Lion Leaf Craft with Printable Template

Go on a wonderful nature craft and pick up some colorful leaves while you are at it as you’ll need them to make this wonderful lion leaf craft!

This one is great to make on your own, or with the use of our printable lion leaf craft template (handy for a classroom project).

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We love the colors of fall, and with real leaves being in abundance it would be a shame not to use them in crafting projects with kids.

You can make quite a few wonderful things using leaves, and this fun looking lion is just one of them.

We designed a printable craft template for this one (you can grab it at the very end of this tutorial) that will make this project easy for older toddlers, preschoolers, and kids in kindergarten as they work on their fine motor and gross motor skills with gluing on leaves. Leaves certainly are a frugal material so this fall activity is perfect to make in the classroom.

You can either print the template on the yellow sheet of paper or on regular paper and have the kids color it in.

Ready to make a wonderful lion with a mane made out of leaves (or other materials).

Let’s get crafting!

Let’s Make a Lion Leaf Craft

What you need:

• our printable template (you can grab it at the end of this step by step tutorial)
• printer
• paper (regular print paper is OK, heavier print paper is even better)
• real fall leaves
• white school glue
• scissors
• optional – coloring supplies

Leaves should be dried so it’s best to pick them after a few sunny days or to dry them (weighted in newspaper is our proffered choice of drying leaves).

If leaves are wet, they will curl after a few days, which might (not necessarily) ruin the project.

Watch the Video Tutorial

Or Follow These Step by Step Instructions

Print out our templates. The template comes on two pages, one with two heads (these are to color and cut), and one sheet with only one head.

The sheet with one head can be used as a base for this craft, making it easier for kids to position their leaves to make the lion’s mane. The sheet with only one head is not necessary for this project, so you can only print one sheet.

If you printed your project on white paper, color in the lion’s head.

You can use markers, crayons or any other coloring medium your kids love coloring with. There is no need to stick with “true” lion colors either.

Carefully cut out the lion’s head.

Adult help might be needed if you are doing this activity with younger kids. You could also cut them beforehand.

Let’s prepare the leaves!

You could leave the petioles where they are or you can cut them off, either way, this crafting project will turn out nice. Younger kids can also pluck the petioles. Modify the crafting process as needed to fit the age group.

Time to glue the leaves to the lion leaf craft template

There are many ways to go about it…

You can apply glue on the template, adding more as you go and pressing the leaves on it. Leaf by leaf, all around.

…or you can apply the glue on the leaves and press them on the template.

Or do a little mix of both. Continue until you have a great-looking lion’s mane.

Lastly, take the lion head you previously colored and apply a generous amount of glue on the back of it.

Press it down on your lion leaf craft.

Give it some time for the glue to really set!

This project is great to use as a classroom display.

Get the Lion Leaf Craft Template Here