How to Make Autumn Leaf Clay Trinket Dishes

This is a perfect Fall DIY to try! All you need to do is grab a few leaves from your yard and a package of clay (either oven-bake or air-dry will work for this project!) to make these Autumn leaf clay trinket dishes

Autumn Leaf Clay Dishes

Who is ready for the cooler days of Fall and all the warm colors and pretty leaves that come with it??? Today I have the perfect, pretty DIY Fall project for you!

You won’t believe how easy it is to create these high-end looking trinket dishes! They will be perfect for adding to an entryway table for your loose items or keys.

Or fill them with tiny pine cones or other Fall-ish items and use them in your Fall decorating.

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For this month’s Thrifty Style Team we all have great decorating ideas and DIYs for our readers! Every month a group of my blogging friends organized by Julie of Redhead Can Decorate come together to share thrifty and budget-friendly decorating ideas with you.

This post may include affiliate links; you can read my disclosure policy here.

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Supplies For Trinket Dishes:

• A Variety of Leaves
• Oven-Bake Clay or Air-Dry Clay
• Paint Colors of Your Choice ( Acrylic Craft or Spray Paint)
• Waverly Antique Wax

Pick Leaves for the dishes

One great thing about this project is that you don’t need many supplies to create these pretty trinket dishes! All you need is to go outside and collect a few leaves and get a package of clay…and then you can paint them whatever colors you would like!

When picking out leaves you want to look for leaves with good veining that will leave a detailed imprint on the clay.

I am going to make a set of 3 trinket dishes and I picked a large hydrangea leaf, a maple leaf, and a sunflower leaf.

Roll out clay

To make clay leaf dishes you could use either oven-baked clay or air-dry clay. Both clays are very easy to work with and roll out.

The main difference is that the oven-baked clay bowls will be ready to paint in under an hour and you will have to wait a day or two for the air-dry clay to be set and ready to paint.

Both clays cost about the same amount.

For the oven-baked clay, you put it in your oven at 275° until they are set. Mine took close to 30 minutes because I had them inside of the porcelain bowls.

I rolled out the clay on top of a silicone baking mat using a rolling pin until it was large enough for my leaf to fit on and about 1/4 of an inch thick.

Making the leaf prints

Once the clay was rolled out, I placed a maple leaf into the center of the clay and rolled over it with a rolling pin.

Next, I used the tip of a steak knife to cut around the edges of the leaf.

Then I lifted the maple leaf out of the clay starting from the stem end and pulling the leaf upward.

Doesn’t it look cool already?? After I removed the leaf I just pulled off the excess clay around the edges.

Then I repeated the process with a hydrangea leaf and then with a sunflower leaf. Using the 3 different-sized and types of leaves gave me a varied set of trinket dishes.

The hydrangea leaf was my favorite imprint!!! It had so much detail and just wait until you see the finished trinket dish!!

baking the clay leaves

To create the shape for my leaf trinket dishes I grabbed a shallow bowl from my cabinet. I wiped a small amount of cooking spray inside of the bowls…I wasn’t sure if the clay would stick to the porcelain and I didn’t want to take any chances.

For the smaller sunflower clay leaf, I created a bowl out of aluminum foil and it worked out great!

For the Sculpty oven-baked clay that I’m using you bake it in the oven at 275° for 15 minutes for a 1/4 inch project.

I placed the 3 clay leaves onto a baking sheet and put them into my preheated oven.

The maple and hydrangea leaves that I placed in the bowls to shape took about 30 minutes to harden. The small sunflower leaf that I shaped inside the aluminum foil took around 20 minutes.

Just keep checking your leaves, you will be able to feel when the clay is dry.

If you are using air-dry clay check the leaves after a day, it’s easy to tell if the clay is dry. Drying time will depend on your climate and how warm or humid it is in your home.

Oven-Baked dishes

After I removed the baking sheet from the oven I left the maple and hydrangea leaves inside of the bowls to cool down before removing them.

painting the leaf trinket dishes

Once the leaf dishes are completely cooled it is time to paint them. For this project use whatever colors work for you!

Both acrylic craft paints and spray paints will work well with the clay leaves.

Today I used spray paints because I already had them left over from other projects. I painted the hydrangea leaf with antiqued gold, the maple in a pretty copper, and the sunflower leaf a dark green.

After the paint was dry, I wanted to bring out the veining details of the leaf and also to take some of the metallic sheen down a little bit. All I did was brush a teeny amount of Waverly Antique Wax onto the leaves and work it in. What I love about the Waverly is that it is the consistency of chalk paint and is so easy to work with!

Finished Autumn Leaf Clay Trinket Dishes

OK, can you believe a couple of hours ago these beautiful trinket dishes were a pile of clay?? They are just perfect for using on my entryway table this Fall!

This would also be a great project to do with children…but I would just use acrylic paints so they can paint them on their own!

It’s amazing how much detail from the leaves you can see in these little dishes! Honestly, they came out better than I had imagined that they would!! I love when that happens with a project…because I’ve had my share of Pinterest fails!!!

The hydrangea leaf is definitely my favorite one!! The shape and the point detail at the end of the leaf are giving me heart emoji eyes!!

Now, remember if you make this project (or any of my other projects) I want to see it!! Send your photos to jennifer@cottageonbunkerhill.com. I’d love to share them on my Weekly Rewind!

My friend Rachel and I are always on the same creative wavelength…this week she used clay to create leaf napkin rings! Such a cute project that I am definitely going to make for Fall!

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Check out what the rest of the Thrifty Style Team has for you this month!!

Redhead Can Decorate –A Look Back at Redhead Can Decorates Best Affordable DIY Projects

Our Crafty Mom –Wooden Candle Holders with a Faux Concrete Finish

I Should Be Mopping the Floor –Unique Containers for Flower Arrangements

The How to Home –How to Make a Pom Pom Pillow

DIY Beautify –Thrifty Vintage Art for Your Walls

2 Bees in a Pod –French Country Lamp Makeover

Postcards From the Ridge –How to Paint a Glass Vase to Look Like Stoneware

The Tattered Pew –The Secret Tip to Drying Hydrangeas

Cottage on Bunker Hill –How to Make Autumn Leaf Clay Trinket Dishes

Amy Sadler Designs –Wheat and Floral Decor for Fall Decorating

Songbird –DIY Hanging Glass Bottles for Tiny Flower Bouquets

My Family Thyme –Make an Easy and Inexpensive Fall Wreath

Southern Yankee DIY – DIY Faux Concrete Planter