Pinecone Owls

Happy Autumn!!

Gathering natural craft supplies is an Autumn tradition at my house.  We head outside with baskets and bags and go on a pinecone and acorn hunt.

Of course this gathering time always inspires a nature craft or two.

Today we decided to make some pinecone owls out of our bounty!

To make your own you will need:

pinecones, (various sizes, shapes)

pumpkin seeds

paint and paintbrush

glue gun and glue stick

branches

To start we painted "bellies" on our pinecones.  

(basically these were upside down triangles)

Then we added little spots to their bellies.

Paint the pumpkin seed beaks orange

Then using a glue gun glue on the pumpkin seed beaks and googly eyes.

Finally glue onto your branch and admire!  

What a simple and adorable craft to begin the Autumn craft season!

Milkweed Pod Fairies

With autumn just around the corner, we thought we would create a fairy from nature using one of our favorite crafting supplies... milkweed pods!

Pop on over to CBC to see how she came to life!
In fairy love, 

Cattail Birds

The ditches along the highway are FULL of cattails this time of year.  

It's the perfect time to harvest them before they burst open.

I remember as a child my mother would collect them and spray paint them silver…they were in vases all over our house at Christmas time.

I came across this goodie of a craft in an old nature craft book, (aptly named Nature Crafts)

To make your own you will need:

cattails

scissors

glue, (glue gun or white glue)

feathers

paint 

Enlist the help of a pint sized helper…

get on your rubber boots and go on a cattail pickin' adventure!

(oh, and be sure to show them that if you rub off the outer layer, 

the inside bursts open in a cloud of fluff)!!

We trimmed off the ends...

Painted on eyes and painted the beak orange.

If you want to paint your cattails different colours, go for it…we painted one of ours blue.

Get out your glue gun and feathers…

We put a dab of glue on the end of each feather and stuck it into our "bird".

Tie a length of string around the middle of your bird, hang and enjoy!  

My daughters thought this would also make for a really cool cat toy.

Nature crafting at its best.

 

The Allure of a Sunflower Field...

In the next town over we spotted this…

(if I had a field of my own I think I would do the very same thing.)

Of course we had to stop to take pictures…

sunflowers are, perhaps, the happiest flowers of all.

Eldest informed me that Goldenrod is a sure sign that the seasons are about to change.

Here's to celebrating the end of summer in full bloom!