Book: Nature Printing

The book "Nature Printing" is not about paper filigree :) This is a wonderful art & craft book and kids' crafts book, though, and I'd like to share with you my impressions of it.

Kids' craft: Gnomes made out of sticks

I found this idea at one of my favourite crafts blogs. Gail of "That artist woman" explains how to make gnomes out of sticks. Each of our family members made a gnome of their own. We used colored paper for hats and shredded paper for beards.

Shana Tova! Handmade card for kids

"Shana Tova!" means "A Good Year!". It is a traditional greeting on Rosh Hashanah. I wrote about the greeting cards with paper quilling I made for Rosh Hashanah, but this card you can easily make with kids.

Painting on rock: A white rabbit

Everybody knows about painting on rocks. Animals are one of the most popular subjects. Kids have fun with this craft, starting with collecting the rocks and up to playing with animals you make. We made this simple rabbit for a start.

Printed pizza nature craft for kids

We made this pizza using some beige paper, paint and fresh vegetables. The idea of vegetable stamps has been taken from the "Nature Printing" book. Kids have lots of fun with them, and they are much easier to make than rubber stamps.

Easy dragonfly collage nature craft

This is an easy-to-make dragonfly craft, made using natural materials: samaras, like maple ones, for the wings, a twig or a stem for the body, and allspice or black pepper for the eyes. Arrange the elements and glue them onto a sheet of white or colored paper.

Papier-mache picture frame with seashells

Such an easy-to-make picture frame can make a fun craft project for you and your kids. First, you will need to prepare paper pulp, a recipe for it can be found here, for instance. You'll need also paints, an adhesive, a piece of cardboard, and decorations, seashells in our case. Measure the picture you want to frame and add the width of the border (approx. 1 1/8" or 3.5cm) at each side. Use these dimensions to cut a rectangle out of the cardboard. Form a paper pulp border over the cardboard around the picture, then press the seashells into the border. Put the frame on a flat surface and press it down with a flat and heavy object, a pile of books wrapped in a plastic bag will do. Leave to dry for a few days. When the frame is ready, color it and glue in the picture. We've chosen to paint it yellow to resemble the sand of a summer beach.

Not only the summer themed picture frame can be made of papier-mache. Paper pulp is a pretty good modeling material, cheap, available, and easy to paint on. It can be used in a variety of craft projects, making cute animals like these frog and turtle is just one example. Paper pulp papier-mache toys are colorful and lightweight. When you paint on them, you're actually painting on paper, so almost any sort of paint can be used.

Cereals landscape collage

We used mung beans, semolina, oatmeal, buckwheat etc. to create this picture, like many others. Outline picture elements, spread glue and let your child sprinkle over the cereals.

Sunflower collage

This sunflower is very easy to make. I found this project at KinderArt.

1. Take brown, yellow and green paper, sunflower seeds, scissors and glue.
2. Cut out a brown circle, yellow petals and green stem and leaves.
3. Glue the petals and stem onto the circle.
4. Turn the sunflower over and glue seeds onto it.

The trick for me was to find nice sunflower seeds. No need to say, children love both the process and the result.

Nature craft: Owl made of river sheoak fruit

Every child brings home pebbles, twigs, rocks, pine cones and other objects from his or her outdoor walk. Once, after looking into my children’s pockets, I’ve decided to make this cute owl. Materials used: river sheoak fruit (casuarina cunninghamiana) and araucaria stems.