Fall Leaf Garland Book Page Craft

DIY Fall Leaf Garland with Book Pages and a Cricut

This DIY fall leaf garland is one of those fall decor ideas I had wanted to make forever. I had seen several beautiful fall mantels decorated with book pages, but none with the large oak leaves I pictured for mine.

There was absolutely no chance I was going to hand-cut a couple hundred intricate oak leaves, so this was the perfect project for my Cricut. Cutting all those detailed leaves is the most time-consuming part of a book page craft like this, and using the Cricut made it so much easier.

How Many Book Page Leaves Do You Need for a Fall Garland?

The short answer is lots, and then a few more.

For my 74-inch mantel, plus about a two-foot drop on one side, I used approximately 180 book page leaves. If you make your leaves smaller, you will need more.

I cut 200 leaves before I started assembling the fall garland. Old book pages are inexpensive, and I definitely did not want to stop halfway through and go back to the Cricut to cut another batch.

Cricut Book Page Fall Garland Supplies

If you have a newer Cricut and want an easy project to practice with, this is a great beginner craft. Old book pages are inexpensive, and sometimes you can find an entire book for just a few cents at a thrift store or garage sale.

Other than your Cricut supplies, you only need a few simple materials such as florist wire, twine, and hot glue.

I used two different styles of old book pages for the leaves. One set was cooler toned with greys and whites, while the other had warmer creams and brown lettering.

Mixing the two tones added a little more interest to the fall leaf garland without having to stain, stamp, or paint the paper.

How to Size the Book Page Leaves

Before setting up the leaf design in Cricut Design Space, measure your book pages so you know how large you can make each leaf.

My smaller book pages measured about 5.25 by 8.75 inches. On a 12 by 24-inch Cricut mat, I could fit three book pages down each side of the mat, giving me six leaves per cut.

The exact size of your leaves will depend on the size of the book pages you are using.

How to Cut Book Page Leaves with a Cricut

There are a few simple steps to cutting book page leaves with a Cricut. Once the design is sized correctly and the book pages are positioned on the mat, the cutting itself is very straightforward.

Step 1: Set Up the Cricut Leaf Cut File

I used the Cricut Design Space Oak Leaf Silhouette (#M4D39291A) and duplicated the design until I had six leaves, each about seven inches long.

Arrange the leaves so they are evenly spaced and fit within the outer edges of your 12 by 24-inch mat. Once you are happy with the placement, attach the designs in Cricut Design Space so they stay in position when you select Make It.

At first, I received an error saying the design was longer than my 24-inch mat. I simply pulled one corner of the design inward until everything fit within the cutting area. The error disappeared, and I was still able to make the leaves as large as possible for my book pages.

After resizing the design, select Continue and then Make It. The next important part is choosing the cut setting for the old book pages.

Step 2: Choose the Cricut Cut Setting for Book Pages

The strangest part of this book page craft was finding the correct Cricut cut setting. I found the Oak Leaf Silhouette easily, but I could not find clear cut settings for old book pages.

After some testing, I found a setting that worked very well for cutting all 200 leaves.

Step 3: Place the Book Pages on the Cricut Mat

I lined up the book pages along both sides of the 12 by 24-inch medium-grip mat, as shown in the photo.

The bottom page has a slight overlap, with the lower page placed over the one above it. I started doing this after my first test cut, when the bottom leaf was cut off slightly. The small overlap helped keep the leaf design within the book page.

For the remaining cuts, I quickly placed the book pages close together with no spaces between them, keeping the slight overlap on the lower page. This worked perfectly about 95% of the time.

Occasionally a page shifted just enough that a tiny part of the leaf tip was cut off, but I didn’t worry about those small imperfections. They weren’t noticeable once all the leaves were arranged in the finished fall garland.

Grab a coffee and a good book because cutting 200 leaves six at a time takes a while. I spent some happy time on Pinterest while the Cricut did the cutting.

Step 4: Attach Wire to the Book Page Leaves

My florist wire was about 18 inches long, so I folded each piece in half and cut it with an old pair of utility scissors.

Working on a heat-safe mat, place a book page leaf face down and lay a piece of wire along the back. Add hot glue in about four spots to secure the wire to the paper.

Set the leaf aside to cool and repeat with the remaining leaves.

Attaching the wires went much faster than cutting the leaves. It took me about an hour to finish all of them.

I placed the finished leaves in a pretty basket and started decorating the mantel.

How to Assemble the Book Page Fall Garland

If you’re confident and prefer to work more freely, you can simply start attaching the leaves to the wire until the garland looks the way you want.

I wanted a little more of a plan so I could keep the book page garland balanced, see how it was taking shape, and keep track of how many leaves I still had left. I assembled mine in a few simple steps.

Step 5: Position the Garland Base on the Mantel

I began by stringing out the twisted twine about where I wanted it to sit on the mantel, then secured the ends.

I left a longer drop on the left-hand side than on the right.

Step 6: Add the First Row of Leaves

Starting with ten leaves at a time and keeping track of how many I had left, I worked from left to right, overlapping two leaves at a time as shown.

Each leaf wire was wrapped tightly around the twine-covered wire.

I can’t really say exactly how long this part took because I happily puttered at it while doing everything else around the house. I would just add a few leaves here and there whenever I felt like it.

I kept going until the entire garland was covered with leaves laying in the same direction from left to right. I worked in batches of ten leaves at a time so I knew how many I had left. Each leaf was attached by wrapping its wire around the twine-wrapped garland base, placing them side by side along the full length of the garland.

It took me a couple of days to finish this first layer because I would simply add ten more leaves whenever I happened to walk by.

Step 7: Add Leaves in the Opposite Direction

Next I added leaves going in the opposite direction, working from right to left. Sometimes I added one leaf and other times two, depending on the area I was working on.

I used fewer leaves around the curves near the pictures on the mantel so the garland wouldn’t feel too crowded.

Step 8: Fill In and Fluff the Garland

Once I had all the leaves attached, I started filling in the garland more seriously. Over the next hour, I added extra leaves anywhere I could still see wire or wherever I wanted the garland to look thicker and fuller.

I hope you can see the subtle difference between each image. The wired leaves worked really well because they stayed securely attached, and I could adjust them in any direction. I could also gently crumple or fold the paper leaves until the garland had the shape and fullness I wanted.

I really wanted to create a dramatic asymmetrical garland, and I was thrilled with the final result.

For one last bit of drama, I went into my Christmas wrapping supplies, pulled out a satin ribbon, and tied it onto the end of the garland.

My fall mantel decor includes an antique mirror frame that I stripped and repaired this summer, along with the white vintage truck artwork that was my fall decor splurge. I absolutely love it.

Everything else on the mantel came from my stash, including this almost-free book page leaf garland. Even the pumpkins are more than ten years old now, from back when Pier 1 was still around.

If I had purchased a garland instead of making one, I probably wouldn’t have bought the artwork. That’s one of the reasons I love budget-conscious fall craft ideas like this.

Happy Fall!

Love this book page fall garland? Save it to Pinterest so you can find it when you’re ready to decorate for fall. This easy DIY fall garland is a pretty way to turn old book pages into inexpensive fall mantel decor, and the Cricut makes cutting all those detailed oak leaves much easier.

Other Fall Craft Decor Ideas

Here are a few more easy DIY fall decor ideas you may enjoy for seasonal decorating.

If you don’t have a fireplace mantel to decorate, I also have a tutorial showing how we built our faux fireplace and mantel for our home.