Holding on to Fall with a Leaf-Rubbing Craft

leaf rubbing stationery

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Over the past few weeks while I was finishing up writing my book (!), I saw all the beautiful colors on the trees and was afraid I was going to miss fall entirely.

I did miss a lot of the good weather (though I did take some time to enjoy, even in the busiest parts, which I’ll talk more about later) and many of the leaves have fallen from the trees, but it’s not too late to get a little fall crafting on.

oak leaf rubbing
Rubbing of an oak leaf on paper for stationery.

If you’d like to steadfastly hold onto fall a little longer, rather than rushing into the Christmas season before it’s even Thanksgiving, join me in making this simple fall stationery craft. You have everything you need in your house to do it (or just outside) and it’s a great backdrop for a letter or card of gratitude in this time of thankfulness.

What You’ll Need

fall leaf rubbing
Aren’t these leaves pretty?
  • Go outside and gather up some leaves. The thicker leaves are somewhat better for this project, but anything will do.
  • Get some paper out of the printer or use some of your kids’ construction paper.
  • While you’re raiding the kids’ craft supplies, find some broken crayons that don’t have the paper on any more. Or if you made my alphabet crayons, those are great for this because they’re flat.

What You’ll Do

  1. Pick a leaf.
  2. Put it under a piece of paper.
  3. Make a rubbing.
  4. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

I found that I really liked ones made with brighter colors (the purple one is my favorite) rather than the more traditional fall colors, but please experiment with lots of different leaf shapes and colors.

leaf rubbing stationery
Leaf rubbings for stationery or other projects.

I did this craft by myself, but if your kids are around and old enough for leaf rubbing, let them join in the fun, too.

I think I’m going to use these pages as they are for stationery (I do actually have one friend I write real letters to!), but you could also cut them out and paste them to a card if you’d rather.

(I tried doing the rubbing directly onto cardstock and it didn’t work well, but if you have some sort of thin cardstock you could experiment with that as well.)

If you’re the sort to have place cards for Thanksgiving dinner, these would be great for that, too: just cut them out, paste to heavier paper and write the person’s name right over the leaf.

Have you been doing any fall crafting while I’ve been gone? I’d love to hear about it!


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