I don’t generally do a lot of crafting specifically for autumn but autumn is a time of the year that I love. Even though it’s the same every year I’m always amazed by the way the leaves change colour so rapidly and so vividly. After a walk in the woods near our home the other day, I came home with my head full of admiration for all the beautiful colours and set about making some paper leaves.

They were easy to make and the possibilities with this idea are endless. This is a great craft for kids of all ages or adults, a chance to left your creativity run wild.

You don’t even need watercolour paints to get this effect, it’s done using the kid’s inexpensive felt pens!

Ideas to make doodled paper autumn leaves

To make doodled paper autumn leaves you will need:

Watercolour paper
Felt pens - any type as long as they are washable
Water and a paintbrush
Scissors
Pens for doodling and/or ink and stamps - more on them in a minute!

Prepare the background paper

I used the same watercolour technique here that I used a few years ago on these feather and mandala cards.

It’s a really simple technique, you scribble blobs of colour with the felt pens and then wet them with water and a paint brush. It’s that simple!

When it’s dry you’ll end up with something a bit like this:

Cut out leaves

Cut out some simple leaf shapes. You can draw them on the back of the paper or just cut them freehand, depending on how confident you feel!

Leaf doodle ideas

Now it’s time to doodle and/or stamp your leaves. This is where you can get really creative and have fun.

If you want to doodle on the leaves just use any black marker or fine liner. You can add details with a white gel pen too if you like. These are my favourite pens for something like this but you can really use whatever you have.

For thicker black lines - Super Ink Marker, Fine
For thinner black lines - Pigma Micron 08
For white lines and dots - Uni Ball Signo broad white gel pen

Doodle whatever takes your fancy. I drew main veins on each leaf with the Super Ink marker and then filled in the sections with various doodles with the Pigma micron fine liner.

Lines, zig zags, bumps, dots etc all work well.

how to create doodled paper autumn leaves

Here are some more doodled ideas, you can copy these or just make up your own. On these I got adventurous and added flowers, swirls and wiggles!

This one I based on an actual real leaf that I doodled a few years ago and shared on Instagram. I just added a bit more this time.

For anyone not confident with doodling you can try using stamps. I found a sheet of floral and leaf stamps in my craft stash that worked quite well for this. I don’t use stamps that much but seem to have collected quite a few over the years without really trying. A lot have been freebies with craft magazines or have been given to me by friends who know I like to craft.

More doodled leaf ideas

I just played about trying some different styles to give you some ideas:

I tried a large heart shaped floral stamp on this leaf, I quite like the effect but I did mess up the leaf vein lines on this one I think, they should all come the same central point really shouldn’t they?

I really just made a bunch of leaves without much thought of what they would be for, I just wanted to make them!

Inspired by the summer leaf greeting cards I made earlier this year, I turned one into a simple card. Just add a sentiment and a bow of embroidery thread.

They would be lovely used on gift tags, or strung together into a pretty garland. They could be added to an indoor wreath or even used as seasonal bookmarks.

Have fun making a bunch of pretty paper autumn leaves, remember to tag me if you share them on Instagram or facebook, I love seeing your creations inspired by anything you see here on the blog.

Update: I made some more doodled leaves, they really are a lot of fun to draw!

This time I drew the leaf outline and coloured half with a felt pen. I used my posh promarker pens but you could use any. Promarkers are expensive but they do last forever, I’ve had mine for over 8 years now and they are still going strong. Then I doodled over the top as before, using a black fine liner pen.