I love fall- the colors are stunning, and there is
crafting material literally laying around on the
ground! It doesn't get much cheaper than that! Here
are some ways to celebrate autumn's beauty while
decorating and crating with your kids:
Fall Leaf Print Shirt
Collect leafs of all shapes and sizes. Using brown,
red, orange, and yellow paints, paint each leaf,
then press down firmly on a plain white t-shirt, but
do not move the leaf while pressing or it will turn
out blurred.
You can "print" as many leaves as
you like on your shirt, either randomly or in a
pattern. We found that painting on the side of the
leaf where the veins stood out gave the leaves more
texture.
Painted Gourds
Gourds are a fun and inexpensive way to decorate
your home while crafting with your kids. I found
this out one year when I mistakenly planted gourds
near our house instead of pumpkins. We had over 40!
The vine was gorgeous during the summer, it climbed
up our deck.
When it came time to cut off the
small gourds, we found that we had tall and short
ones, smooth and bumpy. We painted the bumpy ones as
witches and Frankensteins, and painted the smooth
ones as mini pumpkins and ghosts. I kept the faces
very simple and sweet. The kids loved getting in on
the act!
An Acorn Jar/Wreath
My middle son loves to collect acorns every fall. I
never know what to do with so many, so we created an
"acorn jar" for his room. We took an old quart sized
canning jar, and filled it with acorns. For the lid,
we used an 18 oz peanut butter lid. We hot glued
autumn-colored material to the entire lid, then used
orange bias tape (from on of my many yard sale
finds!) around the edge of the lid.
We hot glued an acorn to the top.
Beau then created a "label" for the front of the jar
using paper and autumn-colored crayons that said
"Beau's Acorns". This was a fun project, and lasted
for 2 years before falling apart. I wish I had taken
a picture of it! It was so cute!
Contributed by
http://frugal-moms.com
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