Fall, or Autumn, is one of my favorite times of year.
There's something about October and the leaves changing color that makes me feel all homely. I get the itch to make and create with my kids.
I especially love using the beauty of nature around us. It connects us to Mother Earth and the cycles of the land we live in.
Plus, it fuels creativity, is great for connection with your children, and most importantly, tons of fun.
I have three children, who are 5, 10 and 13, and so I try to find crafts that are suitable for all of them.
My three children, aged 13, 10 and 5, crafting together.
Here’s 5 simple and fairly cheap, Autumn activities that we’ve done recently:
Fall Altar
Clay Leaf Bowl
Pumpkin with Dried Pressed Flowers
Clay Ghosts
Toadstall Garland
I’ve included photos and a brief description of all of the crafts we’ve had fun making, below.
Give it a go and let me know how you get on.
Happy Crafting!
Create a Fall Altar
This is one of the simplest things you can do, but to me one of the most connective to nature. All the Autumn decorations you can buy at Target or the Bazar, are based on foraging from nature. Why buy plastic copies when you can use the originals for free?!
Walking in the Woods of the Serralada Litoral near where we live and collecting leaves.
Start by going for a walk, or an adventure, in the woods. Task your children with the game of looking and collecting as many ‘Fall things’ as they can see. It could be fallen leaves, mushrooms (check for safety), acorns, chestnuts, sticks, stones, flowers, grass, pine cones. The list is endless.
The Autumn Altar that is outside our front door.
Decide on a place inside or outside your home that you'd like to turn into an ‘Altar for Autumn’. We have two, one outside my front door and one on the dresser inside.
Gather up your scavenged items and also look around your home to see what you already have that also feels like it sums up this time of year. We found seasonal fruit and vegetables, an old witchy-looking jug and a magic wand.
Have fun with your kids arranging the items in a joyful and decorative way! You can keep changing your altar as the season goes on. Add carved pumpkins as you get closer to Halloween and the crafts you're about to make from the list below.
Crafting in the Woods together. From the Autumn Family Day that I hosted in nature with my friends Aina and Berta.
I also particularly like using clay at this time of year, as there is something so grounding and soothing about working, literally with the earth.
I bought this big pack of Brown Clay form Abacus for 6 euros.
To do this, you'll need to buy some Brown Clay. I bought this giant pack from Abacus in Spain for just 6 euros. It doesn’t need to be Air Dry clay, which makes it much cheaper.
Collect a big leaf. We used Chestnut tree leaves as they are the perfect shape for making a bowl. Ideally a little bit dried out but not too brown that it crunches and breaks when you use it.
Place an A4-size piece of cling-film on top of the surface you are using. Take a tennis-ball-sized shape of clay and roll it out into a flat circle on top of the cling film. Place your leaf on top of the clay and with your rolling pin, roll on the leaf so the lines and veins make an imprint into the clay.
Use a small blunt knife — a butter knife is ideal — and cut round the outside shape of the leaf. You can use the leftovers to create anything you like.
Carefully peel off the leaf, and marvel at the patterns and lines it's left on the clay.
Pick up your piece of clingfilm with the clay leaf on and gently place inside a wide cereal bowl. Push the clay leaf down a little, so the edges of the leaf are curled up at the sides.
Place the leaf in a bowl. In this image the leaf isn’t on the clingfilm, but I’d advise you to place it in the bowl too.
Leave the clay to dry. Takes a good 24-hours.
When it is, remove the cling film and hey presto you have a beautiful leaf bowl.
A finished leaf bowl, thank you Kitty for sharing!
3. Decorate your Pumpkin with Dried Pressed Flowers
It wouldn’t be Fall without a Pumpkin-inspired craft! Here’s another easy activity that’s perfect for all ages.
Choosing our pumpking at El Petit Bane, Premia de Dalt.
Go to your local grocery store, farmers market, or pumpkin field and pick out your favorite pumpkin.
Choosing our pumpkin
Once home, we used white glue and pressed flowers to decorate our pumpkin to make it even more beautiful.
The Pumpkin and the Pressed Flowers that I bought online at Amazon.es for 8 euros.
I bought these pressed flowers online, but you could also press flowers in the summer time and use them in the Autumn for this activity.
Sicking thef flowers onto the Pumpkin with white glue.
Using small paint brushes, delicately paint some glue on the pumpkin and then place your flowers where you want them. Then paint some white glue on top of the flower to secure it in place. The good news is the white glue will turn transparent when dry. Great for any little hands who are generous with the glue when sticking them on!
Pretty summer flowers on the Autumn Harvest.
I think this craft is so pretty. And it’s a great way to honor the harvest of summer flowers alongside the bounty of the Fall fields. A nice alternative to carving pumpkins and the inside flesh stays edible too, so no food has to go to waste.
4. Create Clay Ghosts
My daughter turned 13 in the middle of October. A teenager - wild!
My daughter at her Witch Party
We celebrated with a Witchy Themed Party, with her friends, and one of the activities they did was to make White Clay Ghosts. These are great for placing a small tea light underneath when finished and lighting up as a Halloween decoration.
For this craft, you need to buy some white Air Dry Clay.
You’ll also need:
a rolling pin
a small glass
some cling film
a straw
Place the glass upside down and wrap some cling film around it. Roll out your clay and shape into a circle. Carefully pick up the circle of white clay and place it on top of the upside-down glass. Try to help it into falling into shapes with folds that look like a sheet.
Place the white circle on top of an upside glass, covered with clingfilm and help create folds like a sheet.
Use the straw to poke out three small circles, two eyes, and an open mouth. Allow the clay to dry for several hours. Once dry, remove it from the glass and you have a perfect, spooky ghostie decoration!
A Ghost Halloween Decoration.
5. Make a Toadstall Garland
I adored making this Toadstall Garland with my youngest son and eldest daughter.
My youngest son with our perfectly imperfect Toadstall Garland.
They are so cute, perfectly imperfect, and also the cooking of the oranges made the house smell great! They were a bit fiddly to make, especially adding the wire hoops at the end, but great for my 13-year-old and I to do together.
For this you'll need:
Oranges
White Chalk Pen
Small sticks or Cinnamon Sticks
Thin wire
Glue gun
Scissors or knife
String
Cut your oranges in half, and use the inside for making some yummy fresh juice. Clear out any excess flesh from the inside of the orange. Take the skins of the oranges and place them on a tray in the oven to cook until they are dried out. I cooked them for about 15minutes on about 170 degrees. They smell amazing.
Once cooled, decorate your toadstall heads with white circles, using your chalk pen.
You can decide how many or how big or small you want the circles to be.
Using the glue gun, glue hot glue into the inside of the orange skin and stick the stick or cinnamon, creating the toadstall stalk.
We used white glue as our glue gun wasn’t working, but hot glue would work much better, and be quicker and stronger.
Take the thin wire and create a small loop. Make a small hole in the top of the toadstall with a pair of scissors or a knife, then pass the wire loop through the hole. Use the glue gun again to secure the loop on the inside of the orange skin.
A finished toadstall.
When dry, pass string through all the loops on the toadstalls and create your very own Garland.
Hang it on your Autumn Altar, like this!
Wrap Up
Connecting with nature and the seasons is one of the best ways to give your kids and yourself as sense of awareness of the world around you. It reminds us that we are part of nature, not separate, and that we all need to take care of Mother Earth.
Crafting with your kids gives them your unfocussed, calm, and peaceful attention. The thing they want more than anything is just to spend time with us. It inspires creativity and finds beauty and magic in the world all around us. It’s a gift for us and them to do together.
I hope you have enjoyed these Fall Craft ideas and have fun trying them out with your kids.
Get in touch if you’re interested in the Family Seasonal Circles I lead. We do them for each season, Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Autumn Equinox.
Until next time in Circle,
Love and Blessings
Jo x