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Here’s a gorgeous clay leaf wall hanging which makes a perfect Autumn or Fall craft idea. It’s easy enough for preschoolers to make and also is a fun sensory activity for them combined with the fine motor skills they’ll need to practice to complete the craft.
We originally created this easy clay craft in 2014 when my daughter was a preschooler and have updated and reshared it for today’s audience.
You might also like our clay coil pots
Miss 4 and I have been enjoying the Autumn sunshine with lots of walks to the park, and have been unable to resist collecting some brightly coloured Autumn leaves. I never can just let a nature collection be as it is, I always feel the need to somehow turn it into a nature craft!
We happened to have a packet of air dry clay begging to be used in our craft supply stash, so I decided to put it to good use by making some clay leaves with my daughter.
Clay is something she loves. It’s a different texture to play dough (another love of hers) and as a bonus you get to keep the creations you make when they dry. It’s cooler to the touch and thicker to squish and roll with her rolling pin.
To make a clay leaf wall hanging is very easy but takes a little bit of patience because the clay needs plenty of drying time, as does the painting stage.
Whilst our leaf mobile is an Autumn one, Summer or Spring leaves would be great for this project too, you could change your clay mobile to reflect the seasons.
Want to get started?
How to make a clay leaf mobile
You will need:
- Leaves (they don’t need to be Autumn coloured fallen leaves, green will do just as well)
- Air dry clay – we used this one
- A kitchen skewer or similar to poke holes in the clay for hanging
- Kids acrylic paint and brushes
- A sealer (optional) – we used a decoupage non-toxic water based sealer. Mod podge would work well too.
- String and a stick to hang them with
How to:
Roll the clay out to a thickness of around 5mm.
Press a leaf into the clay and roll it in with a rolling pin. Cut around the leaf with a blunt knife (we used a plastic kids knife).
Peel the leaf off and remove the excess clay from around the cut out leaf shape.
Carefully lift the leaf shape from the table, poke a hole somewhere near the top with a skewer for hanging later on, and put it onto a tray to dry out, it should take at least a week and depending on your weather and humidity conditions it may take even longer. We left ours for two weeks before we took them down from the shelf for painting.
Make as many leaves as you like.
Now it’s time to paint the leaves. Miss 4 helped me to paint the leaves in Autumn colours and then decided to paint her hands too!
You can either paint one side at a time and let it dry or paint both sides and prop the leaf up against something so that both sides can dry at the same time. I propped them up against the sides of the wooden tray we were working with. Another trick I use is to lay a wooden skewer underneath so the paint doesn’t get stuck to the paper.
They took a couple of hours to dry in the Autumn sunshine outside.
Once the paint had dried I took the optional step of painting the leaves with a water-based sealer that is generally used for decoupage. It gave it a clear, glossy coat on top of the paint.
After the sealer has dried, the only step left is to hang the leaves on a stick, and then hang the stick on the wall.
So pretty. Do your kids like to make things with air dried clay?
You might also like:
Create some traditional clay coil pots
These polymer clay pendants are a fun craft for kids
Use nature items to create your own DIY nature construction kit
