25 Fall Crafts for Kids Using Leaves, Pinecones and Paper

Fall is the easiest season for crafts because nature hands you the supplies. A walk outside gives you leaves in every color, pinecones, acorns, seed pods and sticks. The 25 crafts below use those finds plus paper and paint, and they're grouped by what you'll need. At the end are a few fall activities that aren't crafts at all, for days when you just need to get outside.

Start with a nature walk

Bring a bag and look for:

Leaves in different colors and shapes (flat, dry ones work best)
Pinecones and acorns
Small sticks and twigs
Seed pods, seeds, dried flowers

Press leaves between heavy books for a few days if you want them flat. Only collect what's on the ground, and wash hands afterward.

Leaf crafts

1. Leaf animals. Glue leaves onto paper as bodies and add drawn heads, legs and eyes: a leaf fox, owl, fish or hedgehog.

2. Leaf rubbings. Place a leaf under thin paper and rub the side of a crayon over it. Try layering several colors.

3. Leaf crowns. Staple leaves onto a strip of paper sized to your child's head.

4. Leaf suncatcher. Put leaves between two sheets of clear contact paper and hang it in a window.

5. Leaf people. Use one large leaf as a body and draw a face, arms and legs.

6. Leaf garland. Punch a hole in each leaf and thread them on string.

7. Leaf painting. Paint the veined side of a leaf and press it onto paper as a stamp.

Pinecone, acorn and stick crafts

8. Pinecone owls. Glue felt or paper eyes and a beak onto a pinecone.

9. Pinecone bird feeder. Spread seed butter or a nut-free spread on a pinecone and roll it in birdseed. Hang it outside.

10. Acorn faces. Draw tiny faces on acorns with a fine marker.

11. Stick frames. Glue four sticks into a square and use it to frame a drawing.

12. Nature collage. Glue everything you found onto a paper plate in a pattern.

Paper and paint crafts

13. Paper pumpkins. Glue strips of orange paper into loops and stack them into a round pumpkin, with a green paper stem.

14. Apple stamps. Cut an apple in half, dip it in paint and stamp. Cut horizontally to see a star in the middle.

15. Paper plate scarecrow. Color a plate as a face, add yellow paper "straw" hair and a paper hat.

16. Fall tree handprints. Paint a brown arm and hand as the trunk and branches, then add fingerprints in red, orange and yellow as leaves.

17. Torn paper trees. Draw a bare tree and fill it with small pieces of torn colored paper.

18. Hedgehog handprints. Paint a hand brown, press it sideways with fingers as spikes, and add a face.

19. Fall coloring placemats. Color a printed page and cover it with clear tape or contact paper. Make your own design with the AI coloring page generator.

20. Fall mandalas. Color a mandala coloring page using only reds, oranges, yellows and browns, or build a real one from leaves and seeds on the ground.

Crafts for older kids

21. Pressed leaf bookmarks. Laminate or cover pressed leaves with contact paper on a strip of card.

22. Leaf printmaking. Paint leaves in different colors and print them in overlapping layers.

23. Corn husk dolls. If you can find dried corn husks, soak them and tie them into simple figures.

24. Weather wheel. Make a paper plate wheel showing sunny, rainy, windy and foggy fall days.

25. Fall nature journal. Each week, draw or glue one thing found outside and write a sentence about it.

Fall activities beyond crafts

Leaf pile jumping. Rake and jump. Check the pile for sticks first.
Color hunt. Find something red, orange, yellow, brown and green outside.
Pumpkin or apple picking. Many farms run family days in autumn.
Bird watching. Fall migration is a great time to spot birds; use your pinecone feeder.
Fall coloring. On rainy days, print animal coloring pages and color foxes, owls and squirrels in autumn colors.

More seasonal crafts

Halloween and Thanksgiving are just around the corner: see our Halloween crafts for kids and Thanksgiving crafts for kids. For mixing autumn colors, our guide to what colors make orange and what colors make brown will help.