DIY: Fall crafts for kids

16.10.2016

Autumn holidays are here slowly coming to an end, and I am very happy that tomorrow the kids are going to school / kindergarten again we were able to include making autumn decorations into our activities and moments spent together. Judge for yourself how we succeeded.

Mason jar ghosts

Although we do not celebrate Halloween in our family, the shortening autumn days are tempting to make a mason jar lantern. I let the boys decide whether they want to paint the glass like a pumpkin, ghost or monster (like here on Pinterest) and they have chosen a ghost.

So they simply painted (by using a flat brush) white the glass´s exterior with an acrylic paint. Then drew the eyes and mouth with a pencil, then coloured them in with the black marker. For security reasons, we did not light classical candle inside, but battery operated LED tea light.

Fall leaves wreaths

I have had the inspiration for this wreath saved on Pinterest for a long time, but I just waited for the leaves to beautiful color. To create color wreath you need leaves of different sizes, shapes, and colors, the edge of the round paper plate, paintbrush, scissors, and glue.

I suggest not to collect the leaves that are completely dry, but rather fine and soft (I do not know how better to describe it :)), so they are better glued to the paper plate.

Autumn Handprint Trees

Not only we had enjoyed time spent together when creating fall decorations, but I also tried to teach them and explain something about the autumn nature and its magics. And how else than by creating the fall tree with colored leaves, which is very easy to make – you need only a sheet of white card, pencil, paints, and q-tips.

Using a pencil, I had drawn a line around their hands and arms and they painted them brown (a tree trunk). Then they started adding colourful dots by using q-tips – by this a wonderful effect of fall-coloured leaves has been created.

Since we still had a huge leftover of leaves from our wreaths, the next day we went to the another activity. We have used the motif of outlining hands and arms as a tree trunk and branches, but this time we didn´t use q-tips, but painted the leaves directly and then printing them on paper (and sometimes on hands :))

I hope you don´t think that I force my boys all the time into organized activities, in one of my next posts I will show you how my boys can entertain themselves and what comes out as a result 🙂

Little update: I am adding one more idea for crafts from fall leaves: here is a beautiful caterpillar made by my 4yr old nephew – well done, what do you think? 🙂