Im going to be making a fall cake and I have never done leaves before. Im thinking about doing them in fondant (would a mix of gumpaste and fondant be better?) I'll probably use a little petal dust on the edges too. Since I have never done this before, I was wondering if anyone has any tips or advice for me? Thanks in advance

When I first started doing cakes, I made some fall leaves from fondant. I wish that I had used gumpaste or a mixture and used the pasta machine to roll them out thinner.

You can use fondant and tylose and they will come out just fine. I like to use the maple leaf set from Jennifer Dontz. Then I take a sponge and I sponge on brown, orange,green, and red in different places. Then take and stick them on some krinkled tin foil to give them some movement.

I made them out of 50/50 fondant and gumpaste. I made them out of yellow and then hand veined them, then airbrushed them several different shades and then let them dry on wadded up walmart plastic grocery bags. I made acorns out of caramels and chocolate clay.

Here is the one I did, it will always be one of my favorite cakes:
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1500879

so if I just made them out of fondant they probably wouldn't dry stiff enough and just be kind of limp right?
I want them to taste good too so I've been debating whether I should make them with gumpaste or gumpaste/fondant. Would they taste alright if I just put tylose in the fondant?
I don't have an airbrush so I'd just maybe marble some colours together and then use petal dust. Does that sound about right?
I looked at some of your cakes and they are all beautiful! thanks for your help

It will dry ok, just will take a bit longer. Tylose wont change the flavor of it, it just aids in the drying.
You can achieve the same effect as the airbrush by using the sponge. If you have one of those sea sponges, wet it and ring out the excess so its just damp. Then you can use a paper plate and make your colors with petal dust and extract. Make it thinker than normal so that its like a acrylic paint consistancy. Then dab your sponge in it, blot on the paper plate and then blot on your leaf. Use the colors I mentioned and in random pattern dab the different colors on the leaves. I take an will dab the sponges on the edge so that you have some of the color coming off the edge if that makes any sense! You can also water some of the colors down to make them more muted. Its like kindergarten all over again!!! Have fun!

lol, and I loved kindergarten! lol
That sounds like a good idea. I'll have to get a sea sponge and try it out.
How long does it take to dry?