Easy Fall Leaf Crafts for Kids: Colored Salt Dough Leaf Impressions

Easy Fall Leaf Crafts for Kids: Colored Salt Dough Leaf Impressions

If your kids love a good DIY project, then they’ll love fall. This season offers a slew of unique fall crafts for kids. What makes fall so different? For one, for most of us, the weather is still nice enough to permit some outdoor excursions. Secondly, again, for most of us, fall offers some frugal yet vibrantly colored materials like leaves which can be repurposed for a whole bunch of leaf crafts for kids or other fall crafts for kids.

As fall slowly settles upon us, start planning some fun fall crafts for kids. Search Pinterest or Google for inspiration. There are fall crafts for kids that fit any budget, skill level, age group, and time frame so don’t worry, with a little research, you’ll find the perfect project for your little ones.

Personally, I recommend trying at least a couple leaf crafts for kids. The great thing about leaf crafts for kids is that you and the children get to get out of the house (enjoy it while it lasts!) to scrounge up materials. The act of hunting for just the right leaves can, in and of itself, be an enjoyable project. Leaf crafts for kids also offer a learning opportunity as you can take your time outside and teach your children to identify the different types of leaves and why they change color in the fall. Leaf crafts for kids also enable you to save money by using found materials instead of buying items at the store.

Here is a fabulous leaf craft for kids that is fun yet simple!

For more fun craft ideas for kids follow Freebie Finding Mom’s Crafts for Kids Pinterest board.

MATERIALS

1 C. flour
1 C. salt
Up to 1 C. of water (I used a little over ½ a cup)
Crayons
Leaves
Parchment paper
Baking sheet

DIRECTIONS

1. Head outside and choose your leaves. The kids loved this activity. Grab a variety of them and get some that are really really veiny because you will want them to ‘stick’ into your dough and make an imprint.

2. Back inside, mix the salt and flour together.

3. Slowly pour the water in and mix. You probably won’t need the whole cup of water so add it slowly. Mix. Add it in again. Continue doing this until you get a nice dough consistency.

4. Preheat the oven on your lowest heat setting. For our oven it’s 170 degrees so that is what I went with. Add a sheet of parchment paper to a large baking sheet.

5. Next, spread some extra flour out on the kitchen table or counter. The kids will need lots of room to work. We didn’t even need rolling pins for this. We were able to simply roll the dough in some flour, work it with our hands, and flatten it out manually.

6. Choose your leaves and press them into the dough. Don’t be too gentle with them as you really need to press them in to get the leaf imprint to show up.

7. Once the imprints are to your liking lay the dough gently on the parchment paper on top of the baking sheet. Repeat with the other leaves and dough and lay them on the baking sheet.

8. Bake the dough for about 3 hours on the low setting. This will help them not burn and cook evenly to simply dry them out and not bubble up.

9. Allow them to cool completely and then color!

This project is just one example of leaf crafts for kids. Again, Pinterest and Google offer tons of other fall crafts for kids that are sure to be the highlight of any autumn day. Do you have other fun and frugal leaf crafts for kids that you’ve tried (or fall crafts for kids)? If so, please share your experiences in the comments!

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Colored Salt Dough Leaf Impressions

Active Time: 30 minutes

Additional Time: 3 hours

Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Leaf Crafts for Kids: Colored Salt Dough Leaf Impressions - Head outdoors to grab the main "ingredient" for these fall crafts for kids. Once they have found their favorite leaves encourage them to head inside and leave their mark in this fun DIY kids project.

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Materials

• 1 C. flour
• 1 C. salt
• Up to 1 C. of water (I used a little over ½ a cup)
• Crayons
• Leaves
• Parchment paper
• Baking sheet

Instructions

1. Head outside and choose your leaves. The kids loved this activity. Grab a variety of them and get some that are really really veiny because you will want them to ‘stick’ into your dough and make an imprint.
2. Back inside, mix the salt and flour together.
3. Slowly pour the water in and mix. You probably won’t need the whole cup of water so add it slowly. Mix. Add it in again. Continue doing this until you get a nice dough consistency.
4. Preheat the oven on your lowest heat setting. For our oven it’s 170 degrees so that is what I went with. Add a sheet of parchment paper to a large baking sheet.
5. Next, spread some extra flour out on the kitchen table or counter. The kids will need lots of room to work. We didn’t even need rolling pins for this. We were able to simply roll the dough in some flour, work it with our hands, and flatten it out manually.
6. Choose your leaves and press them into the dough. Don’t be too gentle with them as you really need to press them in to get the leaf imprint to show up.
7. Once the imprints are to your liking lay the dough gently on the parchment paper on top of the baking sheet. Repeat with the other leaves and dough and lay them on the baking sheet.
8. Bake the dough for about 3 hours on the low setting. This will help them not burn and cook evenly to simply dry them out and not bubble up.
9. Allow them to cool completely and then color!