Fall Crafts???

Okay, I have great ideas here. Take your daughter to a park or in your back yard and collect items you like to make a wreath. Twigs, pine cones, leafs, etc. Get a hot glue gun if you do not have one they are cheap and buy one, they have many uses. Glue twigs in a circular shape and then decorate all the rest of the items on the twigs. Very cute and in expensive.

You can take pine cones (we live in Colorado and black forest is full of them) if you do not have them in the parks you can buy some (they are cheap). Get glue which dries clear....paint brush.....and glitter (fall colors). Paint the glue on the leafs of the pine cone, then dip them in the glitter. Let dry and place in a basket on the table, glue them on the wreath, or place in a vase at the door.

You can also take a tall vase, get poperi (spelling?) and a strand of lights. Fill the vase alternating the poperi and lights. Plug in the lights and leave sit where you want. Very pretty ambiance. You can also get the foam fun things in a box. I have no idea what they are called, but they have pumpkins, leafs, and other fall decor for the little one to decorate on them. You can then hang in your window or do what you want with them.

The only other thing I can suggest is collect leafs, place them in the pre-laminate sheets of paper, press and seal. They would make great place mats for on the table. You could even cut out names and place in the sheets to personalize. Sorry this is so long....but I came up with things I think I am going to do! :) Just go my mind going....please let me know if you need anything or have questions.

Good Luck!

Hi M.,

Fall is such a wonderful and beautiful season! Here are a few ideas of what I have done with fall items both at home and in my preschool classroom.
1)Turkeys out of pine cones. Paint pine cones any color;add feathers or a cut out of your child's hand as the feathers;add cut out of a turkey head
2)pine cone bird feeders. Spread pine cone with peanut butter(or frosting if there are peanut allergies)and crushed cereal, pretzels or what ever will stick. Add a string and hang on a tree
3)Use twigs to make mobiles. hang leaves. or go on a hunt and find other items you can hang from a stick. hang your child's artwork
4)go on a nature hunt(when the snow has melted) and let your child glue on what she finds.
5)on another piece of paper tape down different fall items. let your child paint the paper. take off the items. you will be left with shadows.
6)take what ever fall items you find. place between 2 pieces of wax paper. have your child unwrap and break crayons into different small pieces and add around the fall items between the wax paper. using your iron melt the crayons so that the piece of wax paper stick together. punch a hole and hang from your twig.

Hope this helps!
Enjoy and good luck
D.
Mother of 7 year old Emma and 4 year old Sam. Part time Preschool Educator

Spread peanut butter on pine cones and hang them outside for bird feeders.
Fill glass bowl with layers of pretty pebbled, twigs, leaves, etc.
String colored leaves (instead of popcorn) and hang your garland.
Arrange leave/twigs/pinecones in a shallow bowl for a centerpiece. You could add a pillar candle in the middle for some height.
Make a mini wreath to go around the bottom of a lamp.

The Family Fun magazine is such a great resource for seasonal crafts/ideas. It's $10 a year to subscribe. I haven't checked out their website much but am guessing many ideas would be available there too, www.familyfun.go.com. Enjoy!

There are a bunch of fun projects here:
http://www.oneprettything.com/?p=7585

Hope that helps - have fun!

One fun thing to do with the leaves is dip them in parafin wax and the frame them. I have also taken them before and laid them out on my table at Thanksgiving. Another thing my son and I did last year is go into the yard and get a bunch of branches off the trees and then we broke them down to small 3" sticks then we took some ribbon and twine, tied them together then wrapped them around the napkins for napkin rings. This one was really fun since we got to go outside and gather and break, all the stuff kids like.

Pinecones and leaves and twigs make excellent turkeys. Wreaths as well, and what my mom called Swag, which was a bow shaped wreath. Lots of fun!! Good luck!