DIY Oversized Leaf Backdrop

INSIDE : Learn how to make the most gorgeous backdrop of leaves from butcher block craft paper! This DIY Oversized Leaf Backdrop is perfect for a Fall party, an Autumn photoshoot or even a fun Thanksgiving gathering!

This post may contain affiliate links. See my full disclosure.

This post has been updated since it’s original October 2024 publish date.

Whether you are hosting a big Fall Halloween Party or excited to setup a fun photo spot for Thanksgiving, creating these oversized fall leaves are so incredibly easy to make.

A huge plus to this greenery backdrop was how budget friendly these leaves are also! The entire cost was around $30 depending on which supplies you may already have sitting around.

Let’s get into the details of how to make them now.

Supplies Needed for a DIY Paper Leaf Backdrop

• Brown Craft Paper (The wider the better to get big leaves!)
• Various Spray paints (I used a lavender, fuschia, cream, gold, peach and dusty blue color)
• Contrasting Acrylic Paints
• Wide Craft Paint Brush
• Scissors (you will be doing a LOT of cutting, highly suggest comfortable scissors!!)
• Black Sharpie Marker
• Pencil
• Paper plate

Want to learn how to Draw a Cute Halloween Bat?  Check this post out.

Step-by-Step Instructions: How to Make Oversized Fall Leaves

Drawing Basic Leaf Shapes

Roll out the brown craft paper roll and give yourself a large flat space to work. With your sharpie in hand (or pencil if you are feeling a little more cautious to start) learn below how to draw out large leaf shapes.

To draw leaves, start with simple shapes like ovals or elongated teardrops. These can be the foundation for various leaf types.

For broader leaves, like those of maple or oak trees, you can start with a wider oval and add pointed lobes or rounded edges.

For narrower leaves, such as willow or poplar, a longer, more tapered shape is ideal.

Do your best to use the entire brown craft paper to really make these oversized leaves as large as you can.

Spray Painting & Color Selection

Next up is adding gorgeous fall colors to your leaves with spray paint! I took my roll of paper outside for this step.

You can have with this step, adding color as you like. However, I picked one side of the leaves to by the “shadow” side and one side of the leaves to be the “light source” side. The shadow side gets a darker line of color and the light source side, gets a lighter coat of color.

You can see, once I had added my lighter and darker paints to each side, I had fun filling in the middle of each leaf with soft blues, cream, lavender and fun pops of gold!

Cutting out the leaves

I really can not express this enough, USE COMFORTABLE SCISSORS for this step!

If you used a black sharpie marker, it should be pretty easy to see your leaf lines through the spray paint. Get yourself comfortable and cut out each of the leaves.

Here are all my painted leaves cut out and ready to get their next layer of paint detail added on!

Cutting & Adding Vein Details

This is the step where your leaves really start to shine! Adding very basic leaf vein details in bright bold colors makes this backdrop so fun.

I used a mint/sage green, soft orange/peach, a deep teal, a cream and a bright fuschia acrylic paint for my leaves.

Simply pour out some paint onto a paper plate or other container and then using a wider craft paint brush, start at the bottom of your leaf and paint upward for the main leaf vein.

Then you can add a handful of side veins coming off from the center leaf vein. Reminder, this does not have to be perfect. There is beauty in the organic quality of it!

How to Hang an Oversized Leaf Backdrop

Since our big party for my church was inside a barn, installing the oversized leaves was a pretty simple task. This is a great method on how to mount paper wall backdrop.

If you can use stapes

If you can use staples on you wall, a staple gun is SO easy to get the leaves on the wall.

If you have a more finished wall

If your wall is a more finished material like dry wall, wallpaper or paint then a great method to mounting your paper backdrop is sticky tac, push pins or double sided tape.

For a fun layered look, start placing leaves near the bottom of the wall and layer going up a level at a time.

You can see what I mean here below. Although again there is no right or wrong way of hanging the leaves.

If you are installing the leaves on a wall in a home, you could always use thumbtacks, strong double-sided tape, or even command strips.

You can see that to help fill out the very large wall I was installing these on, I also cut out some plain brown paper leaves and added the colorful acrylic paint over top.

Whether you are looking for a jungle leaf backdrop, big monstera leaves backdrop, bright cheerful greenery backdrop or anything in between – this technique can be modified for all different styles of leaves!

Looking for a fun DIY Oversized Candle project?  Check out how to make it now.

Frequently Asked Questions about DIY Leaf Backdrops

Looking for other fun party decor ideas? Check some of these out below…