How To Make Super Easy Realistic Watercolor Fall Leaves

Fall leaves change the woods into mood boards for rustic country decor.
Follow our easy directions to make realistic watercolor autumn leaves.

Come, said the Wind to the Leaves one day,
Come to the meadow and we will play!
Put on your dresses of red and gold,
For summer is gone and the days grow cold.

George Cooper

It’s like the coming of Fall puts me into another world.

I’m a desert transplant, so my nature is to go “home” in fall, to the sights and sounds and smells of the Canadian prairies.

Golden grain folding into the header of the combine, and pouring like kerneled gold into the truck.

Leaves changing the woods and fence rows into mood boards for rustic country decor.

Gathering those leaves and carefully placing them into the pages of the huge dictionary, to be forgotten until winter when Dad sits in his chair and pulls out the dictionary to spend some relaxing reading time.

(What?  You didn’t know some people enjoyed reading dictionaries?  Well, my Dad did on occasion, and so, this October, when my parents celebrate their 75th anniversary, we will use a vintage dictionary as the guestbook for people to record their attendance.  And if they happen to think of a word that describes our family in their memory, we’ll ask them to circle that word. In honor of a lexicon lover who is dear to me.)

And that’s why this season is a special time that always puts me in the crafting mood.

Easy Watercolor Fall Leaves DIY

Last fall Kim went to a card making class, and learned how to make watercolor-effect fall leaves.  Her instructor had all the fancy supplies like leaf dies and fall color ink pads and three different machines to cut the dies.

We thought we’d try making them without the fancy supplies, and above you see our results.

Supplies for Realistic Paper Fall Leaves

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• 98# Mixed Media Paper
• Watercolor pencils or washable markers
• Spray bottle with water
• Gold Glitter Spray (optional, but it really makes them pop)
• Scissors, pencil

The first thing you need on your work surface is a ceramic pumpkin, a gift from your daughter.  Just because.  Isn’t it sweet?

And then here are the step by step directions for making these realistic looking fall leaves.

1. Tear vaguely leaf shaped pieces from the watercolor paper in the size you desire. 
2. Color in the leaves with the watercolor pencils or washable markers, as shown on the bottom left. Put quite a lot of color on for vibrancy.
3. Place your leaves in a water resistant place, and spray the paper with water till soaking wet.
4. Wad the leaves up into balls.
5. Let them dry.
6. Smooth the leaves out, but leave them a little crunchy looking like real fallen leaves would be, and cut notches here and there to create different leaf shapes.  You can use the leaves in the image as examples. Or leave them in a pointed oval.  They’ll all be pretty.
7. If you like a little glitz, take them outside and place on an old shower curtain or something.  Shake that can of glitter and give each of them a spritz.
8. After the gold is dry, the leaves are ready to use in so many ways.  And for us desert dwellers, we will have colored leaves inside at least!

You can use small leaves on a card, like we did, or larger ones on a wreath or garland, which we want to try.  Another idea is place-cards for your Thanksgiving table.  Wrap the napkins with twine and tuck a leaf into each. Use Sharpie markers to write the guest’s names on the leaves.

Save this Autumn Leaf Tutorial

to Pinterest for later.