The trees in the autumn are beautiful, and there are many ways in which you can preserve the beauty of the colorful leaves. By making an autumn leaf picture frame, you can preserve the sensation of autumn as well as a picture of your family! In order to make this craft, you will need cardboard, index cards, scissors, glue, construction paper, and a variety of relatively small autumn leaves. If you live in an area without many trees, you can purchase artificial colored autumn leaves from a local craft store.
To start this project, place an index card (choose the size of your index card based on the size of the picture you would like to put inside of the frame) in the center of a piece of cardboard. Trace the index card with a pencil. Next, make a border around this tracing. A border of at least three inches in width is recommended. You can make these measurements as accurate as possible by using a pencil and ruler. Once you have the center tracing and pencil lines for the border, use a pair of scissors to cut around the border and then to cut out the central rectangular tracing in the middle of the piece of cardboard. You should now have a frame shape.
Next, choose a color of construction paper that would be suitable for this project. Red, yellow, and orange are recommended colors. Trace the shape of the cardboard frame onto the construction paper and then cut out the shape. Use glue to attach this sheet of construction paper to the preexisting frame. Wait for the glue to dry.
Next, use your assortment of colored leaves to decorate the frame. You should be careful to keep the leaves from going into the center cutout portion of the frame, as these leaves will block the viewing of the picture. You can even add pieces of bark and acorns to the frame, but be aware that these objects will require more glue to stay attached to the frame and excess amounts of glue will take longer to dry.
Try overlapping leaves of different colors to contrast the colors. You can also make the leaves stick out from the outside of the frame so that the frame looks more like a pile of leaves and less like a rectangular frame.
When you have created a pattern of leaves that you like, let the glue dry. Then cut a piece of string between six inches and one foot long. Use glue to attach one end of this string to the upper left-hand corner of the back of the frame. Then glue the other end of this string to the upper right-hand corner of the back of the frame. Let the glue dry completely! If it does not dry completely, the string may detach. Finally, choose a picture to place on the back of the frame. Use a thin line of glue around each edge of the picture and place the glue against the back of the frame so that the picture peeks through the frame. Let the glue dry and then hang up your frame for everyone to see!
