Fall is the perfect time that you can encourage children to do crafts. After all, the weather is cooler and it’s not as much fun to be outside. So here are some of the fun crafts that you can do with your children and keep them busy even when they can’t go outside and play.
Fall Sun-catchers
There’s no need to go out to the store and buy some window clings to decorate your windows. These sun-catchers are so much fun to make and you can use them for decorating your house. They also are a great choice for a rainy fall day activity.
Things You’ll Need:
- Tissue Paper
- Contact Paper (Clear) or Laminating Sheets (Self-Adhesive)
- Scissors
- Glue sticks
- Construction Paper (black)
- Clear Contact Paper or Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheets
Instructions:
- Find outline templates for fall leaves and print them on paper, then cut them out. You are going to need two of these outlines for each of your sun-catchers. Then place one of your outlines onto your contact paper or laminating paper.
- Cut tissue paper into little squares and layer them on your laminating paper or contact paper. You shouldn’t be concerned if it goes out of your outline, since you’ll trim it.
- Using your glue stick, glue your second outline on your tissue paper.
- Put another piece of contact/laminating paper over it. press it down so that you smooth out the bubbles. Trim your excess paper using your scissors.
- Use double sided tape to stick the sun-catchers to your window. This will give you a bright and beautiful look when the sun shines through.
Leaf Clay Dishes
If you are looking for ways that you can make some inexpensive dishes with which to decorate your home, these pretty dishes are easy for anyone to make.
Things You’ll Need
- Clay (air dry)
- Leaves – Hydrangea leaves make great options for this type of craft.
- Acrylic paints – you can use any colors but gold, bronze and rose gold make great choices.
- Sealer
- Knife
Instructions:
- Gather your leaves – One of the best types of leaves are hydrangea due to their shape, but you can try out different leaves since you can roll them out and begin again if you’re not happy with how they look.
- Cut a Piece of Clay – Roll out the clay and stamp the leaf on it. press down firmly and be certain that you are pressing down all leaf parts to create a total imprint.
- Take your leaf off of the clay and use your knife to cut around the leaf’s outline. (If your kids are making these, do this for them.
- Remove the extra clay from your imprint.
- Gently start rolling up clay sections. There’s no certain pattern that’s required. Simply leave some space in between the rolls. The leaf’s tip should be left intact. If there are any clay portions that aren’t smooth, wet a sponge and then use it for smoothing out clay portions.
- Let your clay dry in the air and harden. It’s best to do it on a rack for cooling cookies. This way your dish’s bottom will also be exposed to the air too. Once 24 hours have passed, check if the clay top’s hard. If so, flip the dish over to let the bottom dry. If it isn’t dry yet, allow it to dry a further 24 hours and then turn it over the following day if necessary.
- After your dishes are hard and dry, it’s now time to paint them. It usually will take 2 to 3 coats, depending on what color you are using. When the color is darker, 2 coats should suffice. But the colors that are lighter might need to have 3.
- Seal them with a good clay sealer. Mod podge gloss’s our recommendation.
Potato Stamps
These stamps are so much fun to make and they can be made into any types of stamps, not just for fall.
Things You’ll Need:
- Large potato
- Cookie cutters – look for ones with imprints in them and that are going to create a design when you’re stamping
- Paint
Instructions
- Cut the potato lengthwise in half. Then take a cookie cutter and press it into your potato as deeply as possible. Be sure your imprint of your cutter is going into your potato. If not, flip your potato over and then push hard over your potato’s top.
- Now, cut carefully around your cookie cutter’s edge (adults should do this) and leave some of the potato sticking up where it was.
- Peel your excess potato away
- That’s it. your stamps are now ready.
- Add some paint to the stamp, but not too much. If you put an excess on, you won’t see the features.
- You can now use your stamps for creating pictures, making wrapping paper, stamping cards or more.
As we said before, you can make any type of stamps and you don’t have to stop with fall. Go through your cookie cutters and see what else you can do.
Pumpkin Pie Play-dough
This isn’t so much of a craft as it is something for kids to use for crafts. But either way, this is something fun that you can make for kids to play with and make your house smell great!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon of cooking oil
- 2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
- 1 cup of plain flour
- ½ cup of salt
- Food coloring (orange)
- 1 cup of water
- 1 teaspoon of spice (pumpkin pie)
Instructions:
- Take a big pot and put in your vegetable oil, water, food coloring (put your food coloring into the water beforehand so it’s much easier for you to mix) and stir.
- In a big bowl, combine your dry ingredients, mixing well. Or you can add your spices individually and then your flour and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the pot to cook it.
- Cook it over a medium heat til your dough starts forming and is dry.
- Remove it from heat, allow it to cool and then knead.
- If your dough feels sticky, add a little more flour.
Here are some fun things your child can do with the play-dough.
- Roll it out with a mini rolling pin.
- Fill the pie pan with it and make its crust.
- Use a plastic or toy cutter to cut their pie into ‘slices’
- Have them put it onto plates to serve to their ‘guests’
- Add cotton balls to the slices to make it look like whipped cream.
One thing to note is that even though it’s made of food safe ingredients, it shouldn’t be eaten. It’s a good idea not to give this to young children and only give it to children who won’t eat it.
These are just four of the great crafts that you can do with children for fall crafts. The next time your children say that they are bored, bring out this list and see what you can do with the crafts. They are a great way to kill an afternoon and have fun at the same time.
