By Bryony Sumner
We love getting out and about in nature with our 2 boys. Earlier this year we wrote about our favourite nature play ideas and we were so inspired by all the lovely comments from like-minded outdoor lovers that we wanted to share some more of our outdoor play ideas.
I’ve always been a craft lover – but the idea of buying materials to create artwork with the kids that then just gets thrown away doesn’t feel great to me – especially when a lot of art and craft kits are made from plastics and non-sustainable materials. Not to mention the packaging! Another issue we face is storage – as we live in a bus it’s great to be able to find pastimes and craft where we don’t need to have things on hand. This is where most of these nature craft ideas came from – as well as some traditional past times that I remember doing with my mum and dad.
So without any further ado, here goes for our 10 Nature Craft Ideas:
Contents
Nature Brush-Strokes
Forget standard paintbrushes, Mother Nature has provided some amazing materials to create a masterpiece. We love going on a bushwalk to find interesting looking leaves, feathers, flowers, sticks and twigs which we collect and bring home. Then we lay out some large sheets of paper and some paint and attach our different items to clothes pegs to make them easier to hold and hey presto – instant and interesting paint brushes! It’s so much fun to see the different shapes and patterns made by each new ‘brush’ and leads to a lot of creativity and discussions. We saved the paper and used it as gift wrap at the next party we went to.
You can also collect larger bits of wood and rocks and try stamping as well as painting.
Pine cone creatures
I love finding pine cones – it’s so much fun running around in a pine tree forest just looking for them and it’s fabulous the different creatures that you can make with them using other things you find like nuts, seeds for the face and sticks for the legs.
Rock Painting
This is a new hobby of ours and we’ve even got a brand new section on our website dedicated to it. We love painting the rocks and then leaving them for others to find. There are even lots of Facebook groups out there of fellow rock painting hobbyists.
Daisy chains
I remember this one from my childhood – it’s really easy to do and again half the fun is in finding the lovely flowers to use first!
Leaf rubbing
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Animal Pictures
Have you ever found a leaf that looked exactly like a dinosaur tail or a flower like a frilled-neck lizard? We often have and it inspired us to collect them, draw the outline of the creature and stick them on. This also works when you find feathers, you can make a whole bird. We’ve also used sand at the beach or park to draw the outline on then fill in with items we’ve found.
Family Tree
We’ve done this at the park on the ground and at home on paper. Find a load of sticks and make a tree shape on the ground or your paper, then you either choose things to represent each family member on the tree or you can draw a picture or use a photo if you’re doing it at home. It’s a lovely representation of how we’re connected to each other and to Mother Nature.
Magic potions and perfumes
Another one that I loved doing as a child, fill an old jar or beach bucket with water and have fun creating magic potions with flowers, dirt, leaves and a big stick to stir it all together. We used to make my mum ‘beautiful’ perfumes that we always made her put on!
Nature Mobiles
Driftwood from the beach, some fishing wire and lots of beautiful shells makes a great homemade decoration for the home that the kids can help to make.
Mud Pies
Just like the magic potions – grab a bucket, some soil, water and get creating. Nature’s very own playdough!
We hope these 10 Nature Craft Ideas have given you some inspiration to get out and get crafty with nature – we’d love to hear of any ideas that you have too!
Hi! I'm Bryony from Coasting Australia. We are a family of four travelling around Australia on an epic road trip in our bus - together with our kelpie cross, Bobby. We are always looking for the best family and pet-friendly locations around the country, and sharing our favourite accommodation, attractions, restaurants and stories.
- Bryony Sumnerhttps://www.campingforwomen.com/author/bryony-sumner/
These are such great ideas, we used to do a lot of these when mine were younger
I love the idea of nature crafts. It will teach kids to be creative as well as appreciate materials around them.
What fun craft ideas.
I love nature and all activities that involve it! Rock painting has got to be one of my favs!!
I am loving this nature craft ideas. I will be trying some of them with the kids this half term break.
Great post! So many fun ideas which are interesting not only for kids but for their parents too. Sometimes I collect stones from the places I’ve visited, paint them and keep as a souvenir )) And making flower crowns in a summer must-do for sure!
I like those cute tweety painting on little rocks. I am glad I came across this post. Next time onwards, I will collect rocks and paint them. It’s surely a fun thing to do and a good hobby. Painting with natural brushes is another interesting thing to do.
Branches and paint brushes, mud pies, and painting rocks were some of my favorite as a kid! I can’t wait to do the same with my little one!
These are fun ideas for kids to enjoy nature and get creative. I’ve never actually made daisy chains before!
So many great ideas! We love nature play and art too!
Interesting!
This post makes me nostalgic about childhood. Some of these craft ideas are new for me, while some are variations of what we used to do. I remember using the leftovers of okra to create flower imprints on paper. Love the rock paintings.
Love these ideas! Will definitely be doing all of them this summer with my toddler!
Thanks for your tips! I remember doing some of these as a child. I’d love to get back to them, in the company of my niece.
I say yes to rock painting! I remember how we’d also carve our names on stones using chisels back when I was a scout camping. Other times, we’d carve on tree barks and it was always an experience! I would do that over and again!
This is such a cute article. I remember doing alot of these things as a kid in my backyard. We actually just went camping this weekend and probably would have found these helpful if I had kiddoes with me!
Love how creative you got with some of the craft ideas here! I’m not much of an arts and crafts person, but even I want to go on a little expedition next time I’m out in the woods and see what masterpiece I can come up with. I’m sure kids would have even more of a blast doing it!
I love these ideas! Especially, the brush strokes! Im definitely trying these with my daughter.
These are some brilliant nature crafts me and my family like painting stones, it is so relaxing and so much fun too!
I have such fond memories of nature activities like these with my aunts.
Those rock paintings are rocking it! What a cute idea. I might do them on our next hike hehe
This would be a nice activity after a walk in the park or in the woods. When I was a kid, I asked my mom for the discarded vegetable parts and I’d use them for stamping! I must say I was so proud of my “artwork” back then.
I am so excited I came across your post. We’re contemplating homeschooling our little one and these suggestions would be perfect for our little field trips and learning about the environment around us (as well as art). Love all these ideas!
This looks like something my daughter would enjoy immensely. We used to do a lot of this type arts and craft at my school in Finland when I was a kid, and I would love my kids to be able to experience it too. There is nothing better than implementing the nature in arts. Great ideas!
Whoa! That’s some super cool ideas. Reminds me of all the crazy things I’ve done as a child.
Yes, we made magic potion and tried to make all our neighbours drink it – No, they didn’t!
Taking impressions of leaves & flowers is super cool too.
Did you also try making dyes from leaves & flowers?
I love your ideas for nature craft projects with young kids. My husband and I recently moved into new home in a rural location, with huge garden, a big change from city living. Our two young nephews love to visit and I’m going to suggest some of your activities for their next stay, definitely the animal pictures, mobiles and painted rocks!
These are such great craft ideas for kids. I wish I had gotten out in the outdoors more as a child and did something like this. I do remember making daisy chains, glad to see it’s still on the list! Making animal pictures is very sweet too!
These would be so much fun! My kids would love to make painted rocks and leaf rubbing when we go camping. They are always get into the rivers and play with mud and rocks and sticks. Having them be creative outdoors in nature is my favorite part of camping!
These will be fun activities to do with my six-year-old. The daisy flowers will help with his fine motor skills, too.
Very cute ideas. Very easy to do and fun without spending a ton of money. I love that these are all super easy but more importantly take the kids away from using the electronic devices. Get back to using their imaginations instead of relying on technology.
Those are great ideas. I would love to try rock painting. I saw a fellow blogger paint these gorgeous rocks and they would look so nice in my garden!