gave them a different shade of copper.
Pressing the leaves
To protect the leaves I place a piece of wax paper down, place the leaves on the paper and place another sheet of wax paper on top of the leaves. I pressed the leaves until they were flat.
I separated my leaves per style and size. This will help me when I start the design.
How to make a Fall Design
Starting out with your larger leaves, I placed them on the canvas in the center as if leaves were falling. Leaving space at the top and bottom of the canvas.
When I had the design I want, I glued the leaves to the canvas with wallpaper paste.
I creating a puddle of leaves to the top of the canvas, gluing as I placed the leaves on to the canvas.
I also made a smaller puddle at the bottom of the canvas as well.
Once the glue of the leaves dried I applied one coat of poly to the entire canvas to seal my design.
Let the poly dry for several hours.
Now the canvas is dry I stapled on the back of my frame.
Aren’t the colors beautiful? I will be sharing how I style the art piece soon.
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Leaf Printing with Watercolors
You can do leaf printing with watercolors also! It gives a much different effect and we love the way the impressions of the leaves look.
We suggest using the following supplies:
- Watercolor Paint – we used this brand
- White Cardstock – we like the 12×12 cardstock since you can fit larger leaves on your paper
Tips:
- Apply a generous amount of watercolor to your leaf. Use a few different colors on the leaf to give it a blend of colors on the leaf impression. We used green and yellow, orange and red, and purple and blue.
- Do not make the watercolor on your brush too watery when applying to your leaf. If it is too watery the paint won’t transfer nicely to your paper. Just add enough water that you can pick up the color with your brush to apply it to the leaf.
- If you decide to use liquid watercolors, do not dilute them too much so that you have a more concentrated paint color.
- Press firmly onto your cardstock making sure to rub and press every part of your leaf. This is so that the veins on the back of the leaf will make an impression on your paper.
Leaf Painting Silhouettes
Another way to use leaves to create art is by using the leaf to make a silhouette. You can use regular paint and a sponge to dab around the outside or you can use watercolors. We love the way the watercolors make the leaves really pop!
We suggest using the following supplies:
- Liquid Watercolor Paint – we used this brand
- White Cardstock – we like the 12×12 cardstock since you can fit larger leaves on your paper
- Double sided tape
Tips:
- Use your double sided tape to tape your leaves down to your paper.
- Starting with red or a darker, brighter color paint, paint around your leaves to start. Then slowly work your way out with lighter colors and blending the shades together.
- We used liquid watercolors for this one since we needed a lot to fill our paper. You can dilute the color more for the outside and it makes blending easier.
Puffy Painted Leaves
This art exercise is more process art since the leaves won’t preserve after a day. If you want to do this and preserve your leaves you will need to either laminate your leaves or use contact paper around them. No method of preservation is perfect however, so your leaves may still change color or change slightly when using a preservation technique.
We were inspired to try this puffy painting technique by the puffy painted designs done by Color Made Happy.
We suggest using the following supplies:
- Puffy Paint (also known as fabric paint) – we used this brand
- Different leaves – we used hydrangea and maple leaves
- Contact Paper or you can laminate to preserve your leaves
Tips:
- Draw on your design before you paint to help guide where to place the dots from the fabric paint.
- Use bright colors like the neon colors in this set we used so the colors pop off of the leaves.
- Paint a shape inside the leaf like a heart or you can paint the whole leaf a color.
- To preserve these, you can use contact paper or laminate the leaves after you’re done. Be sure to let the puffy paint fully dry before you try to laminate or place the contact paper over top. You can also place the leaves under a few books to flatten them and to make sure they do not curl up. It’s important to note that no amount of pressing or laminating will fully preserve your leaves, they will change color and may not last forever.
We’d love to know which leaf painting method is your favorite?
We loved the process of painting with the puffy paint but the outcome and lasting effect of the watercolor leaf printing is also a favorite!
Watch all of the painting tutorials here before you get started!
More Fall Crafts for Kids
Be sure to see these other fun leaf crafts as well:
For another way to create art with leaves, see how to make these beautiful leaf clay dishes. This is a great idea for kids to make for Thanksgiving table decor or to give as Christmas gifts!
Grab one of our free leaf templates and make a few different crafts like this leaf silhouette art. This is great for kids of all ages since you can use paint, paper, yarn or tape to decorate them!
