How To Make Fall Leaves with Burlap and Paper Sacks
I’m going to show you how to make a simple Autumn craft that you can use to decorate your home, patio or porch, celebrating the season of leaves. It’s simple and uses burlap, brown paper grocery bags, and Mod Podge. And no worries about creating your leaves and cutting free-hand, I’ve got templates for you!
I whipped mine up while I was chatting on the phone with one of my girlfriends and watching HGTV’s Love It Or List It . I made three each of three varieties. It went pretty quick.
I like working with burlap and I thought, Fall. Leaves. Yeah, that’ll work.
These are the supplies you’ll need to join in the fun:
- BURLAP
- Paper Lunch Sacks (thinner is easier to cut but grocery bags work too)
- Scissors
- Mod Podge
- Paint or Craft Brush
- Sharpie (yellow worked perfect)
- Leaf Outline To Print
- Card Stock Paper
Here are the leaves I used. You may right click and “save as”, then print out. You can then cut them out and use them as a template. I suggest printing on card stock weight paper.
(You can print one or all, whatever you prefer.)
After you print and cut, you should have something along these lines.
They don’t have to be perfect, after the first one, I sort of fudged it and zipped along. The leaf police never caught on. So it’s all good!
OKAY! Now that you have your leaf templates cut out, let’s get started:
STEP ONE. Cut the bottom off your paper sack.
STEP TWO: Cut the bag open at the seam.
STEP THREE: Lay bag flat and smooth out.
STEP FOUR: Apply a uniform layer of Mod Podge to the paper sack.
STEP FIVE: Smooth burlap onto the Mod Podge covered paper sack surface.
*I like to back my burlap with something when I craft with it, otherwise, it’s very floppity.
STEP SIX: Outline your leaf template of choice onto your new burlap and paper sack layered creation. I used a yellow Sharpie. Just enough to see my lines You can cut a pinch inside the line to avoid any outline marks showing. Which is what I did.
When you are all done cutting out your leaves, you should have something that looks like these:
Maple Leaf (my fav!)
Oak Leaf
Funky Leaf.
This is my least favorite. It looks like a chicken foot claw thing. Me no like. I will not be decorating with it. If it’s your favorite. Sorry about that!
Mostly though…
Have fun with them and decorate as you see fit!
I’ve got a project I’m working on but it’s not quite ready to share.
This whole floor thing is really cramping my crafting schedule.
Just Kidding!!!! I am not complaining about getting new floors.
You could totally smack me if I was! I would insist.
patty says
How do you keep the burlap from unraveling when you work with it?
Shannon at Fox Hollow Cottage says
For this project, the gluing down to the paper sack did the trick! I also use really sharp scissors and washed and dried before beginning my craft. I hope that helps!!
Ananasa says
So beautiful and such an amazing posting!
Ananasa.com- Home For Handmade
Debbie says
OMG…you are too funny…..I am all over this easy craft idea. Thanks so much. I so loved your lingo as well, pretty much how I talk. Keep the cool ideas coming!
Shannon at Fox Hollow Cottage says
hehehe. I’m just me. Nothing fancy here 😉 Glad you liked it. I’m pretty much all over the cheap and easy stuff. I like instant gratification! and cookies.