DLTK's Holiday Crafts for Kids
Water Color Autumn Leaves Wreath

I love water color and I love autumn, so this is one of my favourite crafts! Kids can express their creativity with lovely autumn leaves and flowing water color paint. This autumn wreath is a colorful way to get in the mood for the autumn season and would also make a beautiful decoration!

Materials:

• white paper (water color paint warps paper, so the thicker the paper the better; special water color paper works the best but printer paper would be okay too),
• printer,
• scissors,
• glue,
• a paper plate
• water color paint,
• paintbrush,

Instructions:

• Cut the center out of the paper plate to leave a round "donut" shape.  This will form the base of the wreath.  (This may require adult assistance).
• Create the leaves to cover the wreath using the printer paper template:
  • Print out the template pieces - you may wish to print 2 or 3 copies of the template depending on how full you want your wreath to be.
  • Paint the autumn leaves using different Water Color Painting Techniques. This is where children can show their creativity! (Beware, the printer ink may run with the water color ink.)
• Create the autumn leaves to cover the wreath using traced water color paper:
  • Paint water color paper with different Water Color Painting Techniques. Don't worry about painting in lines, you will cut the paper into autumn leaves later.

  • Make a few different autumn leaf templates by freehand or print out one of the templates provided and use some of the different autumn leaves as templates.
  • Trace the autumn leaves onto the back of the water color paper as many times as you can fit the shapes.

• Cut out the template pieces, either from the printer paper templates or the traced water color paper.  This will take quite awhile -- you can provide assistance if you like (depending on the patience of your child).

• Glue your autumn leaves to completely cover your paper plate "donut".
• OPTIONAL: You can tie a bow and paste it on to decorate further.
• OPTIONAL: You can put a piece of yarn on the back to hang it.
• OPTIONAL: You can write some short messages on the leaves: autumn quotes, autumn words, you favourite things about autumn, etc.

• OPTIONAL: You can do these as a group with younger children -- let each child paint and cut out one or two autumn leaves, possibly print their names on it, and glue it on the group wreath.

Craft Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Autumn Leaves Template

Printable version of these instructions