Getting Crafty Outdoors, Part 3

Now that we’ve provided for the fairies and the birds of the yard, why don’t we start looking for a way to get nice and dirty with our crafts by getting into your yard itself?

One really fun craft that will provide hours of enjoyment is a sunflower tent. Be sure to pick out some giant sunflowers that will get super tall. Plant your sunflowers in two rows across from each other—about four or five feet apart. As they grow, they will begin to lean toward each other, creating a “tent” that you and your child will love to play in all summer.

For the rest of your garden, you may want to create some really crafty pots and plant markers. You can do this with a multitude of things. Try painting some terra cotta pots, or even gluing on glass or mosaic patterns for a really pretty look. For your markers, use craft sticks or even simply sticks you find in the yard. Draw a picture of the plant or write its name on a piece of paper, and then laminate it with some large clear tape, taking care to tape it over the stick, too. You can even add a bit of twine with some beads attached for some noisemakers on windy days.

Speaking of sounds, how about making a wind chime out of things you find around the yard? Anything that makes noise will work—such as shells, copper tubing, bells, broken glass, rocks… use your imagination. Experiment with tying them with twine or fishing line at various lengths from a sturdy, thick stick or dowel rod until they create a sound you like, and then hang the stick up (be sure to hang both sides). You can also decorate it with flowers, leaves and other natural elements you may find.

Another fun activity to do—especially if you have a little one still developing his or her fine motor skills—is to “paint” with items like grass, dandelions and other bright colors by simply pressing down on paper with them. Your child will be amazed about the color they “make” from the plants.

Rocks are also fun to paint. One of our favorite ways to do this—although you can use regular paint if you like—is to put a bunch of rocks on a baking sheet and place the sheet on our fire pit. (An adult should always do this step!) We take it off with oven mitts and then carefully color over the hot rocks with our broken crayons, creating some really awesome colors and patterns as the crayons melt.