7 days of Nature Crafts

We're kicking off a new series on Rainy Day Mum, where my fellow bloggers are sharing 7 days worth of their favourite ideas from their own or other blogs to prompt you to play, craft or learn what ever the weather. Today the series starts with the amazing Maggy from Red Ted Art. Another Brit and now a published author and she's sharing 7 days of Nature Crafts for you today - so over to Maggy.

Finally! Finally.. I am here... the lovely Cerys asked me MONTHS ago, if I fancied sharing 7 of our posts with you, her lovely readers. And then I got terrible side tracked (with a book release and all the business that goes with that) and now, finally, there is a little breather and I would like to take the opportunity to share 7 of our nature crafts with you.

We love nature crafts for three reasons:

1) you have to go out there and get it - giving you a reason to be out in the fresh air and enjoy nature

2) nature materials are usually very tactile and just so pleasing

3) nature materials are free - so a great for a child's insatiable crafty appetite.

Here are some or our favourite crafts:

Leaf Crowns

Ostentatiously an Autumn Craft (great to make with lovely Autumn coloured leaves), you can of course make these all year round. Many trees do NOT loose their leaves throughout winter and our park usually has plenty lying around. I love this craft as ALL YOU NEED IS LEAVES!

Spider Webs

These can be made with or without horse chestnuts in the middle. They are wonderfully therapteutic as you wind wind wind the wool around. We made a set of non conker versions in my son's school (with 30 then 4yrs olds) and they loved it!

Seasonal Mobile

In this post, I shared an "Autumn Mobile"  - but the principle remains the same for all seasons - go out, explore, see what you can find and come back and make a seasonal mobile from what you have gather. Make again a few months later and see how the seasons change. Makes a nice alternative to a Nature table. Especially, if you don't have the space for a nature table!

Pressed Flowers

Flower pressing is one of those "childhood classics" that every child should experience one day. Experiment with how different flowers and leaves press. Then get creative. In this post we share simple tips to make your flower pressing more successful!

Rock Monsters

Rock monsters are great for all age groups as even the littlest can manage to cover a rock in paint and add some fun googly eyes. Great for the imagination too. What other creatures can you paint? We did also did a ladybird and ducks!

Fairy House (or Elf House!)

We LOVE making fairy houses... such a cute way to explore nature. What things can you find in you area that makes a good house? Great for "building" skills and experimenting how to put things together.

Sand Art

Kids LOVE sand.. but clearly this is a tricky craft medium to work with… Try some sand art – we made a little sand fish scene and turned them into greeting cards. It was wonderful working with sand and the mess was contained!

I do hope you have been a little bit inspired! You can find many more nature crafts  over on Red Ted Art, where I regularly get crafty with my 5yrs old son and 3yrs old daughter. You can also find me on Theatre, Books and Movies and Life At The Zoo, for all sorts of mischief from Cooking with Kids to a little Science At Home! Thank you for having me today!

[custom_author=Maggy Red Ted Art]

Thanks to Maggy for kicking off our 7 days of series with 7 days of Nature Crafts - if you would like to contribute a guest post sharing 7 days of crafts, play or learning activities then please contact me (you can find details on how to via my about page).

Author

Cerys Parker

Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, high school teacher and mum. Realising that life doesn't have to be put on hold and you don't just have to survive whilst the kids are young she shares ideas to inspire you to LIVE with the kids, with activities to do together, recipes to cook and enjoy and family travel to make memories to last a lifetime.