Fall Craft Plaster Leaves DIY Tutorial - Perfect for many fall craft ideas.

Y’all I decided to try my hand at using Plaster of Paris on some faux leaves.

I wanted to make some plaster leaves for a Fall Craft idea and here is the full DIY and what I learned along the way.

Fall Craft Plaster Leaves DIY

Y’all might remember that I shared How to Save a Faux Ficus Tree some time ago. Well, I saves all those ficus leaves because I knew I’d want to make a craft project with the some day.

I had a couple of ideas for using the plaster leaves and both of the projects worked out well.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Before I can share the project that I used the Plaster Leaves DIY for, I have to share how I made this fall craft.

Supplies for Fall Craft

Plaster of Paris
Faux Leaves
Water
Mixing Bowel
Plastic or Wax Paper
Spray Paint – Copper
Wire Snips

Prepare for project

First, I want to say this project is a little messy and you need a good amount of space to work in.

You will want to cover an area for your leaves to dry. I used plastic, but you can use wax paper or any material that the leaves will not stick to.

The area needs to be large enough for all leaves to be spread out to dry.

Next, using wire snips, cut off the stems from your faux leaves.

In addition to my ficus leaves, I used some dollar store falls leaves.

Plaster of Paris for Paster Leaves DIY

Now you are ready to begin mixing your plaster of paris.

In a large mixing bowl, add a small amount of plaster of paris and just enough water to get a thick consistency, approx. like mayonnaise. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MIX MORE THAN YOU CAN WORK QUICKLY WITH. ONCE IT STARTS TO DRY, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE IT.

I added the faux leaves right into the mixture and stirred around to get a good coating on the leaves.

Then I pulled each leaf from the plaster and spread them onto the plastic wrapped table.

If some leaves are not coated well, you can use a brush to add more plaster to each side.

Allow to Dry

Be sure that your plastered leaves are completely dry before painting. I waited two days, however 24 hours should be sufficient.

Paint your plastered leaves

For this next step you will want to transfer your leaves to a well ventilated area or outside if you are using spray paint.

I moved mine outside and I used Rust-oleum Hammered Copper to paint my leaves.

You can also paint each leaf with a brush, however unless your project is small, this will take some time to do.

After your leaves are dry, turn over and paint the back sides.

Lessons Learned – Please Read

This was my first attempt at this project and here are a few things I would do differently.

Be sure that both sides of the leaf are coated throughly with the plaster. Some of mine were thinly coated and therefore, they were fragile. Those with a good heavy coating were perfect for my projects.
Paint both sides of the leaf. I originally only painted the front side and this left the plaster on the backside flakey. I After I realized my mistake, I quickly applied a coat of paint to the back side as well.

Plaster Leaves DIY Projects

You might be wondering at this point what I plan to do with all these plaster leaves. Well, I actually have 3 projects in mind. First, is this hanging leaf wreath and you can see how I put this together here.

In addition, I plan to use these same hanging leaves on my screen porch light fixture. Then I took the remainder of the leaves and made this cute craft for my fall dining table.