Fall Crafts for Kids
From LoveToKnow Crafts
Fall crafts for kids are a wonderful way to bring the season indoors and a great excuse to get outside and collect some natural materials that can be used in your crafts. Taking a long walk through the neighborhood or going to the park can give you a lot of inspiration for easy fall crafts for kids.
Fall Crafts from Nature
Have you ever stopped to think about all the natural bounty of fall? Most people think of summer as the really productive time of year, but fall gives us colorful leaves, tons of acorns, apples, dried herbs and more.
It's also a season of wonderful colors. Green is nice, but red, orange, brown and yellow are a lot more interesting. Pull out the fall-colored construction paper and you're sure to be inspired.
Take a walk with your kids or gather some natural materials out of your yard, then make some of these fall crafts for kids inspired by nature's beauty.
Leaf Stamps
A really fun and easy way to decorate just about anything for fall is to make stamps out of leaves. For this project you really need leaves that are still alive, not the crinkly brown ones. If you can reach a branch on a tree and gently pull off a couple of leaves that have not yet fallen, that is ideal.
If the leaves aren't perfectly flat, you can cover them with waxed paper and put a heavy book on top of them for a day or two.
You'll want to use the back side of the leaf as your stamp, because that is where are the veins are that will make it a little more interesting than just stamping the shape of the leaf.
Use a piece of heavy construction paper, card stock, cardboard or even a piece of sponge as your mounting material. Use spray glue or hot glue to stick the front of the leaf to the mount. Allow to dry.
To use the stamp, paint on acrylic paint and then press into the paper or other item you want to stamp. Do these in fall colors or any other color you like.
This would be cute for party invitations, on placemats, or simply as a seasonal wall hanging.
Another good project using leaves is to collect some brightly colored fall leaves and "press" them between two sheets of clear shelf paper (or position them on a piece of construction paper, cover the front with shelf paper, then cover the back for extra durability. This one is great for holiday dinners.
Acorns Abound
My front yard is dominated by two tall oak trees, which have given us a bounty of acorns for the past couple of years. The squirrels love it, but it's a boon for a crafter, too, because there are all sorts of easy fall crafts for kids that can use acorns.
The easiest thing to do with acorns is to gather a bunch of them and use them to cover something. For instance, you could make a really nice fall wreath by hot gluing acorns (preferably that are all about the same size and facing the same direction) to a foam wreath form or a grapevine wreath.
You could also use them to cover a box, a picture frame, or the outside edge of some plain cork coasters. Or glue them to a plain barrette for a fun seasonal hair clip.
Add some acorns to the bottom of a vase (with or without flowers) or glue some to the sides of a votive candle holder. You can also try your hand at making an acorn necklace (but you'll need a sharp needle so save this one for the older kids).
Apple Crafts
Apples can give you a full day of fun if you happen to live near an apple orchard. First you can go pick your own apples, then you can eat some (or make apple pie, sauce, cider or anything else you like) and you can use them for crafts.
Dried apples can be a good snack, but they're also fun for crafting. Put the oven on about 200 degrees and let the apples slowly dry out. Use them in potpourri, to make a necklace or on a wreath.
You can also stamp apple shapes, either by cutting the apple through the stem to get an apple shape, or around the middle to get a more circular shape with the seed gap in the middle. Stamp paper, clothing (aprons are especially cute) or anything else you want.
Get creative and bring Mother Nature inside for fall crafts for kids that are fun for the whole family.
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Comments
snap it in off the side curtain
-- Contributed by: ginger
This page has been accessed 5,930 times. This page was last modified 03:30, 1 November 2006.
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