Fall Wedding Leaf Invitations

Fall weddings are a fabulous opportunity to try something a little out of the expected for your guests. Leaf inspired wedding invitations are the perfect opportunity to incorporate you fall wedding theme, show your personality, and eve save a little money making them yourself. Here is a fall leaf wedding invitation project that is beautiful, classy, and easy to do. If you are having a large wedding with quite a few guests this fall I highly recommend asking some of your bridesmaid and even the grooms men to help make these wonderfully unique invitations.

For this project you will need:

Heavy water color paper
Watercolor paint or acrylic paint
Water
Paint Brushes
Sharp Scissor or Exacto Knife
Some leaves from the yard
Pencils
Leafs

This is an easy fall wedding invitation project if you break it down into a number of different steps and don’t let them overwhelm you. The first step is to walk around your yard or neighborhood and find some great leaves. Look for different shapes and large sizes. Wedding invitations traditionally have quite a bit of information printed on them, so you fall leaf will need to be big enough to include all of the information you wan ton there. Once you have found a variety of leaves you will want to lay them out on some regular drawing paper, trace them and cut them out. You can make a variety of different leaf invitations or stick with one pattern. Cutting them out allows you to see how well your fall wedding invitation information will fit on the specific leaves.

Now you are ready to lay your chosen fall leaf patterns out on your heavy water color wedding invitation paper. Trace them lightly with pencil and then cut them out. For super sharp edges onto your wedding invitations I highly recommend using a very sharp exacto knife. You may need to change the blade if you are doing a lot of invitations.

Once your wedding invitations leaves are cut out you are ready to start painting. I like to take a paper plate and lay out a palette of fall colors from my watercolor paints. Specifically I like to use burnt sienna, raw umber, and burnt umber for my leaves. You can use any color you want. Before I paint my fall leaf cutouts I always practice a little on a piece of scrap watercolor paper. This way I don’t waste a lot of my fall leaf cutouts trying to get the look I want.

Now, use some of your water to dilute the watercolor paint and gentle start brushing it along the edges of your fall leaf wedding invitations. Slowly work your way in to the middle of the leaf. I like to add more water as I work my way in so that the paint becomes more sheer and translucent towards the center of the invitation. This allows your information on the fall wedding invitation to really stand out.

There are special water color mediums you can buy at any art supply or craft supply store that are meant to be added to water color paints to create different effects. Some mediums add a sand like texture or even a granite type texture. You can also find shimmering effects and others that just keep the paint wet longer allowing you to really work it. You can also find gum medium that you paint on the watercolor paper before e you paint to protect a specific area and keep it totally white. These watercolor mediums can be found right next to the watercolor paints. Typically a bottle will cost you about $6, give or take a little depending on what brand you are buying.

Allow your fall leaf wedding invitations to dry thoroughly then you are ready to add your writing. I personally like to write in calligraphy on these beautiful fall wedding invitations, but you could also print on them as well. I have printed directly on them before from my computer and I found it better to print first with waterproof ink, then cut the leaf out and then paint. To do this I typed and printed my wedding invitation information first, then printed them. Next I laid my fall leaf cut outs on top and carefully traced around them.

This is great project to do with your bridesmaids, groomsmen, or other family members, especially if you are having a large fall wedding. The addition of lots of extra hands will insure that your leaves are as unique as those found in nature.

For a little added extra detail you could also use a gold or silver paint pen to outline the edges. Super fine glitter would also look beautiful on these invitations as well.

In the card section of the art supply store you should also easily be able to find watercolor paper envelopes. I often see these plain or with already colored edges. Choose the envelopes that work best with your fall wedding leaf invitations. I have seen these watercolor card envelopes at Michaels Arts and Crafts Store as well.