Arts and crafts activities are a fun way to keep the kids busy during long summer holidays. And in fine weather, nature crafts offer an additional benefit. Ideal as outdoor crafts for summer, they enable parents to tempt their children away from electronic gadgets and out into the fresh air.
As well as giving children a place to play, climb trees, or make rose petal perfume and daisy chains, gardens and outdoor spaces also offer a whole host of other fun things for kids to do. A rich source of interesting materials such as leaves, flowers and petals, these great playgrounds also provide budding artists with all kinds of free materials to use in their creations, while helping them learn about the natural world.
Materials Needed for Kids' Summer Crafts
- Leaves, flowers and petals
- Wax crayons
- Paper
- Paints
- Paintbrush
- Glue stick
- PVA glue
- Scissors
Rubbings and Wax Resist Summer Craft Activity
Children look for leaves, ferns, petals, feathers and grass. Laying them all out on a flat surface, they then cover the items with a thin sheet of paper and tape the corners in place with masking tape. Kids rub over the surface of the paper with a wax crayon, using it on its side for best effect. This creates a wax impression of the textural objects underneath. Encourage children to experiment with different materials to see what works best. Taping paper directly to surfaces also allows them to make rubbings of textures like tree bark.
Kids can then apply diluted paints or watercolours to their rubbings with a brush. The wax textures will resist the paint, while the background washes with colour. Encourage children to dry different colours for a variety of effects. Once the wax resists have dried in the sun, children can cut out shapes with a pair of scissors. Using the various leaf and petal shapes, as well as textures like bark and grass, they can then create a collage of their park or garden by sticking the cut-outs to a larger sheet of paper with a glue stick.
Summer Leaf Prints Craft Idea
Children collect leaves, searching for interesting shapes and textures. Choosing a leaf, they place it on a sheet of newspaper with the veined side facing up. They then apply undiluted paint to the textured surface using a foam applicator or roller, making sure that the coating is not too thick. Children pick up the leaf and place it paint side down on a sheet of paper. Laying a sheet of photocopy paper on top, they then apply pressure by rubbing with the flat of their hand, or by rolling over it with a rolling pin.
Removing the paper, they carefully peel off the leaf to reveal their print. This technique also works well on fabric. Swapping ordinary paints for fabric paints, kids can print leaves on everything from T-shirts to tea towels.
Japanese Leaf Printing Nature Activity
Known as hapazome, this simple printing technique from Japan transfers the colour in natural items to paper or fabric. Collecting fresh leaves, flowers and petals, children place these on a sheet of cartridge paper or a piece of cotton. Covering them over with another piece of paper or cloth, they then use a flat rock to pound over the entire surface.
This releases the colours in the leaves and petals, printing their shapes and textures and producing beautiful, delicate results. Removing the top layer of paper or fabric, children peel off any remaining bits of flower or leaf from the finished prints.. Experimenting with different leaves and flowers will allow kids to find out what works best.
Petal Bookmark Summer Craft Activity
Kids glue flat, natural objects such as leaves, ferns, petals and small flowers to both sides of a rectangular piece of card approximately 5cm x 17cm (2 inches x 6.5 inches). To avoid damaging delicate items, children should use a glue stick directly on the surface of the card. By dotting adhesive exactly where they want a leaf or petal to go, they can then press the item in place. Using a home laminator, an adult can then laminate the bookmark to preserve the natural materials. Up to 4 bookmarks will fit in a laminating pouch at a time.
Leaving a narrow plastic border, kids trim their bookmarks with a pair of scissors. Don't worry if there's no laminating machine available; kids can use PVA glue to adhere items to the card, and then brush the adhesive over everything to seal and preserve the petals and leaves. When the glue has dried, they repeat the process to decorate the reverse of the bookmark. If children want to add a decorative tassel, they make a hole at one end using a hole punch, and then tie on ribbon, wool and coloured threads.
More Summer Craft Activities for Children
For more kids holiday craft ideas, read these online articles giving step-by-step instructions for an easy mosaic activity, how to decoupage a shoe box and glass painting a suncatcher.
Kathleen Good - I'm a writer, designer, and part-time lecturer in Art & Design based in Glasgow, Scotland. As a writer, I'm currently working on my ...
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