Autumn Spice Painting and Flower Prints

 We did a really fun craft the other day- painting with spices!

Spice paints are super easy to make- just mix about a teaspoon of spice with some water and begin painting!

Nutmeg, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, paprika and cloves are the spices we used, but you could experiment with just about anything!

We painted on a fall leaf coloring page, but you could also paint freehand or whatever you want!

Another fun craft we did was Leaf and Flower Printing.

This was Rowan's idea :)

We collected flowers and leaves from the garden and laid them out on one half of the paper.

Next, you fold the paper in half and start pounding with a hammer!

You may get hungry, so it's important to have some raisins to snack on just in case ;)

The patterns and colors will transfer to both sides of the paper and you will have a symmetrical design!

These would make nice gifts!

Happy Learning!

~Beth

Pumpkin Decorating

 The other day Rosie came home from the store with one of those little decorated pumpkins. She fell in love with its little pink and green eyes and its sparkly witchy hat. She decided she wanted to make one out of the white pumpkin we got at the farm stand.

It was pretty easy, really. First she colored a face on the pumpkin. It's always more fun to do crafts outside if you can.

 

While Rosie was coloring she had me cut a witch's hat out of a paper plate. I cut out a circle, then made a cut towards the center and folded and stapled it to make a cone. After that we colored it pink.

After that it was time to glue on the hat. I had to trim the stem a little to make it fit. Using Elmer's glue, we glued on the hat, with a tuft of pom pom tassels stuck underneath for the hair.

Trying on the hat

And there we had it- another witchy pumpkin!

Are you going to decorate pumpkins this fall too?

Happy Learning!

~Beth

Basket Weaving With Rowan

 

Both Rowan and Fynn have been very curious about ancient times and primitive crafts lately ~ everything from the mid to early 1900's, back to medieval times, all the way back to what they call "BCers" times.

Rowan especially has always loved domestic arts such as weaving, so basket making was next on his list. He has already woven several wool rugs and tapestries!

Here is a wool rug he is working on now, with yarn he hand spun! I will write another post on his wool weavings sometime in the future, hopefully ;)

We used day lily and iris leaves for our baskets because we already had them in the yard, and they need to be cut down soon for winter anyway. Here is a pic of Rosie's basket of leaves after she pulled them all out and ripped them up. Her way of getting in on the fun :)

The first time Rowan made his basket, he pinned it together with thumbtacks. But then a little person came along and pulled it apart :( so he made it again using staples!

I thought to try making a basket like the one I made in fourth grade, from strips of palm fronds, when we were studying the California Indians. I haven't made any baskets since.

I also thought it would be fun to make a little bracelet!

We hope to take a wagon ride out to the "Gazelle Field" soon to get some cattails, willows, and grasses to make more fun baskets!

Happy Learning!

~Beth

It's Already Fall?? Pumpkin Art!

 Fall just sort of hit us this year.

Bam! Where did summer go?

The boys wasted no time getting into pumpkin season because they LOVE pumpkins!

Out came the paint to capture the colorful pumpkins.

I loved the expressionism in Fynn's pumpkin sitting by a tree.

Rosie pretended to paint :)

And she really painted too! :0

Rowan used a circle stamp for the yellow leaves.

Rowan made one to sell and one to keep. This one is to sell! If you like it its $25.00.

Happy Fall!

And Happy Learning!