I wanted to tone down a faux maple leaf garland and thought mixing in some brown bag leaves would do the trick. With the addition of a natural branch and brown leaves this looks more realistic.

If you are looking for a mindless and free craft here’s one to try. I had a stack of Food Lion bags to reuse – I’m sure brown lunch bags would work well too.

I traced some faux leaf shapes on a bag and began to cut them out.

Fold the leaf in half and cut for symmetry.

You can cut a few at once if you have decent scissors.

Here are a few brown bag leaves using different shapes.

I used a brown marker to draw in some leaf veins.

Wadded them up and crumpled the leaves up well.

I had some dark wax in the garage – brown shoe polish would work too.

Using a foam brush I whisked some wax over the leaves. It clung to the wrinkles and creases making them look fairly aged and realistic.

The leaves on the right look like aged brown leaves.

I found a long branch and attached it to clear command hooks. I love the look of the bare branch too but kept going.

I wove a faux leaf garland across the branch.

I used my hot glue gun to attach the brown bag leaves to the branch, leaf garland or even to the faux leaves.

The end result is fuller and looks more natural than the plain garland, don’t you think?

I’m sure you could use your leaves on a wreath, in a bowl with pinecones …use your imagination. Grab some bags and have fall fun.

Cheers-Kristen