Etceteras: faux wood leaves

I’m loving fall right now. Every time I open a magazine, I see dozens of great ideas and my project list is growing. This project was quick and easy so it made it to the top of the list and was quickly checked off. 

I saw this idea in Better Homes & Gardens and tore out the page. It sat in my tote bag for awhile and got a little wrinkled but at least it made it home. BH&G used wood veneer to make these pretty fall leaves. I thought of way to make faux wood leaves without using veneer.

I used wood grain contact paper. I cut small pieces of cardstock and stuck the contact paper onto both sides. Using leaf templates, I drew the outline and cut them out. If you have a die cutting machine, you could whip up lots of these since it’s much faster than hand cutting each one.

The color variations of the leaves are based on the color of cardstock in between the two pieces of contact paper. I used red, green and brown cardstock.

Here you can see the red cardstock along the edge of the leaf.

You can write things that you are thankful for on the leaves using a Sharpie or metallic pen. I happened to have some Mod Podge rub off lettering with phrases that were perfect for this project.

I’m thankful for so many things including family and friends.

And of course, autumn leaves.

Thank you Better Homes & Gardens for the fantastic idea and inspiration.

And thank you for visiting!

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