For more Christmas crafts, check out this penguin keepsake plate, Christmas handprint crafts, and our snowflake crafts!

Pinecone Gnome Ornament	Pinecone Snow Bunnies	Elegant Pinecone Ornaments	Pinecone Placecard Holders
Pinecone Gift Tags	Pinecone Votive Craft	Christmas Pinecones in a Pot	Pinecone Christmas Tree
Fabric Button Pinecone Trees	Pinecone Christmas Carolers	Pinecone Christmas Angels	Christmas Pinecones

Check out all of our Christmas crafts, coloring pages and activities for kids from Woo! Jr. Network sites!

I’ve been holding onto this craft for a few days, and I’ve decided I can hold onto it no longer. It’s my new favorite craft on this site, and I think it would be a perfect thing to do with kids for a Mother’s Day craft (though I think the plant marker garden craft come in a close second on that).

Behold, the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

I’m actually thinking of making myself a two-tiered one to put in my office. That seems so dorky when I say that out loud though…

What You Need to Make the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

3 sheets of green tissue paper (ideally in three different shades of green)

3 sheets of pink tissue paper (again ideally in three different shades of pink, or whatever three colors you want)

I think the reason this turned out so well was because I was able to use different shades of green and pink tissue paper. Normal tissue paper packages don’t come so nicely shaded for paper flower crafts, but I swear by a huge package of tissue paper I am able to get at Hobby Lobby for $5 (inconveniently they don’t sell online, but CreateforLess has shades of green at $.89 a package).

A 3 inch styrofoam ball

A small cylinder or cube of floral foam to stick into the clay pot (You could also use play dough)
(I cut a triangle of styrofoam from some appliance packaging we had around the house)

A 3 inch (or so) mini clay plant pot

Plain straight pins

4 straight pins with pretty pearlescent ball on top for the main flowers

A 6″-7″ inch stick from your yard

How to Make the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

First cut up the green tissue paper into approximately 2 inch squares. They are going to get crumpled up, so don’t worry about being precise or anything.

Start scrunching up the squares into loose little balls. I found it worked best if I rolled them between my hands as if it were clay I was trying to roll into a ball. Even on a tiny ball you will need a surprisingly large number of these, because you want them to be relatively close together.

Next just start pinning them to the styrofoam ball. Don’t put them too close together, because you will want to have room to put in the flowers. You can see in the second photo how close I put them together.

Now cut up your pink tissue paper into squares. For the largest flowers I used about 3 inch squares, the medium about two inch squares and the small about one inch squares. Again, this is approximate, because they are just going to get crumpled up again.

Add the largest flowers first, because they will be the most prominent and need to be placed somewhat evenly around the ball. I thought I was going to add a lot, but found that four was plenty. If you can find straight pins with the pretty pearl tops, use those to attach the largest flowers. If you have a lot of those, you can also use them for your smaller flowers too. I didn’t, so I just used regular straight pins everywhere else.

Then add the smaller flowers in between the green ‘leaves’ where you can still see the styrofoam.

Next, decide what part of the ball you want to be the top, and stuff the stick from your yard into the bottom. I didn’t take a picture of this part, because it’s pretty dang easy to do. Then shove the cylinder or dough into the flower post, and stuff the stick into the midde so that it is standing straight up.

Cover the foam base with green tissue like you did the top ball, but this time, don’t let the styrofoam peek through.

And ta – da, you are done!

This pine cone bird feeder craft is easy enough for kids to make

The hardest part of making this pine cone bird feeder craft was finding bird seed in bags of less than 5-zillion pounds!  My daughter loved it and was actually able to help quite a bit.

Related Pages: More Pinecone Crafts, Stick Crafts, Make Fairy Houses

What you need to make a simple bird feeder:

• A pine cone
• Peanut butter
  (Note – use soy butter instead if your child has a peanut allergy!)
• Ribbon
• Bird seed
• Plastic baggie

How to make a pine cone bird feeder

Start by cutting a ribbon about 24″ in length.  The idea is to make it so that squirrels can’t easily reach your delicious bird seed.  I think it’s better to attach the ribbon first so that you don’t get peanut butter and seeds everywhere later on.

Move a couple of layers from the top of the pine cone and tie the ribbon around tightly.

Next, smear peanut butter all over your pine cone bird feeder.  This part is kind of messy.  We worked to make sure we got some peanut butter in between the various layers of the pine cone for maximum bird seed coverage.

Peanut butter will make the bird seed stick to your pine cone.

Place your gooey pine cone into a bag of bird seed, hold the top shut, and shake.

(Leave the ribbon sticking out of the top of the bag so it doesn’t get covered in peanut butter.)

The seeds stick to the peanut butter to cover your pine cone.

Take it outside and hang it from a tree with the ribbon loop you created.  We put ours right outside the kitchen window so we can see if any birds come to enjoy a snack.

ETA: I may just need to face reality and rename this post “Squirrel Feeder Craft for Kids.”  *sigh*

The view that greeted me from my kitchen window this morning.

Disney's Tinker Bell Fairy House

A few weeks ago, Disney brought me and a group of other moms out to California for a private screening of the new Tinker Bell movie, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue. The movie was truly precious – kind of like a Peter Pan story just for little girls. But my crafty heart was set afire when there was an appearance of a homemade fairy house built by Lizzy – the adorable girl that befriends Tinker Bell. It comes out September 21.

I’ve always been a big Tink fan anyway – but this trip was nothing short of amazing. Not only did we get a personal presentation straight from the movie Director, but we also got to spend time with the Art Director. You know Disney animation – their cartoons are pure eye candy. The Art Director actually had a full 2 foot tall replica of the fairy house made in the movie.

Related Pages: Fairy Coloring Pages, Evolution of Disney’s Tinker Bell Pictures, Fairy Tale Crafts

You can see the fairy house better in the trailer:

I came home totally inspired to make my own fairy house. But I wanted to be an easy project – Tinker Bell’s fairy house (and most others) are elaborate abodes that take hours or days to complete. I don’t have the patience for that kind of project – how can I expect my kids to?! Then I found mini bird houses in the dollar section at Joann – perfect!!! (I would link to it, but evidently they must only sell them in stores because I can’t find them on their website – blah!)

So over the weekend I made this easy-peasy fairy house:

Easy Fairy Houses

It might not quite be up to Tinker Bell’s standards, but my 8 year old daughter flipped over it!

Making Fairy Houses

To make a fairy house like this, start with an existing wooden bird house. It can be the cheap $1 models from Joann, or you could also refinish an old bird house.

Unfinished Wood Mini Craft Birdhouse from Joann

Next, paint it in pretty Tinkerbell-ish colors of craft paint:

Painted Fairy House

Then gather up supplies from outside and your craft stash to decorate your fairy house:

Fairy House Supplies

I used a fake silk leaf, a few dyed feathers, petals taken off of an old silk flower, and acorns. You could also use (with varying levels of permanence):

• Pinecones
• Beans
• Sticks
• Grass
• Real leaves and petals
• Pebbles
• Shells
• Driftwood
• Yarn
• Beads
• Dried flowers
• Buttons
• Matchboxes
• Bark
• Moss
• Seeds

After you’ve decided what to decorate with, do a ‘dry run’ and arrange the items on your painted fairy house to ensure you know where you want to glue things in place. Then whip out a glue gun and stick it all on!

You may think you’re done, but NO. In order to make this a truly awesome fairy house, you need a secret ingredient.

Fairy Dust.
(AKA Glow in the dark glitter!)

Using regular glue, dab it onto your fairy house decorations as much or as little as you like:

Adding Fairy Dust to the Fairy House

Then sprinkle the glow in the dark glitter fairy dust onto the house. NOW you are done!

Finished Fairy House Craft

More on Making Fairy Houses

Recycled Fairy Houses Craft	Fairy Houses Dewing Pattern (Not Free)	Making Stick Fairy Houses	Amazing Fairy Houses Ideas

Disclosure – Disney did not commission this post. I did it because I like fairies. The End.

Related Pages: Recycled Kids Crafts, Flower Crafts, Leaf Crafts, Acorn Crafts

Be sure to check out all of our nature crafts on Craft Jr.!

Be sure to check out this great tutorial on how to preserve fall leaves from Gingerbread Snowflakes! This simple technique can make most of these projects last for years rather than weeks.

How to Preserve Fall Leaves	Leaf Templates	Make Leaf Animals	Make Leaf Place Cards
Leaf Rubbings	Leaf Stick Puppets for Kids	Leaf Transfer Painting	Leaf Alphabet Crafts
Framed Fall Leaves	Easy Fall Leaf Wreath	Fall Leaf Mobile	Decoupage Fall Pumpkin

Check out more fall crafts with these fall paper crafts, acorn crafts, and owl crafts over at Animal Jr.!

Fall Acorns

After a few days my bowl started overflowing, and I started coming up with ideas for acorn crafts. They really are little beauties, and they simply scream to be transformed into cute little acorn people!

Acorn Crafts

How to Make Acorn Craft People

Making Acorn Crafts

All you need to make these acorn people is paint, something wooden for the body, a hot glue gun and a little imagination.

The wooden ball and spool I got at Hobby Lobby for super-cheap in the wood crafts section. I chose some beautiful fall colors and got out my tiniest paint brush to dab on the eyes and nose. This was a little tricky, mostly because it’s been forever since I’ve painted and my hands aren’t used to having to be so precise! But you can just wipe off the mistakes, if you make any, to get the faces just right.

Paint the body next, and you can make it up as you go along. I found that the more detailed I could be, the cuter they turned out. I even debated putting tiny Swarovski crystals onto the coat buttons, but that would have required another trip to the store.

Once the paint is dry just dab a tiny amount of glue onto the bottom of the acorn and pop it on top of the body. Hold it for a bit to make extra sure it’s at the angle you want.

I’m saving the rest of my acorns for some Christmas crafts, I just hope they last! They seem to like to split and fall apart after a while. Pffft.

For more fall crafts, check out these autumn paper snowflakes, fall pomanders, or these cute and easy Halloween finger puppets.

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Lara’s Wood Spool 7/8″”x 1 1/8″” 3 pc
Price: $1.04
Lara’s Wood pieces are unfinished, solid wood. They are great for painting and staining, and you can make endless projects by using several different individual parts to make unique and fun new creations! Warning: These are not toys. Not intended for children under the age of 8. Spool 7/8″”x 1 1/8″” 3 pc

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Lara’s Wood Half Ball 1″” 4 pc
Price: $1.04
Lara’s Wood pieces are unfinished, solid wood. They are great for painting and staining, and you can make endless projects by using several different individual parts to make unique and fun new creations! Warning: These are not toys. Not intended for children under the age of 8. Half Ball 1″” 4 pc

10 Plant Life Cycle Lesson Plan Activity Ideas

1 – Print out the color or b/w sequencing squares below twice to make a matching game.

2 – Plant seeds in newspaper seedling pots.

3 – Have children collect seeds from everyday foods to bring into the classroom for identification.

4 – Grow a Chia Pet. For added fun use seeds like alfalfa or onion so that the resulting sprouts are edible!

5 – Sprout an avocado seed.

6 – Craft Jr has several pages dedicated to nature crafts, including beach crafts, stick crafts and leaf crafts.

7 – Plant a tree in the school yard, local park, or other organization.

8 – Our school does their planting activities early in the year, and then lets the children take their full grown plants home as a Mother’s Day gift in May.

9 – Take a field trip to a local greenhouse, or ask your local greenhouse if they would be willing to send in a person to do a presentation for the school. Stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s already have classroom/scouting activities in place, too.

10 – Download and print this plant cell diagram over on Classroom Jr.!

Plant Life Worksheets

How Do Plants Grow Color Sequence

How Do Plants Grow Sequence Coloring Page

How Do Plants Grow Color Sequence Worksheet

How Do Plants Grow Word Search

Plant Life Quizzes on Classroom Jr.

How Do Plants Grow Printable Mini Book – For Young Children

Use this mini book for younger children who are able to color the pictures, cut apart the pages, and assemble them into a book. Staple the pages together, or punch holes and tie string as a book binding.

How Do Plants Grow Mini Book pg 1-2

How Do Plants Grow Mini Book pg 3-4

How Do Plants Grow Mini Book pg 5-6

How Do Plants Grow Mini Book pg 7-8

Blank How Do Plants Grow Printable Mini Book – For Older Kids

Use this mini book for older children who have the skills to construct their own sentences. They can describe what is in the pictures and use the vocabulary words from the word search above.

How Do Plants Grow Blank Book pg 1-2

How Do Plants Grow Blank Book pg 3-4

How Do Plants Grow Blank Book pg 5-6

How Do Plants Grow Blank Book pg 7-8

Check out all of our spring activities, Earth Day activities and other garden crafts while you are here!

Admittedly I’m more interested in garden crafts than I am with gardening… but I might plant something this year just so I can use these plant markers! I have to say I think this is one of my favorite projects I’ve ever come up with!

I sat today and tried to think of every vegetable that I might possibly plant in my garden, and drew them up for this craft pattern download. I believe I only scratched the surface of what vegetables are actually out there though:

Tomatoes, carrots, pumpkins, broccoli, potatoes, corn, lettuce, peas, onions, orange peppers, green peppers, cucumbers, beets (or radishes, I suppose), watermelon, beans, red peppers, yellow peppers and squash.

Download the printable plant marker artwork

So suffice it to say that if you see some fruits or vegetables that I’ve missed, please leave them in a comment and I’ll create a plant markers garden craft “version 2.0″ in the next few days.

What you Need to Make these Plant Markers Garden Craft

Plant Markers Materials

• Download and print the fruit and vegetable illustrations on a color printer
  (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader)
• Sticks from your yard, cut to about 6″ – 8″ inches tall
• Raffia
• Rubber cement or glass glue
• Small clear glass aquarium pebbles, the approximately 3/4 inch size. As tempting as it is, avoid the larger glass pebbles that are over an inch in diameter. They seem like they will work, but the way they are made, they always have wrinkles in the glass on the flat part, which makes it very hard to see the pictures beneath the glass

How to Make these Plant Markers Garden Craft

Glue the paper between the glass pebbles

Carefully cut out the circles of the plant markers you plan on using. I used a 3/4″ hole punch at first, but it was a little too big and I had to trim them down.

When I made these recently I used rubber cement, but in the past I have used this awesome glass glue called Eclectic Adhesive E6000 that I think actually worked better. It’s thicker and left less bubbles between the paper and the glass, and is totally weather proof. Glue the paper veggie circles between two glass pebbles and let dry.

Attach the glued pebbles to the top of the sticks

If you’re using that E6000 glue, you can use it for this next step, too. Otherwise grab a hot glue gun, and attach the two glued together pebbles to the top of the stick. If you’re really picky about what works best, I would use the E6000 for the first step and the glue gun for this step and the next one.

Wrap the raffia around the base

After the glue is dry/cooled off, wrap a 6″ – 8″ inch piece of raffia over the glued area to cover it up. Wrap it in a few layers so that the top layers hold the starting end in place. Then grab that glue gun again and put a dab of it on the back side of the raffia to secure the finishing end in place. This may sound tricky or hard, but it isn’t. It’s super-easy. Trim the ends of the raffia that are still sticking out.

Waterproof the crevice between the pebbles

Now you’re almost done, but you still have paper in between two pebbles that could possibly get wet when it rains. So you need to put a thin layer of glue in the crevice between the two pebbles to seal out the water. You can do this with the rubber cement brush (or more easily with a smaller pain brush), or use your fingers to spread the E6000 glue. It’s ok if it turns out just a little sloppy, because it’s really hard to see anyway.

Now comes the hard part – you can’t use them until you plant your garden!

Easy Easter Tree Craft

I absolutely love Easter trees. They are so simple and elegant, yet somehow can dress up an adult room even when the kids make them. This easy Easter tree is made with beads and feather animals from my local dollar store. I spent a grand total of $3 to put it together.

What you Need to Make this Easy Easter Tree Craft

• A toilet paper roll
• A piece of origami paper or wrapping paper, cut to fit around the toilet paper roll
• Green tissue paper
• Play Dough, or something else to weight the bottom of the ‘vase’
• Sticks from your yard
• Curling ribbon
• Package of assorted wooden beads (use whatever beads you want, but make sure the holes in the beads are lard enough to fit onto the ends of the branches). The beads on this tree came from one coordinated package of beads
• Fake feather bird (I got  a package of two at the dollar store) (plus a paper clip if the one you buy doesn’t have a wire attached to it)
• Feather butterfly (came in a package of three at the dollar store)
• Glue
• Wire cutters

How to Make this Easy Easter Tree Craft

Stabilize the branches and vase

First you need to ensure the tree won’t fall over once you make it. Start by putting some play dough in the bottom of the toilet paper roll, and stick the branches into it. Support the branches on the sides with extra tissue paper, newspaper, or other scrap paper. If you don’t have play dough around, you can improvise. I used an upside down single-serve container of salad dressing. You could also use a Crystal Light tub for the base, but it’s not really heavy enough to stabilize the project, so you would need to put something else inside of it to give it a little weight.

Add Tissue Paper Grass

Next, wrap the origami or wrapping paper around the toilet paper roll, cut it to size and glue it into place. Then camoflauge the inside of the craft with tissue paper ‘grass’. Cut little squares of green tissue paper around 2″ square and twist them in the center (we called these ‘ghosties’ when we made homecoming floats in high school!). Tuck the ghosties into the top of the toilet paper roll until you can’t see the rest of the stuff inside of it.

Add your feather bird

The birds I bought at the dollar store had a little wire sticking out of the bottom, which made it super-easy to simply wrap the wire around one of the branches. You may need wire cutters to clip off the excess. If your bird doesn’t have a wire attached, unbend a paper clip and stick it into the styrofoam bird, and then wrap the other end around the branch. Do the same with the feather butterfly (I hot glued this on, because everything in life is easier with a hot glue gun around).

Glue the Beads onto the Branches

Now we get to decorate the tree! First glue the small round beads onto the ends of the branches. Space them out randomly and you don’t need to add them to every single branch. I used a hot glue gun because they are so easy, but little kids can do this with regular glue too. Just add a large-ish drop of glue to the end of the stick and pop on your bead.

Make mini Easter ornaments

Lastly, put together your mini Easter ornaments. I tied the top with a loop and bow, then slipped a small pink bead onto the bottom and slid it up to the middle of the ribbon. You may have to fold the ribbon in half to get it to fit into the bead hole.  Then I put a dot of glue into the bead hole of the larger yellow beads and simply stuck the ribbon end in. I actually think that because the wooden beads were a little rough on the inside, I probably didn’t even need to glue them, as it would have stayed on the end without it. I made only three of them, which seemed more than enough to keep this Easter tree simple yet pretty.

Easy Easter Tree Craft

Hang your mini ornaments and enjoy!