DIY Fall Leaf Bowl Tips And Tricks To Make Your Leaf Bowl Last And Be Food Safe!

Wow, Thanksgiving is almost here. To celebrate the holiday and to bring in the fall atmosphere especially since the weather is finally starting to turn chilly where I live, I wanted to create some Fall themed crafts. I especially love to decorate my dining room table. So, I decided to make this wonderful DIY Fall Leaf Bowl project.

I found some beautiful Leaf Bowls made by Mod Podging fake leaves over a balloon to give the bowl the correct shape. but they appeared fairly flimsy and I wanted my bowl to be sturdy and food safe in the event that I wanted to use it for apples or oranges or something. You can simply wipe out my version of the leaf bowl with a wash cloth for easy cleanup if necessary.

This bowl will be a lovely addition to my fall centerpiece especially once I pair it with a burlap table runner, maybe a mason jar with some flowers and other fall decor. I am sure you can find all sorts of ways to use this beautiful bowl as well.

So let’s get started making this lovely leaf bowl shall we?

Supplies:

1 – Dollar Store Plastic Bowl

1 to 2 – Long Strand of Fabric Leaves or 3 to 6 packs of Fabric Leaves (depending on the size of your bowl)

Mod Podge (Matte finish)

Sponge Brush

Step 1:

Prep the leaves by pulling them away from the veins. By removing the veins, you won’t have as much trouble getting them to lay fairly flat! I tried leaving them intact the first time and my leaves kept popping up all over the place. (very frustrating… I learned quickly to take off the veins)

Step 2:

Start applying a thin coat of Mod Podge to the bottom (outside of course) of the bowl.

Step 3:

Place leaves and coat with another application of Mod Podge. Continue adding leaves until the entire bowl is covered. I ended up propping the bowl on an old coffee can so that it was easier to work with.

** Tip **

I found it much easier to apply more leaves when I let the bowl dry a bit after covering a section with leaves. I also kept flipping the bowl over to check for gaps between the leaves and covering them up. A full second coat of leaves wasn’t necessary but you can do a second coat if you prefer.

Step 4:

Once the bowl is completely covered, apply a secondary thick coat of Mod Podge over the entire outside of the bowl. This will help to seal the leaves in place better.

Step 5:

Sit back and wait for the bowl to dry. This was the longest part. It took around 36 hours for the bowl to dry completely.

Voila…

Your bowl is ready for use!

**Tip**

It is safe for most dry foods like fruit as long as you wash out the inside very thoroughly to make sure there is no Mod Podge on the inside. Just make sure that you don’t get the outside wet because the Mod Podge is not water-proof. I washed mine by hand using a wet wash cloth on the inside only.

I love this bowl. It gives my table such a great fall look. Of course, once I made the bowl I needed something to fill it so I also made some burlap pumpkins. I wanted the burlap pumpkins to liven up the fake pumpkins I bought at the dollar store and to tie in a burlap table runner I had made a couple years ago. The burlap pumpkin tutorial will be the next post so be sure to stay tuned… ** Edit ** Check out the No-Sew Burlap Pumpkins here.

Don’t forget that I love to hear what you think of my projects so be sure to comment below and share this post with your friends and family.