Easy Leaf Suncatchers – Fall Crafts

Easy Leaf Suncatchers!

My favorite part of fall/autumn is watching the colorful leaves fall to the ground. I just love all the yellows, oranges and reds covering the ground! I love it so much that I wanted to bring a little bit of it inside. So I recruited my crafty 9-year-old daughter and we made some leaf suncatchers to hang in the windows. Keep reading below to learn how we made them.

Materials Needed:

– Sharpie Markers (we used a nice multicolor pack)
– Laminating Pouches (we use these Scotch pouches, but these ones are cheaper and look to have great reviews
– Laminator (we use this Scotch laminator)
– A way to stick them to your window (a dab of water-soluble school glue or some clear tape would work)
– Leaf outlines. I’ve included a free printable of leaf outlines below. You could also draw them free handed.

Step One

Start by taking a laminating pouch and opening it up.
Hint: You will want to do all the drawing/coloring on the INSIDE of the pouch so that the colors get sealed inside when you run it through the laminator.
Place the leaf outlines under the clear pouch. Using a black sharpie marker, trace the outlines onto your laminating pouch. Be sure to leave a bit of space between each outline so that you have room to cut them out afterward.

Step Two

Now comes the fun part, coloring in your leaf outlines. You can choose traditional fall leaf colors, or you might want to get a little funky and use the whole rainbow of colors! We did a little of both with our leaves, as you can see in the photo below.

Step Three

Close up the laminating pouch and run it through your laminator (be sure to warm it up first).

Step Four

Now it’s time to cut out each individual leaf. You don’t need to worry about cutting too close to your outlines.
Because we ran the pouch through the laminator it is see-through now, so having a little extra around the edges won’t hurt anything.

Step Five

The last step is to stick them on your windows and enjoy them!
To start with we just wet the window a little with water and stuck the leaves to the window that way. We soon found out that the sun had quickly dried the water and then the leaves would just fall from the window. Oops!
We experimented a bit after that and found that a dab from a water-soluble glue stick or even a couple dots of liquid school glue holds up well. And they should be fairly easy to clean up afterward due to them being water-soluble. (Be sure to make sure your glue is easy to clean first! We did just one to start and then removed it to be sure)
Another idea would be to use a small piece of clear tape, although this may be a bit trickier come clean up time. But a razor blade and some rubbing alcohol should be able to clean it up pretty good.

And now you can enjoy those beautiful fall colors right in your window!

Thanks for joining us to create easy leaf suncatchers!