Autumn leaves: what I rustled up

This week I've been writing about seasonal crafts, like how to carve a Halloween pumpkin lantern, and some other decorating options kids can do without using knives. I was also writing about craft ideas for autumn leaves for kids.

I love celebrating the changing of the seasons like this, being aware of and admiring what's around you (sycamore 'propellers', beech nuts, chestnuts – horse and human, leaves), and it makes great stuff to mess about with and make something from.

In the past I've made an autumn leaf wreath from the maple leaves from my own garden but this year they all got frazzled because I was away on holiday for the two hottest weeks of the year, so no autumn show!

This morning we went for a walk, and the leaves are just beginning to change colour. Having been looking at gorgeous images of leaves to go with my kids' activity ideas, I was inspired to make something with them myself. So I brought back sprigs of oak leaves, just turning golden with still-green veining, yellow beech leaves, and reddish-purple leaves from a tree I can't identify. (If anyone knows what they're from, please leave a comment!)

I made a very rough-and-ready leaf wreath, essentially just a couple of twined stems pulled from my neighbour's wall (thanks, Fergus) twisted into a circle, with leaves tucked in. It looks messy, but I like its naturalistic form. (And if I wanted, I could make something symmetrical and more polished.)

At the very least, it brightens up a bare patch of fence.

And brightening up a length of bare wall are these leaves-on-a-line. To make them, thread a needle with the desired length of thread, and tie the other end of the thread around a tiny twig, to weigh down your lines. Pass the needle through the leaf, near the top, alongside the spine, and back through the other side. This stops it sliding to the bottom. Stitch on more leaves until your thread is full.

How you hold them in place spends on their location. Mine are weighted down with a pebble from a high windowsill, but you could tie a hanging loop on the end of the tree to suspend from a nail, or tie the thread end around, for example, the bottom of a hanging basket. These lines of leaves twirl mesmerisingly in the breeze, and although they may only last a couple of days, they only take a couple of minutes to make.