Growing up, I was deprived of the exhilarating childhood experience of jumping and playing in those giant piles of leaves. So every fall, I would wish for a huge maple tree to appear in our yard and rain down its colorful leafy torrent.

Fast forward to my adulthood and one of those attempts to relive one’s childhood. I had the opportunity to jump in a pile of leaves. Unfortunately, my memory of the experience is not the joyous frolicking I imagined in my youth. It’s more of a crinkly, crunchy, and itchy memory, beginning with a nervous flop, followed by a crispy landing, several minutes of shaking out clothing in a vain attempt to dislodge leaf particles from body parts they should never have come in contact with, culminating in an urgent shower in the middle of the day and a frustratingly unnecessary addition to the laundry pile. All that just to confirm that some adventures are best left in childhood. (I had a similar adult experience with cotton candy, but I digress.)

Anyhow I still love the fall colors of maple trees, so I decided to make my own mini version from aluminum cans. I often get asked about the aluminum’s sharp edges, which aren’t typically that bad. I liken the danger level to that of getting a paper cut; possible but not imminent or life-threatening.

However, this project has pointed pieces that are a bit pokey, so extra caution is advised, and you most assuredly do not want to get any of these leaves down your pants!

This post contains some extra video tutorials if you want more information on working with aluminum cans. You can read through the step-by-step instructions for this project or watch the video tutorial below.

Step 1 – Clean and Flatten Cans

You will need to collect several cans for this project. For my project, I used 12 cans (each can makes three leaves). To see how I cut and flatten cans watch this video.

Step 2 – Make Base

You also need to find a tree branch and vase for your display. I used a tin can and some Plaster Of Pairs to set the branch.

Step 3 – Cut and Weed

The next step is to cut the maple leaf shapes. Check the bottom of this post for the free SVG template. I recommend using a cutting machine to cut the leaves. But there is also a pdf file for those daring enough to try cutting them by hand.

If you want more information on cutting aluminum sheets with your Cricut cutting machine, check out this video.

Step 4 – Emboss

Once the leaves were weeded, I used my embossing tool to draw in the vein lines of the leaves. For my display, I used 12 cans which gave me 36 leaves. You may need to adjust this number depending on the size of your design.

Step 5 – Attach Wire

Next, I cut 6-inch pieces of florist wire and attached one to each leaf using E6000 glue.

Step 6 – Paint

To add the color, I started with a coat of copper spray paint and used my simple paper towel painting technique.

I used the following paint colors for my leaves. Unfortunately, some are pretty old, and I don’t know if they are still available. Hopefully, the photos will help if you need to find a substitute color.

Yellow Leaves

Orange Leaves

Burgundy Leaves

Watch this video for more information about this painting technique.

Step 7 – Sealing

This step is optional, but I like to add a little shine to my projects and protect the paint from chipping. My current favorite product for this is DecoArt DuraClear Varnish. I prefer the gloss finish, but I have run out and had to settle for the satin finish on this project.

Step 8 – Assembly

The final step is to wrap the wires around the tree branches. This step is a little bit prickly so use caution.

Happy Upcycling,

Cindy

Want more fall projects?

Check out the Aluminum Can Pumpkin Project

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SVG File

PDF File