While it may only be August, fall is quickly creeping up on us. Before we know it we will be doing fall crafts with our children. While some fall crafts will come home with our children from school, there is always the need to have some weekend fun or a fun craft to do for those who home school. The fall is definitely a beautiful time filled with rich brown and red hues. The gorgeous leaves that will be falling and the wonderful hearty vegetables that appear in the fall are amazingly handy when putting together crafts. With a little imagination you can create any of the following crafts. Each craft comes with a materials list and a how to. If you follow the links after the instructions there are images posted of how your craft should look. I have put them in order from what I feel are the easiest to do. You can use your own discretion to decide if they are age appropriate for your child. I do not want to set an age limit on them because I feel that art is something based on your child’s talents and their talents alone.
Mosaic Cornucopia
The cornucopia, or horn of plenty, is the symbol of abundance often representing the fall harvest. What you’ll need:
- 1 sheet of plain white paper
- 1 sheet pf black construction paper
- Half sheets of construction paper: brown, black, purple, red, yellow, green and orange
- White craft glue
- Scissors
- Pattern
How to make it:
- Place white paper over the pattern and trace the pattern lightly with a pencil.
- Trim white paper if needed to fit evenly in the center of the black sheet of construction paper. Glue in place.
- Tear (don’t cut) remaining construction paper into small squares, about ½” – 1″ in size.
- Using the penciled pattern as your guide, glue torn pieces onto the white paper in this order:
Brown – horn
Black – horn mouth/rim
Purple – grapes at top
Red – apple to the right, below top grapes
Purple – eggplant
Red – apple below eggplant
Green – leaves below apple
Yellow – apple below top grapes
Green and yellow – corn cob
Green – leaves below corn
Purple – grapes below corn cob
Orange – pumpkin - Glue torn pieces on for stems – brown for the grapes and pumpkin and black for the eggplant. You may also add stems for the apples if you prefer. Allow to dry completely.
Tips:
- Use this project to help explain why we give thanks during the Thanksgiving holiday and how the cornucopia symbolizes our bountiful harvests.
- Save extra torn piece for another mosaic project.
- Hang this on the refrigerator or the front door. Add a piece of yarn to the back as a hanger or hang up with a magnet.
From: http://crafts.kaboose.com/mosaic-cornucopia.html
Cardboard Tube CrowWhat you’ll need:
- Cardboard tube
- Cardboard egg cup
- 2-3 cotton balls
- 5″ square piece of tan felt
- 4″ x ½” strip of brown felt
- Small scrap of gold felt
- 2 medium wiggle eyes
- 3 orange buttons
- 1 miniature gold foam flower
- 1 miniature brown pompom
- Black acrylic craft paint
- Paintbrush
- Scissors
- White craft glue
- Hot glue gun
How to make it:
- Paint cardboard tube with black paint and set aside to dry.
- While the tube is drying, put a little hot glue to the bottom of the egg cup and place egg cup in the center of the tan felt square, open end up. Use hot glue around entire outer area of the egg cup and gather the tan felt around it. Hold in place for a moment to allow hot glue to cool. Turn over to create the hat.
- Wrap brown felt strip around the tan felt at the edge of the egg cup opening and glue in place.
- Use scissors to shape the brim of the hat.
- Glue the foam flower to the hat band and stick a miniature brown pom pom to the center of the foam flower.
- Cut a triangular beak from the gold felt.
- Use hot glue to attach the hat to the top of the black cardboard tube.
- Glue on wiggle eyes, beak and buttons.
Tips:
- Hot glue can really hurt, so have a grown-up help you with those steps.
- Note that steps 2 and 7 are the only steps that use hot glue. Use white craft glue for the other steps.
- Save cardboard tubes from bathroom tissue and paper towel to make fun craft projects!
From: http://crafts.kaboose.com/cardboard-tube-crow.html
Fabulous Foliage Art
Materials
• Card stock
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Painter’s tape (optional)
• Kitchen sponge
• Tempera paint
• Plastic plate
Instructions
1. First, have your child draw a tree trunk with branches on a piece of card stock. On a second piece of card stock, make a stencil for the tree’s leafy crown by drawing and cutting out a cloud shape. Lay the stencil on top of the tree’s branches, taping it in place with painter’s tape, if desired.
2. Snip and tear a kitchen sponge into roughly one-inch-wide pieces. Pour a few small puddles of tempera paint onto a plastic plate, and place a piece of sponge on each puddle. Have your child use the sponge pieces to stamp fall foliage onto the branches.
From: http://familyfun.go.com/autumn/fall-crafts/fall-nature-crafts/fabulous-foliage-art-795680/
Pumpkin and Jack-o’-Lantern PotsWhat you’ll need:
For both pots:
- Small terra-cotta pots
- Orange craft paint
- Sponge applicator
- Pattern
For jack-o’-lantern pot only:
- Yellow craft paint
- Black fine point marker
For pumpkin pot only:
- Green chenille stem
- Brown fine point marker
- Toothpick
- Green felt
- Scissors
- Small silk leaves
- White craft glue
How to make it:
For jack-o’-lantern pot:
- Paint terra-cotta pot orange, inside and out, using a sponge applicator or paintbrush.
- Use the pattern to add a face, paint it yellow. When dry, outline the yellow facial features with black marker. (See photo.)
For pumpkin pot:
- Paint terra-cotta pot orange, inside and out, using a sponge applicator or paintbrush.
- For the pumpkin, use a brown marker to draw lines from the top to the bottom of the pot. (See photo.)
- Twist green chenille stem around the toothpick until toothpick is completely covered. Cut off remaining chenille. Remove chenille from toothpick and untwist half of it to give it a curly appearance. (See photo.)
- Fold the tightly twisted end in half, then wrap a little of the untwisted end around the folded ends to secure and hold it together.
- Using the pattern, cut out three leaves from green felt. Turn pot upside down and glue leaves to the bottom of the pot. Take the chenille stem and glue it to the center of the leaves, the folded end (stem) pointing upward with the untwisted end (vine) going off to the side. (See photo.)
- Glue a few silk leaves to the top rim of the pot (the bottom of your pumpkin). (See photo.)
Tips:
- If you like, paint a rim around the top of the jack-o-Lantern, or decorate the rim with felt or glitter glue.
- Fill candy pots with Halloween candy.
- Because of the color of the terra-cotta pots, you can simply this craft by skipping the orange paint step altogether.
From: http://crafts.kaboose.com/pumpkin-jack-o-lantern-pots.html
Technicolor Acorns
Materials
• Acorn caps
• Colored tissue paper
• Waxed paper
• Paintbrush
• White glue
Instructions
1. For each acorn, cut two pieces of colored tissue paper, one about 5 inches square, and one about 2 inches square. Ball up the larger square into a roughly oval shape.
2. Working over waxed paper, use a paintbrush to coat the smaller square with white glue. Wrap the smaller square around the wadded tissue, smoothing it on as you go.
3. Attach the acorn cap with a dab of glue. Holding the acorn by the cap only, carefully paint the outside of the tissue ball with glue to seal it. Let the acorn dry on the waxed paper.
From: http://familyfun.go.com/autumn/fall-crafts/fall-nature-crafts/technicolor-acorns-674311/
Sunflower Pillow Craft
What you’ll need:
- ½ sheet gold felt
- ½ sheet brown felt
- 4-6 cotton balls
- Small scrap of red felt
- Black craft paint
- Paintbrush
- Hot glue gun
- Pattern
How to make it:
- Using the pattern cut out 2 large circles from brown felt and the flower from gold felt. Cut out the center circle of the felt flower.
- Glue one of the brown circles onto the center of the flower.
- Turn the flower over and glue the other brown circle to the other side, leaving about an inch or so open for the filling.
- Carefully stuff the center of the flower with cotton balls.
- Glue open end of the circle shut.
- Cut an oval from the red felt to make a ladybug.
- Paint one end of the red felt with black paint to create the head. Use the handle end of the paintbrush to add dots to the ladybug’s back. Let paint dry.
- Glue ladybug to the flower.
Tips:
- Hot glue can really hurt, so have a grown-up help you with those steps.
- When gluing the last part of the center circle closed, use a toothpick or craft stick to press the felt onto the glue so that you don’t burn your fingers.
- Keep plenty of different colored felts on hand for fun and quick projects!
From: http://crafts.kaboose.com/miniature-sunflower-pillow.html
Gorgeous Gourds
GATHER YOUR MATERIALS
You’ll need an assortment of gourds or ornamental pumpkins. Choose ones that are free of mold and bruises (they’ll last longer), and wash and dry them once you get them home. You’ll also need a variety of natural trimmings, such as pine needles, pinecones, leaves, seeds, and the like, plus a glue gun or glue dots for tacking everything in place. Thinner glue dots (often labeled “paper thin”) are fine for light items, but we preferred thicker ones (1/16 inch or more; 3-D dots work especially well) for pinecones and large twigs.
CHOOSE A DESIGN
Once you’ve gathered your supplies, play around with how to arrange them, starting with the body. (One, two, or three gourds? Smaller ones stacked atop larger ones, or vice versa?) Next, try out some features. We used leaves for Maude’s hair, Frank’s bow tie, and Myrtle’s arms, while our gallery of noses includes a berry for Frances, a single pinecone scale for Myrtle, a peanut shell for Neville, and a piece of a stem for Harriet. Small, round items, such as beans, berries, and Indian corn kernels, make great eyes, noses, and buttons, while sticks and stems work well for hair, arms, and smiles. But anything goes!
PUT IT ALL TOGETHER
If you’re using multiple gourds, glue them together (remove the stems from the lower ones first), then add the features. You can also connect them with round toothpicks or trimmed skewers (use a small nail to make pilot holes if necessary). If you plan to sandwich leaves between two stacked gourds, as with Neville’s and Myrtle’s collars, be sure to glue the foliage to the bottom gourd before gluing the top one in place. Gourd wobbly? Glue nutshells or small pinecones to its base to help stabilize it, as we did with both Frank and Neville. Your fall friends will likely last two to four weeks in a cool, dry spot.
From: http://familyfun.go.com/autumn/fall-crafts/fall-nature-crafts/gorgeous-gourds-710644/
These are all wonderful fall crafts that all children can do. I like to thank the wonderful ladies at the crafting websites that I got the directions from. These are crafts that I have personally used and they are a ton of fun to do as a class or as a family. I prefer doing them as a family. They are a great way to pass time on in service days or even Columbus Day. They are also great art projects for homeschoolers.
