I always find summer a bit of a tricky time for crafting as both me and the kids just want to go out and enjoy the most of the sunshine but with the start of the autumn months we all seem to settle down and start to want to do some more crafting again and what could be more right for this time of the year than a little autumn tree craft? This craft is good on a number of levels – it’s an excuse to make some popcorn (totally winning), your kids get to paint and create with an unusual crafting product and you can talk about colours and the seasons. Oh, and the popcorn, make sure you make too much, yeah?!
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What You'll Find on This Page
You will need:
Popcorn
Liquid food dye
Sandwich bags
Glue
Scissors
White and brown paper / card
How to make it:
We started by making our own popcorn. You could of course buy the premade stuff but my kids really enjoyed it and it gave us an excuse to eat some popcorn – that’s got to be a good thing to me! I also figured that if my kids had eaten their fill of popcorn before we started then they wouldn’t want to eat the stuff we were crafting with.
I cut the tree trunks out of brown card and together we stuck them them onto the paper. Then the kids put a few handfuls each of popcorn into a sandwich bag and we added some yellow and red food dye and then a bit of green when my son pointed out that all the leaves haven’t changed colour yet! We ran out of red dye otherwise there would have been a bit more of that. I’d really recommend using liquid food dyes rather than the gel stuff as in my experience it cleans up an awful lot easier – we wiped the dye off hands, faces and tablecloth with baby wipes and washing our hands where as the gel has previously left me looking like Lady MacBeth. The kids shook their bags and tried to get the dye on as much of the popcorn as possible. Make sure you don’t put too much dye in the bag or it will be soaking, you can always add more if you need it!
We put glue around the top of the tree to make the shape of the branches and then the kids added their popcorn to make the autumn leaves. My daughter (2) loved dying the popcorn but was a bit tired and has a tendency not to enjoy using glue but my son (5) really enjoyed putting his autumn leaves on to the tree, he was really pleased with the result too!
If your kids enjoyed this craft make sure you check out my new book 30 Halloween Crafts for Kids which is full of fun, achievable and cool ideas!
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Such a brilliantly simple but effective craft idea. My children would probably try and eat their art!x
Love this design; it can be challenging coming up with new ideas. Art and craft is important for child development, allowing them to get creative, experiment and make mistakes and then learn from them. Always make art and crafts supplies accessible for your children. It can also be really fun for them, grow their confidence and keep them entertained for hours!
I really love this – such a great idea and it looks really gorgeous too. Fab.