Fall Leaf Painting and DIY Leaf Preservation

Who doesn’t love fall leaves? This simple leaf painting activity with our DIY leaf preservation project is sure to keep your little ones entertained.

My kids are forever collecting leaves on our walks so we always have a stack of them on the porch or in our nature center at any time. Why not turn them into a simple process art activity? I hadn’t originally planned to try to preserve them but they looked so pretty when the girls were done (I’m a sucker for fall projects) so afterwards I found a simple way to seal and preserve the leaves and the artwork on them.

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Fall Leaf Painting and DIY Leaf Preservation

If you love simple fall crafts then this is the project for you! You only need a few basic art supplies and you are ready to create! Check the instruction below to see how we preserved them too!

Materials:

• Leaves
• Tempera Paint (fall colors)
• shaving cream (optional – it give their art a marbled look)
• Mod Podge

Let your kids pick out some leaves, it works best if they are not super dry and cracking. Once they have their leaves add tempera paint and shaving cream to a paint tray or table and you are ready to!

I put out paint brushes but with my group of toddlers the brushes didn’t last long. They were much happier to use their hand. The paint mixed with shaving cream is definitely a fun sensory experiment for kids.

When they dried I gently straightened out and then painted each leaf with Mod Podge in order to preserve them and prevent the paint from chipping off the leaf. I gave some of them a fairly thick coating, dabbing it on with the brush, I didn’t want to mess up the creations on the leaves that MB and the other girls had made. I didn’t have any wax paper so I just painted one side, waited until they dried and then painted the other.

Related: Tissue Paper Fall Tree Luminaries Craft

When the Mod Podge dried on the leaves they were pliable and had a shinny sheen to them.  It allowed the leaves to be handled without the paint chipping or the leaves breaking apart.

We hung our leaves up, making a DIY fall garland, right above our art table.

It’s the perfect addition to our house this fall! They turned out even better than my photos show. Try them yourself and see!

Looking for more crafts and activities? Check out our index for 100+ plus kids activities! Find activities by theme, materials, skills, age and much more!