One thing my kids do almost every time we are outdoors is
collect rocks, sticks, leaves, etc. As a result, we have a lot of “natural
material” that builds up around our home and outside our front door. I am
always looking for ways to use them in crafts and activities. This month I
thought it would be fun to use them in decorating pumpkins.
Step 1: Just get
outdoors, explore and let your kids collect what they want, the more unique the
better.
Step 2: Design. Once
you have the materials collected, the sky is the limit as far as what you can
do. With our collection my kids made monsters
and I made Halloween creatures (see above).
When decorating I didn’t limit us to natural materials. I
let my kids paint their pumpkins first, I used a little paint and a permanent
marker for the eyes and hot glue.
Here are a few tips about working with natural materials.
- Press or preserve the leaves. Pressing leaves is as simple as placing them in between the pages of a magazine, stacking heavy books on top and leaving them for 2-3 days. You can also preserve them by paining Mod Podge all over the leaves and letting them dry.
- Make “eyes” by drawing black circles onto rocks using a permanent markers for the pupils.
- Don’t accept the natural shape of the leaves. After pressing mine I trimmed them a little to make them look more like bat wings.
- I used curved or jointed sticks for the spider’s legs.
- The funkier the better. We found the spiny seed pods at the park and made them the “hair” on my daughter’s pumpkin.
- We used hot glue to attach the natural materials to the pumpkins. It holds then in place but doesn’t last if the kids want to play with the pumpkins. We just use ours for display.
- Don’t forget to check the natural objects and materials for bugs and dirt before bringing them in the house. I haven’t have a problem with bugs but it is good to check none the less.
This was an activity we all enjoyed. I prefer decorating
pumpkins because my kids are so young and they can be more involved than with
carving. Note – I did not let my kids handle the hot glue. They just told me
where to put the items.
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| Silly faces to match their silly pumpkins. |
