DIY crafts from natural materials: beautiful and easy ideas
Summer and autumn crafts made from natural material is a popular topic in the development of creative skills among preschool children, elementary school students. Some adults are also fond of making dry bouquets, panels, three-dimensional compositions, jewelry, Christmas-tree decorations, creating real works of art. Acorns and needles, pine cones and chestnuts, feathers and egg shells, moss and birch bark, buckwheat and walnut shells, small pieces of wood and seashells, river pebbles and yellowed maple leaves are used.
In addition to freshly picked natural gifts, herbaria, to create all kinds of souvenirs, you will need some tools that are available in every home. These include:
sewing needles;
pencil;
ruler;
sharp awl;
scissors;
brushes for glue, paints;
stacks for plasticine, plastic;
clips or clothespins;
thick books for drying leaves.
Additional materials:
plasticine;
plastic;
threads
PVA glue, glue stick;
white and colored paper;
corrugated cardboard, plain cardboard;
flexible wire;
fishing line;
Toothpicks
matches;
gouache;
spray varnish;
cotton wool;
ribbons
beads, sequins;
felt.
It is recommended that children give special scissors with rounded ends for self-use, a glue stick, instead of liquid glue. Needles, other sharp objects are used only under the supervision of adults, toxic, strong-smelling paintwork is prohibited.
How to prepare natural materials for crafts
What can be used to create crafts:
vegetables, fruits, berries;
“Helicopters” of maple, “earrings” of ash;
Poplar fluff;
the vine;
immortelle flowers, roses, lavender, yarrow;
fruits of chestnut, oak, physalis;
cones of conifers;
seeds of lupine, sunflower;
whole peas, beans, corn;
oat, buckwheat;
ears of cereals, straw, reed, sisal;
shells of pistachios, walnuts, hazelnuts;
coconut, peanut shell;
shells of mollusks, snails;
scales, air bubble of large fish;
feathers, shell eggs of wild, poultry;
dropped needles of a hedgehog, porcupine;
leaves of maple, oak, lilac, aspen, fern;
alder cones;
seeds of pumpkin, apple, watermelon;
peel of lemon, orange, grapefruit;
wood mushroom;
bark of birch, willow, oak;
moss, algae;
twigs, sticks, snags, roots, wood cuts;
pebbles, coarse sand.
So that the finished work has a beautiful appearance for a long time, does not become moldy, does not deform, materials for it need to not only be collected, but also properly prepared - dried. Leaves, cereals are dried between the pages of thick books. Birch bark, oak bark, and other elements that should be flat are dried under a sheet of hardboard, with a load placed on it. Twigs with berries of hawthorn, mountain ash, stems with poppy boxes, lunar fruits, flowers of helichrysum, yarrow, mordovia, are dried in limbo. Flower heads can be dried and buried in a container of sand. Straw, stems of angelica, hogweed, dried under a canopy in the open air, turning over from time to time. Forest moss, acorns, cones, chestnuts, spruce legs, laid out on a newspaper in a dark, cool place, turned over every day. Fish bubbles, scales, egg shells, snail shells are washed, dried in the shade.
Compositions and crafts made from seeds of exotic plants brought from distant lands have an original appearance.
Chestnuts
The fruits of horse chestnut are easy to find on the streets of any city, they ripen in August-September. For crafts, chestnuts of different sizes are selected, but preferably regular, rounded, dark brown. You can dry them by spreading them in a thin layer on newspapers, without access to sunlight, in a cool place. The process will take 10-15 days.
Drying chestnuts in a hot oven is strongly discouraged - their peels crack, the fruits practically lose their appearance.
Acorns
Acorns are oak fruits; in different species they slightly differ in shape, size, and color. Collect them in late August - early October, you should choose whole, not damaged by insects, without signs of germination. Freshly picked fruits are washed under running water, if necessary, brushed, dried on a towel, paper.Next, you need to heat the oven to 50-70 degrees, put the acorns on a baking sheet, leaving the door ajar. The process will take 90-120 minutes, during which time they need to be mixed at least three to four times.
From acorns you can make funny figures of men, animals, arrange photo frames. The “crumbling” curtains of oak fruits, wreaths on the wall, dishes for the dollhouse look original.
In the village of acorns, some other plant materials are dried from above on a Russian stove.
Cones, needles
Cones of pine, spruce, cedar, larch, alder are harvested in spring or mid-autumn. If the seeds are still covered with scales, then the cones are wet, after drying they will open. Before drying, the fruits are soaked in a solution of vinegar with water to remove insects, cotton buds and alcohol are used to get rid of the resin. If it is required that the cone be closed, before drying it is completely dipped in carpentry glue.
You can dry the cones:
on the street under a canopy - the raw materials are placed in a thin layer on the newspaper in trellised boxes, nets, baskets, left for 15-20 days;
in a pan or a baking sheet - the oven is heated to a small temperature, but the door is not closed, the time is about an hour;
in a microwave oven - a large plate is taken, covered with a paper towel, cones are stacked on top, the process will take less than five minutes, the process must be controlled. Spruce needles are dried directly with branches, in the form of “spruce legs”, in limbo. Pine needles can be cut off if only they are needed for crafts. Slow drying under a canopy is preferred.
Nuts
Walnuts are usually sold already dried, their shells are used for crafts, which are separated from the kernel with scissors, since the hammer crumbles the nut almost completely. Fresh fruits are peeled - this is best done with gloves so as not to get your hands dirty. Nuts are dried in the open air on a tarpaulin, for two to three days, if the weather is dry, sunny, in bad weather - in the attic, trellised racks, but the process will take up to a week. A faster way, no more than two hours - an oven, a village stove, a special vegetable dryer.
For the manufacture of crafts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, peanut shells, and pistachios are also used.
Leaves, Flowers, Seeds
The leaves of various trees are harvested in summer or autumn in dry weather. Dry for a week or two, putting it into an old book, pressing tightly on top with a few more. You can dry quickly by placing between two sheets of thick paper, ironing with a hot iron on both sides. The most commonly used maple, rowan, oak, birch, aspen, currant, fern, nettle.
Seeds of dill, star anise, pea, coriander, mustard, pumpkin, zucchini, sunflower, watermelon, apples, wild cucumber, apricot kernel, peach, are dried on a newspaper, in a dark, ventilated place. Peas, beans, beans, lupins are previously eliminated from the pods. All seeds can be processed in a vegetable dryer or on a baking sheet in the oven.
Voluminous flowers, such as roses, asters, a garden immortelle, are dried in the sand - it is preferable to calcine it first in the oven or in a pan. Then the sand is poured into any container, the buds are placed on top, gently covered with the remaining sand, left for three to seven days. Flowers for panels (lilies of the valley, daisies, lilacs) are dried as well as leaves.
Grass, Moss, Poplar Fluff
Poplar fluff is harvested in early summer, but it can be stored all year round in a dry, cool place. It is important to carefully protect it from possible fire - the material is very flammable. Snow is made from fluff for panels, volumetric compositions for the New Year.
Moss (sphagnum, cuckoo flax, etc.) is gently squeezed, eliminating excess moisture, dried on a newspaper at room temperature or on the street, under a canopy in dry weather. Grass, straw, lichen are dried almost the same.
Of the moss most often make a miniature forest edge, thickets of grass.
Bark
The bark, which should be flat, is cleaned of dirt, dried, wrapped in paper, pressed with several thick books, another load, weighing at least five to seven kilograms. To destroy parasites, the bark is boiled in boiling water for several minutes.
It is better to cut bark from healthy, strong trees, for which such manipulation will not be excessively traumatic, leading to death.
Sprigs, sticks, wooden saw cuts
It is recommended to harvest tree cuts when the movement of juices is minimal - from October to February. Then drying wood will not take much time. For the quickest removal of intercellular juice, the pieces of wood are boiled, and then they are laid out in a cool room on a concrete floor or several layers of newspapers, turned over once a couple of days, and dried in an oven or battery two weeks later. Immediately placed in a hot environment is impossible - saw cuts crack. First you need to remove the bark.
After collection, twigs, sticks, snags carefully inspect, remove those damaged by rot, pests, and then dry in a warm, dry place, without direct sunlight. Twigs with buds are harvested in the spring, the roots are dug up, trying not to damage, they are cleaned of the ground, dried from one to three weeks, depending on the thickness.
Pebbles
The stones are cleaned of sand, the earth with a stiff brush, washed with water, sorted by shape, color, size. Drying pebbles is allowed in any convenient way - on newspapers, a battery, in an oven, a hair dryer, etc. Stones with natural holes are used to make jewelry, all kinds of amulets.
Shells
Shells of sea, river, lake, grape snails, bivalves are brushed, boiled in water to remove all organic remains. You can dry them on a newspaper at room temperature. Shells are great for creating marine compositions, design frames, mirrors.
Sand
Sand for crafts is preferable to large river, but if it is problematic to get it, anyone will do it - from the nearest construction site, from the sandbox. It is sieved through a fine sieve to remove all unnecessary, washed in water, dried, spread out in a thin layer on a baking sheet in the oven, periodically mixing.
Eggshell
To create crafts, eggs of chicken, duck, ostrich, quail, blackbird, parrot, etc. are suitable. To prepare the shells, they need to be rid of the protein and yolk inside. To do this, small holes are made on both sides of the egg, after which the contents are blown into the cup or sucked out with a large syringe. Then the inside is washed with water.
An excellent mosaic will come out of a beaten egg shell, if the pieces are painted in different colors, glued to a previously prepared surface.
Feathers
Fallen bird feathers are preferably taken from domestic ones, as wild crows, pigeons, ducks, and other birds often suffer from infectious diseases. Feathers are not necessary to wash, you can dry them with a regular hairdryer, while fluffing. Often on sale there are already processed feathers of exotic birds - peacocks, parrots.
Fruits, vegetables, berries
Rowan berries, rose hips are dried on branches, hung on a rope, or laid in one layer on a newspaper in a well-ventilated place. A small hole is cut in a pumpkin, zucchini, squash, rubbed inside with alcohol, stuffed with newspapers, left for 10-20 days, depending on size. Dry vegetables, fruits, citrus peels in the oven at low temperature, in the shade on a tarpaulin, newsprint.
How to store natural materials for crafts
It is recommended to store any natural materials in a dry, cool place, away from direct sunlight. To do this, use:
Recommended storage humidity is 12-18%, temperature is 9-18 degrees.
Ideas for Kindergarten
In the manufacture of panels, the color of leaves, flowers, herbs and other things should be taken into account - light details look good on a dark background and vice versa. Here are some simple ideas, described step by step, for the smallest:
owl from beans - an outline of an owl is drawn on a sheet of colored cardboard, its inside is glued with beans. Eyes are made from dry daisies, on one side a piece of bark is glued - it will be a tree, twigs with oak leaves and mountain ash are attached to it. The wings and legs of the owl are also made of leaves;
hedgehog - is made of a fir cone, to which plasticine legs, eyes, nose, mushrooms are attached;
daisies - you need to take the stalks of reeds, pumpkin seeds. Yellow midges are made from plasticine, petals are inserted on the sides, then the head is attached to the stem;
Matryoshka - for work, you need a pebble that resembles a matryoshka in shape, gouache paints that paint a face, pens, a doll's scarf;
wood in a box - a box of a suitable size is taken, moss and pebbles are glued to the bottom, trees are made from twigs, which are fastened with plasticine. Three bears are made of large, medium and small "fluffy" cones by gluing plasticine eyes, noses, ears from halves of the caps of acorns;
autumn bouquet - you will need a jar with a lid. A snag is glued to the inside of the lid, a twig to which the colored leaves of maple, birch, oak, various dried flowers are attached, carefully covered with a jar on top, twisted;
horses and burros - their bodies, heads are made of acorns, legs are made of matches, which are fastened into holes made with an awl. Ears are made of ash "earrings", nose-eyes are made of lupine seeds;
spiders - are made of chestnuts, caps of acorns, bent in the middle of toothpicks. If desired, boots made of plasticine or plastic are fashioned on eight spider legs;
dragonfly - wings are created from maple "helicopters", eyes from lupins, the body itself from plasticine or a suitable stick;
turtle - for the manufacture of crafts, you need a walnut shell, plasticine, from which the body is made, eyes from small seeds.
The flat works ready for the exhibition, in order to preserve them for a long time, are placed in a frame under glass, and the voluminous ones are treated with hairspray or acrylic from a balloon.
Craft Ideas for Elementary School
Products for the school exhibition a la "Hello, Autumn!" easy and simple to do with children. A fairy-tale world in miniature, located on a board, a large wood-cut. Here you will have a tea party of Baba Yaga and the Goblin. Their bodies are made of pine cones, their heads are made of nuts, hair, their beards are made of straw, their arms and legs are made of wire, their hats are made of scraps of fabric, linen threads wound around a bottle cork. The table, at which the characters sit, is made of a small cut of a tree, dishes - from the caps of acorns of different sizes. The surrounding landscape is decorated with moss, a hut is built from thin sticks.
Swans are made of polymer clay of white or black tint, small bird feathers. The body of a swan is made of a fir cone painted with white paint, a chicken egg with feathers glued to it, and pistachio shells.
A panel with a squirrel is created from a red pine bark - the head, legs, hips, back, and tail are alternately cut out. All parts are glued on corrugated cardboard, flat wood, tinted with acrylic, stain, claws are made from fennel seeds, eyes, nose - from lupine seeds.
Chanterelles, wolves, and other similar animals are glued from leaves of ash, antlers of deer are made from oak leaves. A small caterpillar is created from large peas strung on a wire, fishing line, thread.
Cuckoo, black grouse, are made of two large, but not fully unfolded pine cones, leaflets, painted with gouache and mascara. Also, the cuckoo is made from motley black and white feathers of some breeds of hens, parrots.
The volumetric figure of the woodsman is made of an inverted fir cone or a small pumpkin. His hat is constructed from maple leaves, larger figures are decorated with hats woven from straw, vines, textile materials.
In addition to “school” crafts, you can create original interior decorations from forest materials: the old umbrella is glued over with maple and oak leaves, sprayed with varnish for structural strength, glass bottles of beautiful shape are coated with glue, and then rolled in buckwheat, oatmeal, semolina.
Conclusion
Products from natural materials for decorating the interior are easy to do with your own hands, using a little imagination. Even a five-year-old child under the supervision of adults can cope with the simplest. Unique applications, toys, paintings, photo frames, decor for the Christmas tree are created from forest, garden, field, sea "gifts of nature" in the home workshop. Detailed instructions can be found on the Internet, on the pages of popular print publications on the subject of "hand-made".
Summer and autumn crafts made from natural material is a popular topic in the development of creative skills among preschool children, elementary school students. Some adults are also fond of making dry bouquets, panels, three-dimensional compositions, jewelry, Christmas-tree decorations, creating real works of art. Acorns and needles, pine cones and chestnuts, feathers and egg shells, moss and birch bark, buckwheat and walnut shells, small pieces of wood and seashells, river pebbles and yellowed maple leaves are used.
Content
Tools, additional materials for crafts
In addition to freshly picked natural gifts, herbaria, to create all kinds of souvenirs, you will need some tools that are available in every home. These include:
Additional materials:
How to prepare natural materials for crafts
What can be used to create crafts:
So that the finished work has a beautiful appearance for a long time, does not become moldy, does not deform, materials for it need to not only be collected, but also properly prepared - dried. Leaves, cereals are dried between the pages of thick books. Birch bark, oak bark, and other elements that should be flat are dried under a sheet of hardboard, with a load placed on it. Twigs with berries of hawthorn, mountain ash, stems with poppy boxes, lunar fruits, flowers of helichrysum, yarrow, mordovia, are dried in limbo. Flower heads can be dried and buried in a container of sand. Straw, stems of angelica, hogweed, dried under a canopy in the open air, turning over from time to time. Forest moss, acorns, cones, chestnuts, spruce legs, laid out on a newspaper in a dark, cool place, turned over every day. Fish bubbles, scales, egg shells, snail shells are washed, dried in the shade.
Chestnuts
The fruits of horse chestnut are easy to find on the streets of any city, they ripen in August-September. For crafts, chestnuts of different sizes are selected, but preferably regular, rounded, dark brown. You can dry them by spreading them in a thin layer on newspapers, without access to sunlight, in a cool place. The process will take 10-15 days.
Acorns
Acorns are oak fruits; in different species they slightly differ in shape, size, and color. Collect them in late August - early October, you should choose whole, not damaged by insects, without signs of germination. Freshly picked fruits are washed under running water, if necessary, brushed, dried on a towel, paper.Next, you need to heat the oven to 50-70 degrees, put the acorns on a baking sheet, leaving the door ajar. The process will take 90-120 minutes, during which time they need to be mixed at least three to four times.
From acorns you can make funny figures of men, animals, arrange photo frames. The “crumbling” curtains of oak fruits, wreaths on the wall, dishes for the dollhouse look original.
Cones, needles
Cones of pine, spruce, cedar, larch, alder are harvested in spring or mid-autumn. If the seeds are still covered with scales, then the cones are wet, after drying they will open. Before drying, the fruits are soaked in a solution of vinegar with water to remove insects, cotton buds and alcohol are used to get rid of the resin. If it is required that the cone be closed, before drying it is completely dipped in carpentry glue.
You can dry the cones:
Spruce needles are dried directly with branches, in the form of “spruce legs”, in limbo. Pine needles can be cut off if only they are needed for crafts. Slow drying under a canopy is preferred.
Nuts
Walnuts are usually sold already dried, their shells are used for crafts, which are separated from the kernel with scissors, since the hammer crumbles the nut almost completely. Fresh fruits are peeled - this is best done with gloves so as not to get your hands dirty. Nuts are dried in the open air on a tarpaulin, for two to three days, if the weather is dry, sunny, in bad weather - in the attic, trellised racks, but the process will take up to a week. A faster way, no more than two hours - an oven, a village stove, a special vegetable dryer.
Leaves, Flowers, Seeds
The leaves of various trees are harvested in summer or autumn in dry weather. Dry for a week or two, putting it into an old book, pressing tightly on top with a few more. You can dry quickly by placing between two sheets of thick paper, ironing with a hot iron on both sides. The most commonly used maple, rowan, oak, birch, aspen, currant, fern, nettle.
Seeds of dill, star anise, pea, coriander, mustard, pumpkin, zucchini, sunflower, watermelon, apples, wild cucumber, apricot kernel, peach, are dried on a newspaper, in a dark, ventilated place. Peas, beans, beans, lupins are previously eliminated from the pods. All seeds can be processed in a vegetable dryer or on a baking sheet in the oven.
Voluminous flowers, such as roses, asters, a garden immortelle, are dried in the sand - it is preferable to calcine it first in the oven or in a pan. Then the sand is poured into any container, the buds are placed on top, gently covered with the remaining sand, left for three to seven days. Flowers for panels (lilies of the valley, daisies, lilacs) are dried as well as leaves.
Grass, Moss, Poplar Fluff
Poplar fluff is harvested in early summer, but it can be stored all year round in a dry, cool place. It is important to carefully protect it from possible fire - the material is very flammable. Snow is made from fluff for panels, volumetric compositions for the New Year.
Moss (sphagnum, cuckoo flax, etc.) is gently squeezed, eliminating excess moisture, dried on a newspaper at room temperature or on the street, under a canopy in dry weather. Grass, straw, lichen are dried almost the same.
Bark
The bark, which should be flat, is cleaned of dirt, dried, wrapped in paper, pressed with several thick books, another load, weighing at least five to seven kilograms. To destroy parasites, the bark is boiled in boiling water for several minutes.
Sprigs, sticks, wooden saw cuts
It is recommended to harvest tree cuts when the movement of juices is minimal - from October to February. Then drying wood will not take much time. For the quickest removal of intercellular juice, the pieces of wood are boiled, and then they are laid out in a cool room on a concrete floor or several layers of newspapers, turned over once a couple of days, and dried in an oven or battery two weeks later. Immediately placed in a hot environment is impossible - saw cuts crack. First you need to remove the bark.
After collection, twigs, sticks, snags carefully inspect, remove those damaged by rot, pests, and then dry in a warm, dry place, without direct sunlight. Twigs with buds are harvested in the spring, the roots are dug up, trying not to damage, they are cleaned of the ground, dried from one to three weeks, depending on the thickness.
Pebbles
The stones are cleaned of sand, the earth with a stiff brush, washed with water, sorted by shape, color, size. Drying pebbles is allowed in any convenient way - on newspapers, a battery, in an oven, a hair dryer, etc. Stones with natural holes are used to make jewelry, all kinds of amulets.
Shells
Shells of sea, river, lake, grape snails, bivalves are brushed, boiled in water to remove all organic remains. You can dry them on a newspaper at room temperature. Shells are great for creating marine compositions, design frames, mirrors.
Sand
Sand for crafts is preferable to large river, but if it is problematic to get it, anyone will do it - from the nearest construction site, from the sandbox. It is sieved through a fine sieve to remove all unnecessary, washed in water, dried, spread out in a thin layer on a baking sheet in the oven, periodically mixing.
Eggshell
To create crafts, eggs of chicken, duck, ostrich, quail, blackbird, parrot, etc. are suitable. To prepare the shells, they need to be rid of the protein and yolk inside. To do this, small holes are made on both sides of the egg, after which the contents are blown into the cup or sucked out with a large syringe. Then the inside is washed with water.
Feathers
Fallen bird feathers are preferably taken from domestic ones, as wild crows, pigeons, ducks, and other birds often suffer from infectious diseases. Feathers are not necessary to wash, you can dry them with a regular hairdryer, while fluffing. Often on sale there are already processed feathers of exotic birds - peacocks, parrots.
Fruits, vegetables, berries
Rowan berries, rose hips are dried on branches, hung on a rope, or laid in one layer on a newspaper in a well-ventilated place. A small hole is cut in a pumpkin, zucchini, squash, rubbed inside with alcohol, stuffed with newspapers, left for 10-20 days, depending on size. Dry vegetables, fruits, citrus peels in the oven at low temperature, in the shade on a tarpaulin, newsprint.
How to store natural materials for crafts
It is recommended to store any natural materials in a dry, cool place, away from direct sunlight. To do this, use:
Ideas for Kindergarten
In the manufacture of panels, the color of leaves, flowers, herbs and other things should be taken into account - light details look good on a dark background and vice versa. Here are some simple ideas, described step by step, for the smallest:
The flat works ready for the exhibition, in order to preserve them for a long time, are placed in a frame under glass, and the voluminous ones are treated with hairspray or acrylic from a balloon.
Craft Ideas for Elementary School
Products for the school exhibition a la "Hello, Autumn!" easy and simple to do with children. A fairy-tale world in miniature, located on a board, a large wood-cut. Here you will have a tea party of Baba Yaga and the Goblin. Their bodies are made of pine cones, their heads are made of nuts, hair, their beards are made of straw, their arms and legs are made of wire, their hats are made of scraps of fabric, linen threads wound around a bottle cork. The table, at which the characters sit, is made of a small cut of a tree, dishes - from the caps of acorns of different sizes. The surrounding landscape is decorated with moss, a hut is built from thin sticks.
Swans are made of polymer clay of white or black tint, small bird feathers. The body of a swan is made of a fir cone painted with white paint, a chicken egg with feathers glued to it, and pistachio shells.
A panel with a squirrel is created from a red pine bark - the head, legs, hips, back, and tail are alternately cut out. All parts are glued on corrugated cardboard, flat wood, tinted with acrylic, stain, claws are made from fennel seeds, eyes, nose - from lupine seeds.
Chanterelles, wolves, and other similar animals are glued from leaves of ash, antlers of deer are made from oak leaves. A small caterpillar is created from large peas strung on a wire, fishing line, thread.
Cuckoo, black grouse, are made of two large, but not fully unfolded pine cones, leaflets, painted with gouache and mascara. Also, the cuckoo is made from motley black and white feathers of some breeds of hens, parrots.
The volumetric figure of the woodsman is made of an inverted fir cone or a small pumpkin. His hat is constructed from maple leaves, larger figures are decorated with hats woven from straw, vines, textile materials.
Conclusion
Products from natural materials for decorating the interior are easy to do with your own hands, using a little imagination. Even a five-year-old child under the supervision of adults can cope with the simplest. Unique applications, toys, paintings, photo frames, decor for the Christmas tree are created from forest, garden, field, sea "gifts of nature" in the home workshop. Detailed instructions can be found on the Internet, on the pages of popular print publications on the subject of "hand-made".