Hello friends! I have some paper crafts we whipped up a few days ago, while Penelope was home sick. I was inspired after we pulled out our pressed leaves from early fall. I had a lot of scrap paper in my scrap bin and so we began tracing leaves, cutting, gluing and one creative thing led to another and we ended up with a Paper banner for our door, a paper table runner, and 2 cards, one for each of Penelope’s teachers. I think they are lovely and I hope they inspire you to grab some paper and make a thing or two, to fancy up your place or give to someone to brighten up their day. Here we go!

Tools For The Trade:

1. Paper- your colors of choice
2. Leaves- to trace, use fake ones, real ones or Google a leaf image, print and cut out to use as a template.
3. Scissors
4. Glue sticks- we were using thick cardstock and scrapbook sheet scraps, so curling wasn’t an issue. Scotch makes a wrinkle free glue stick in the image above which works great if you are using thinner paper.
5. Paper punch- For the banner and cards we used one to fancy it up.
6. Yarn- For hanging banner
7. Dowel– For banner
8. Mod Podge or white glue for banner

The How To:

1. Top left image: Trace your leaves out using a pencil.

2. Left middle image: Cut leaves out, make little leaf veins in a contrasting color as well.

3. Bottom left image: Glue all together with your glue stick.

4. Right image above: Glue your finished leaves onto larger sheets of paper. Ours were 8 1/2 × 11. That right there is the beginning of our beautiful table runner and banner! Just overlap the sheets of paper by 1/2 inch and glue.

For the banner, we used our decorative paper punch and punched a scrap of yellow paper for a nice fancy edge. We then glued it to the bottom of our banner. I then slathered lots of Mod Podge to a second strip of yellow paper and wrapped it around our dowel twice, leaving an edge to glue to the top of the banner. Add a drop of glue to the dowel ends, tie on some colorful yarn and let dry! Hang it up, and let the cheer begin! So pretty.

Above are two cards for Penelope’s teachers. Using the same concept you can make many things! These would be nice at a Thanksgiving place setting, using a smaller place card over a folded napkin on a plate. The leaves may be scattered about on the table or a buffet or hung as banners. We are making banners to string as I type this lol! I didn’t even like this paper and was going to toss it, but now I am glad I didn’t. Our pieces are quite festive and bright, but you may opt for a warmer, Autumn like color palate. Up ahead will be our felted acorns! Happy crafting!

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