Squirrel Leaf collage

We love doing nature inspired crafts this time of year. If your child likes foraging for treasures or going on scavenger hunts, turning their finds into craft projects can be great fun.

For this Squirrel Leaf Collage, we have made a printable template, which means it’s super simple even for very young crafters.

This squirrel leaf collage was inspired by my daughter. We enter our local horticultural shows, and this year they had a class for a leaf collage. We have previously made some bonfire night collages with leaves, but both kids wanted to make collages of animals this time.

Oliver choose a hedgehog inspired from our nature inspired Autumn crafts. Isla on the other hand had the great idea to make a squirrel! For the horticultural show she free hand drew her squirrel, then painted it before sticking on the leaves. She was very pleased to come first in the class!

I used her drawing to make a printable template, making this craft super simple even for very young children. The template is available in ‘The Secret Garden’, my subscriber only area, where all the great printables are! (Scroll down for more details of how to access it).

If you would like to see how we made our squirrel leaf collage, scroll down for my hints and tips and our video turorial, or pin it for later!

Pin Squirrel leaf collage for later!

The full tutorial is in the YouTube video below, but I have a few hints and tips for you if you want to give it a go.

What You Will Need To Make Your Squirrel Leaf Collage

• Template (see below)
• Paper or card to print template on
• Brown paint
• Black pen (optional)
• Googley eye and small pom pom (optional)
• PVA glue
• Paint brushes
• Leaves

Top Tips For Making Your Squirrel leaf collage

• First get the template! You can print it onto white paper or card for painting. Or if you prefer, you could print it onto some brown coloured card or paper and cut it out. You could even add a small pom pom for a nose, and/or a googley eye to make it a little different.
• Collect leaves of different sizes and colours to make the squirrel’s tail more interesting.
• Fallen leaves tend to be quite brittle when dry. So best to collect them when they’re a little damp and dry them between a couple of sheets of kitcehn towl under a heavy book or two. It helps dry the leaves flat to make them easier to stick to the piece of paper.
• Apply plenty of glue to the backs of the leaves in case they aren’t completley flat. With kids I find this easier to dispense some PVA glue into a small paint pot and let them apply it with a brush.
• Give plenty of time for the paint to dry before moving on to the next stage, and again after the leaves are stuck on. Best to give it at least 24 hours in between those stages.

How You Make THem!

Watch my little video tutorial on how we made our squirrel leaf collage!

That’s it, very simple. If you would like the squirrel template and to gain access to my ‘Secret Garden’, which is my subscriber only area full of all the free prinatbles, scroll to the end of the post and fill in your details.

Have you made leaf collages before? If you have I’d love to see what creations you’ve come up with!

Kerry x

To subscribe to my weekly newsletter, and get access to ‘The Scret Garden’ where you will find all the templates and printables, just pop your details in below.

Nature Inspired Crafts is also one of my 50 Crafts To Try Before You’re 10! My open ended, free challenge aimed at injecting a little creativity into family life. If you want to be part of it just fill in your details below.