Over the weekend I took Jasper (my pup) for a nice walk and couldn’t help but admire all of the beautiful fall leaves on the ground.  I scooped up a few of my favorite maple leaves and brought them home because I knew they’d be perfect for a craft project.  After checking out the craft supplies in my desk, I knew exactly what to make – a leaf stamped tea towel!  It’s an easy project and adds a nice fall touch to my kitchen!  

Supplies Needed for Leaf Stamped Tea Towels

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• Leaves (pick freshly fallen leaves – not ones that have started to dry out and curl)
• Plain tea towel
• Acrylic paints in a variety of fall colors
• Brayer
• Wax paper
• Decorative trim
• Permanent fabric glue
• Scissors

How to Make Leaf Stamped Tea Towels

Begin by mixing acrylic paints so that they’re mottled and a blend of shades you see in fall leaves.  Then, flip over a leaf and paint the underside with a thin coat of paint.  You want to paint the underside because the leaf’s veins are more prominent and will leave more of an impression on the tea towel.  

Flip the leaf over and place it paint side down onto the tea towel.

Cut a piece of wax paper and lay it on top.  (The wax paper prevents any paint that squishes out from under the leaf from getting on the brayer and making a mess on the tea towel.)  Then gently roll the brayer over the leaf and remove the wax paper.  Repeat this process until the entire tea towel is covered in leaf prints.

Once the paint has dried, attach decorative trim to the bottom edge of the tea towel with permanent fabric glue.  

That is just how easy it is to use fall leaves to make a beautiful leaf stamped tea towel for your kitchen! 

You could also use this method on pillows, tote bags, or anything else that’s fabric!  

PRINTABLE TUTORIAL

If you’d like to print or save this tutorial, here you go!  Please let me know if you find this new feature useful!

Yield: 1

How to Make Leaf Stamped Tea Towels (With Real Leaves!)

Print

Use real leaves to make a beautiful leaf stamped tea towel for your kitchen! Bring the beauty of nature indoors with this pretty leaf craft project.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 15 minutes

Additional Time 15 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Estimated Cost $3

Materials

• Leaves
• Plain Tea Towel
• Acrylic Paints
• Brayer
• Wax Paper
• Decorative Trim
• Permanent Fabric Glue
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Begin by mixing acrylic paints so that they're mottled and a blend of shades you see in fall leaves.  
2. Flip over a leaf and paint the underside with a thin coat of paint. You want to paint the underside because the leaf's veins are more prominent and will leave more of an impression on the tea towel. Flip the leaf over and place it paint side down onto the tea towel.
3. Cut a piece of wax paper and lay it on top. (The wax paper prevents any paint that squishes out from under the leaf from getting on the brayer and making a mess on the tea towel.) Then gently roll the brayer over the leaf and remove the wax paper. Repeat this process until the entire tea towel is covered in leaf prints.
4. Once the paint has dried, attach decorative trim to the bottom edge of the tea towel with permanent fabric glue.

Have you tried stamping with real leaves before?  It’s pretty amazing how well this process works!

-Bre

If you’ve been in any stores recently or shopped online, then you’ve definitely noticed that straw bags are the must have this summer.  Every store has them and they’re all so cute!  Although I already have a small straw bag, I wanted a larger one for every day use (I carry around a lot of stuff on a daily basis), but I didn’t want a large price tag.  That’s why I decided to paint a straw tote and get a cute summer bag at a fraction of the price!  (No worries if you’re not into DIY’ing a straw tote for yourself; I’ve rounded up some of my favorite straw bags available now at the bottom of this post!)

This was a super simple project that left me with a darling straw tote, and I can’t wait to show you just how to make your own!

Supplies Needed to Paint a Straw Tote

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• Straw tote (I got mine at Michaels, but it’s out of stock online.  Linked bag is similar.)
• Multi-surface acrylic paints in colors of your choice
• Paintbrush
• Letter stencil
• Masking tape (to hold stencil in place)
• Scrap fabric (to make tassel)
• Embroidery floss (to make tassel)
• Pinking shears (to make tassel)

How to Paint a Straw Tote

Before I show you how I customized my plain straw tote, let me show you how boring it was initially.  (Want to see more of my summer mantel behind the tote?  Check it out here!)

I knew it could be so much cuter, so I grabbed my acrylic paint stash and got to work!  I began by painting a band of aqua at the bottom of the bag, simply following the lines in the straw as my guide.  

Then I found a letter stencil I’ve had for YEARS in my craft stash and taped that onto the bag.  I couldn’t get it totally flush with the bag, but I did the best I could.  

I chose a coordinating color of paint for the stencil and I got to work, gently applying the paint to the stencil and trying to prevent any bleed through from happening.  To do this, I used the stencil as more of a guide than an actual stencil.  

Thankfully there was no bleed through or smudges, and the tote looked great!

It was missing a little something, however, so I whipped up a fabric tassel with some scrap fabric.  To do this, just cut narrow strips of fabric with pinking shears, lay them on top of each other, fold in half and secure near the top with embroidery floss!

I covered the embroidery floss with another piece of scrap fabric for a more “finished” look.  

And that is all it took to upgrade a plain straw tote to a cute, personalized straw tote for summer!  

So what are you waiting for?  Summer will be gone before we know it, so paint a straw tote for yourself ASAP!  How would you customize yours?

No Time for DIY?  Why Not Buy?

Scroll through to see some of my favorite straw bags in stores now!  Images are clickable to shop!