In my opinion, the reds, oranges, yellows, and golds of fall are the most beautiful colors on earth. I absolutely love fall leaves!
This mixed media art project celebrates the arrival of fall with an image of gorgeous leaves set against the shadow of a tree trunk.
The rich colors of the fall leaves are created with solid tempera paints. This background is then overlaid with tree branches formed from cut paper. This is a wonderful fall art project for children of all ages.
Note: For more AWESOME art activities, see my Arts and Crafts for Kids page.
Disclaimer: I was compensated for writing this post. All opinions and ideas are my own.
How to create fall leaves mixed media artwork
To get the rich colors for our fall leaves artwork, we used Kwik Stix solid tempera paints. Kwik Stix give rich, beautiful colors like tempera paints without any of the mess, because Kwik Stix do not require any water or brushes. And best of all, Kwik Stix paints dry super fast – in just 90 seconds!
I grabbed several fall colors from our Kwik Stix collection along with a sheet of thick paper.
We filled in the entire sheet of paper with fall colors. You can draw leaves, lines, or squiggles. Just put as much color on the paper as you can.
Next, we learned how to draw tree branches! Since this was new to my kids, we practiced first on scratch paper. I showed them how to make curving branches that continually split into new and smaller branches.
Once they had the hang of it, we used a white pencil on black construction paper to draw the outlines for our trees.
Then we used scissors to cut our trees out.
Finally, we used double sided tape to place our tree outlines over our colored backgrounds. (Be sure to put the side you wrote on face-down so that no pencil lines will show on the final project.)
The end result is quite enchanting, don’t you think?
I normally dread pulling out our tempera paints because of all the clean up I have to do afterwards. But with Kwik Stix paints, we get the beautiful look of paint without any of the mess or hassle. To see more projects using Kwik Stix, follow @KwikStixPaint on Instagram.
Plus, Kwik Stix paints are non-toxic as well as egg-, peanut-, and gluten-free. You can purchase them online at Amazon at Michaels or in person at Michael’s, BJ’s Wholesale, and Walgreens stores.
More arts and crafts resources
Popular arts and crafts activities from Gift of Curiosity:
- Cut up art
- Aluminum foil paintings
- Leaf collages
- Tape resist watercolor painting
- Seed medallions
- Trace the shapes art project
- Corn husk dolls
Note: For more kid-friendly craft projects, see my Arts and Crafts for Kids page and my Arts and Crafts Pinterest board.
Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity’s board Arts and crafts on Pinterest.
I tend to stay away from tempera paint because of the mess. However, these paints look amazing! I can’t wait to give them a try. Thank you for introducing them to me!
These would be perfect for craft time with my 5 year old son. Thanks for the chance!
I would love to win this for my kids! I have an 8 yr old and a 3 yr old and they love doing arts and crafts. With Fall being here we will be doing lots of holiday crafts and these kwik sticks look amazing!
I would love to give these a try! What a great idea!
This looks awesome! I find so many painting projects I’d love to do with my kids, but it’s harder to plan for the mess potential. I can’t wait to try out Kwik Stix!
I would enjoy introducing my preschooler to Kwik Stixs. He loves to paint, but I honestly do not paint with him often enough due to the “mess factor.” I think these paints would be a great addition to our home preschoo! And I really like your fall tree idea!!
I would love these for my preschool class!
I would love to try these with my special needs students!! Love like fun!!
I have 5 children and we have art lessons once a week. These paints would make clean up so much easier and the kids would love to be able to have more control over their artwork. Can’t wait to try this project, looks like a lot of fun!
Can’t wait to use these with my grandsons.
What a great and easy work of art! I would love to have these Kwik Stix to make something like this with my 3-year-old grandson.
These paints and the project look amazing!
This looks like such a cool activity! I can’t wait to do this with my class. The paint you used looks amazing…..I need to get some and try it!
My kids burn through paint quickly, AND make a mess while doing it. This would allow them to be creative and clean up would be quick!
I have never tried them but think they would be great for my four year olds!
I will be starting homeschooling in a few months and would love to add these to our homeschool classroom 🙂
I’ve never heard of these paint sticks before! Thanks for introducing them to me! And what a great fall craft idea, hope to try it!
I’d like to win these to encourage my son’s artistic inner self!
I have had my eye on these for a while and would love to win a set for our homeschool!
The bright, vibrant colors of these are amazing. They also seem to last quite awhile. We’d really love to expand and try the neon colors, too. Thanks.
I can’t wait to try these with our 4 yr old twins! I get kind of freaked out with wet messes in the house. These look great for letting them use another medium and let me breathe a little.
Love this project!
my son loves to draw and be creative.
These look so awesome! I love that you can play with paints with less mess.