Dip Dyed Fall Leaf Banner

Make your own Dip Dyed Fall Leaf Banner with this easy tutorial!

Ever have one of those good ideas that comes to you when you’re half asleep? This was totally one of those. I had these wood leaf shapes sitting around and I knew I wanted to use them for something. I usually paint them. But I know I get tired of doing the same thing. And I’m sure you get tired of seeing it. So I was lying there half asleep and I thought to myself, hm, you know how when you eat a popsicle, the stick is dyed a color when you’re done? Well, what if I somehow got the wood leaf shapes to absorb color instead of painting them? And guess what, it totally worked! So here’s what I did.

Diy Dyed Fall Leaves

12 wood leaf shapes

small bowls

food coloring

1. First dip one of the leaves into some water. I tried this process with and without pre-wetting the wood and the colors blended much more nicely when I started with wet wood.

2. In the small bowls, mix water and food coloring until you get a color you like. I would estimate for the yellow I used about 1/2 cup of water and 6-8 drops of yellow food coloring. Let the wood shape sit in the dye until the color starts to spread and you like the color. You may need to rotate it to get all sides.

3. In a second bowl, mix up some red dye. For this I used approximately 1/8 – 1/4 cup of water with 10-15 drops of red food coloring. But again, mix until it’s a color you like. Then dip the tips of the leaves into the red, you may do that in more than one place around the leaf. For the second color, you probably don’t need to leave it in as long. 

3. Let the leaves dry fully. When mine were dry, I wanted a little more red so I gave the tips of the leaves a second bath in the red dye.

4. To make the banner, I cut bunting flag shapes out of a manilla folder and then covered them with fabric.

5. Then I punched holes in the top of each bunting flag and hot glued one leaf on each flag.

6. String the flags on some twine and you’re done!

If you liked this, you may also like some of my other posts…

• Author
• Recent Posts

Follow me

Cassie May

Craft and Knitwear Designer at Little Red Window Design

Welcome to Little Red Window! I’m Cassie, a professional craft and knitwear designer working in the field for more than 10 years. I have a degree in Art History from Northwestern University and a Master's Degree in Architecture and Design from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I've designed more than 300 separate knitting patterns, hundreds of craft projects, and I love to bring joy to your crafts and knitting with well-designed, easy to understand tutorials and patterns.

Follow me

Latest posts by Cassie May (see all)

• Gingerbread House and Gingerbread Man Knitting Patterns - December 13, 2024
• Peppermint Candy Cane Wreath Knitting Pattern - December 9, 2024
• Gingerbread Wreath Knitting Pattern - December 9, 2024