These Cute DIY Clay Leaf Dishes Bring The Fall Vibes Indoors

Fall is all around, which means this is the perfect time to start some festive DIY projects. One of the best things about this time of year is that you can find inspiration everywhere you turn from the colorful fallen leaves to the harvest vegetables that make the season so gorgeous. And, there are a lot of ways to use outdoor elements for your DIY home decor. For instance, it's easy to gather some leaves from the yard to make beautiful trinket dishes like @wuid.flauschig on Instagram. Then, check out our other budget-friendly DIYs for getting your home ready for fall.

In the video, @wuid.flauschig gathers and presses some fall leaves into some clay using a rolling pin, leaving an impression of the leaf in the clay. The DIYer then carves out the leaf shape and presses it into a bowl so it doesn't dry too flat. The easiest type clay for this project is air-dry. Something like Amaco Air Dry Clay is perfect, or you can even use Crayola or any other brand that is readily available for you. Or, a faster-drying option would be to use a bakeable polymer clay like Sculpey. Just make sure you are placing the clay into an oven-safe dish before baking to avoid cracks. You can even use different colored clays like @wuid.flauschig does in the video to make a whole set that you can display all year round.

Naturally, there is not one creative way to use fall leaves in your home decor, just as there isn't just one way to make a leaf-shaped trinket dish. Cutting out leaf-shaped bowls can also create a lot of tough or jagged edges, so one thing that you may want to do if you follow a similar project to @wuid.flauschig is to smooth out any roughness with an emery board after the clay has dried. And, while you can certainly leave your clay as-is after it has completely hardened, you also have the option to paint your trinket dishes with acrylic paint or seal them with a glossy finish. One easy way to seal air-dried clay is to make a sealant from clear school glue and water,or use a product like Mod Podge, available at Michael's, to protect your bowls from moisture.

Similarly, you can allow the clay leaf to dry flat after pinching the edges into a lip at the end of the dish. You can also make circular pinch pots with the leaf pattern pressed into them for a more subtle. Some DIY projects are a lot like nature –– there are very few wrong ways to create them and you can make them totally unique. As with any DIY project that contains stuff from the outdoors, be sure to wash and dry your leaves before using them to remove dirt, mold, or creatures that might be living on them.