Cork and Button Apple Tree Process Art

This cork and button apple tree process art is perfect for preschoolers or kindergartners this fall. It is an easy activity that requires very little prep. 

We love process art, and we love all things fall around here! Harper and I have been hoarding fall decor since we saw the first adorable decorative pumpkin in stores back in July. Rolf is not so quick to jump seasons, but on the first of September, he said "Finally! It is September. Now we can buy all the pumpkins we want without comment." HA! 

Related: Apple Tree Window Clings

Harper and I felt like painting and wanted to start on some fridge decorations for the season. We came up with these adorable cork and button apple trees. They are so worthy of displaying! Plus, they are easy to make!

 

Supplies Needed: 

Paint in Brown and Green

A Wine Cork

A Paper Plate

White Paper

Buttons

Glue

Directions:

Pour a quarter sized drop of both the brown and the green paint onto a paper plate.

Offer your child the cork.

Encourage your child to first stamp the trunk of the tree with the cork.

Then ask your child to give the tree leaves with the green paint.

Allow to dry for about an hour in a warm, sunny place.

When the paint has dried, offer your child the glue and some buttons. We used yellow for this project to make the kind of apples we like. Feel free to use red, green or even a mix if you like. As you can see below we also made one with red buttons, just because we had so much fun the first time.

Encourage your child to spread out the buttons, pressing them onto dots of glue.

Allow the glue time to dry. Then display! This is perfect for refrigerator art!

Are you looking for more awesome apple art projects for kids? 

Here are some favorites:

Easy Paper Apples

Apple Process Art

Mud Ice Cream

This mud ice cream station is so much fun for kids! It is easy to set up and is the perfect use for those leftover ice cream cones from summer, while serving up a bunch of good old fashioned fun!

I am always looking for great ways to keep my kids playing without turning to their video games.This mud ice cream activity kept them entertained with dramatic play all day. They naturally got filthy dirty which is half the fun! If you do this with your kids, opt for old clothes and shoes and do it outside!

Supplies:

Ice cream cone

Sprinkles

Old dishes like a bowl and spoons to scoop with

Mud

Directions:

Fill up a bowl with mud.

Offer your children spoons and scoops , sprinkles and a few ice cream cones.

You might like to add a few old bowls to the mix for variety.

Allow your child to scoop mud into the cones and dishes and add a generous amount of sprinkles!

Both of my kids were enthralled with this idea. It might have been one of the best activities I have ever set up for them. They laughed, they mixed up mud, served it to each other and got so incredibly dirty. It was wonderful fun!

Both kids agreed that this would be fun to try with snow too! Should we be so lucky this winter to have enough snow to play with!

When playtime is over, simply spray the tools your kids used to play with the hose, and toss the ice cream cones! I love easy clean up activities! If the weather is warm enough, your kids might enjoy a splash in the sprinkler, or the garden hose to clean off a little bit before going inside.

You can find more kids activities here

Play Doh Fine Motor Rainbows

Pine Cone Rescue

Design Your Own Play Doh Ornaments

Kids of all ages are sure to love this Design Your Own Play Doh Ornaments project. It is perfect for holiday crafting and turns out so cute everyone will love to display these!

I am crazy for all things play doh, so naturally I had to make something for Christmas from my favorite craft material. These ornaments are so easy! They will have you saying, who knew you could not only draw on play doh but you can bake it too?!

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These easy ornaments give kids a chance to design their own addition to the Christmas tree! Made with basic supplies this is the perfect project to do with the kids for minimal mess this holiday. 

You can make your own white play doh, like in my super soft play dough recipe, just leave the food color out, or to make this activity really easy during a generally already packed holiday season, just buy cans of white play doh.

To make these design your own play doh ornaments you will need
Supplies
white play doh
washable markers
cookie cutters
bakers twine
A pen or stick to poke a hole with

Directions

Roll the play doh out to be about 1/8" thick.

With your cookie cutter of choice cut shapes of doh.

Poke a hole in each ornament so that it can be hung after completion. I used an ink pen to make my holes.

Use washable markers to draw on the designs.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Allow to cool.

Thread bakers twine through the hole and display on your tree.

Find all of my Christmas crafts here
Reader favorites include:
Button Tree Ornaments
Mickey Mouse Jingle Bell Ornaments

Easy Rudolph Ornaments

These easy Rudolph ornaments are fun to make and share this holiday season. These come together with the most basic supplies and are perfect for making with the kids.

I got everything for this project at Dollar Tree. So, you know it is going to be a cheap and easy project that is perfect for the kids!

Supplies

Gold Pipe Cleaner

Clear Bauble

Red Button

Craft Eyes

Brown Paper Bag

Scissors

Glue

Directions

Attach the gold pipe cleaner o the top of the ornament and form Rudolph's antlers.

Have the kids cut or tear the brown bag into bits.

Fill the ornament with bits of the brown bag

Glue the eyes and button nose on the ornament.  Allow it to dry overnight then hang on your tree or share with someone special.

You can find all of my ornament crafts here

Mickey Mouse Jingle Bell Ornaments 

7 Rainbow Crafts to Make with the Kids

Spring is here and that means we have been seeing our share of showers, and rainbows! Let's embrace the weather and savor the beautiful sights to be seen after the storm and make a few cute crafts while we are at it!

These ideas are so cute yet so simple! They are perfect for kids of a variety of ages and are worth bookmarking for those rainy spring days spent indoors with the kids!

I am going to try making the rainbow necklaces sometime this spring, and I think my kids would love to try the layered felt magnets. I can't wait to hear which of these rainbow crafts you want to make with the kids first!

Easy Streamer Rainbows
Layered Felt Rainbow Magnet
Paper Plate Rainbow Craft
Rainbow Mobile
Rainbow Necklaces
Rainbow Jars
DIY Rainbow Bracelet

Find more rainbow  crafts here

Presidents Day Patritoc Art Project

This easy art project is a fun way to engage preschoolers, toddlers and kindergarteners in a patriotic craft for President's Day, Fourth of July or Veteran's Day!

We had a lot of left over heart cut outs from our Valentine's Day crafts and I wanted to use them up, but I also wanted to make a patriotic craft with the kids for President's Day. This heart flag is what we came up with.

This craft is so easy and lovely. My 5 year old made this one, and she did a really great job with it too!
The older your kids are, the more detailed their projects will be. If you are making this with kids a little older than Rolfie and Harp, you could have them cut the correct number of hearts to use in place of stars.

The supplies for this craft are super basic and you probably have just about everything you will need on hand. We used Kwik Stix in blue to paint the blue square, but you could use markers, crayons or just a small section of blue paper.

Supplies

2 sheets of copy paper or white construction paper
2 sheets of red construction paper
Scissors
Glue
Blue paint, markers of crayons

Directions

Create a small blue square on one sheet of copy paper.
Cut 2 sheets worth of red hearts, then glue lines of red hearts on the paper.
Cut small white hearts from the extra sheet of white paper and glue them on in the blue square you made earlier.

Find all of our kids crafts here

6 Snowman Themed Painting Projects for Kids

We didn't get enough snow to make snowmen last year. We waited with crossed fingers until April rolled around, then we gave up, defeated and longing for a day spent rolling big balls of snow around.

This year, if we don't have ample snow in our own backyard for winter fun, we are at least prepared to craft up some snowman fun! I found 6 Snowman Themed Painting Projects for Kids to keep in my reserve of winter fun and I think you are going to like these ideas too!

Handprint Snowman Preschool Craft
Bubble Wrap Snowman Painting
Snowman Winter Art Project
Snowman Sensory Art with Puffy Paint
Footprint Snowman Craft
Easy Puffy Paint Snowman Project

These ideas are simple enough for small children and creative enough to offer your older kids a chance to create and explore new materials.  Which is a win/win! My favorite art supply to introduce to children is Kwik Stix, tempura paint sticks. You can get these through my affiliate link.

Hopefully, we will get the best of both worlds this winter; a chance to whoop it up in the snow and make a ton of snowmen, then come in and warm up with a painting project or two!

If you have a favorite snowman painting project for kids, please leave a comment to share it with us!

You might also like this Paper Cookie Preschool Craft.

Easy Paper Apple Craft

Every day, my little girls says, "Let's make a craft!" I love her enthusiasm and always encourage activities we can do together. On this particular day, we were anxious to get into some fall themed crafts, and we are always super excited to kick off fall with the harvesting of apples!

This craft was so incredibly fun! It was a bit of a challenge for my almost 4 year old, but we worked together to get it right.

You will need:
A square of heavy white paper {Ours was about 6'' x6''
A piece of green, red or yellow construction paper
School Glue
A tiny strip of brown paper for the stem

To begin we made thin strips of green paper that were 4 inches longer than the square of paper
Next we began folding those strips of green paper so we had 2 folded edges per strip
We glued these on the white paper
Working in a circle we kept gluing both sides of the strips on to the square, being careful to not disturb the other strips of paper
At the end, we added a tiny stem to the top.

We liked this apple craft because it was challenging, a good exercise in patience for both Harp and I. It was also really cute when it was finished! This was a fun craft to follow up with apple slices as a snack!

Easy Apple Tree Stained Glass Window

Cute and easy to make, this kids craft adds a pretty touch to any window, just like stained glass!

We love to craft with contact paper, it is so much fun to use in so many projects! But, one of my favorite uses for it is to make 'Stained Glass' or window decals! These are so cute!

With fall being on the way, our thoughts drift towards the apple orchard almost every weekend. We head out for the time together as a family, harvesting fruit, eating fresh donuts and playing outside. In anticipation of the fun fall weekends that are to come, we made these easy as pie Apple Tree Stained Glass projects.

You will need:
one square of transparent contact paper per decoration
assorted colors of tissue paper, we used green and yellow
one strip of brown construction paper

Lay your contact paper sticky side up
Place your brown paper on the sticky paper to form a trunk
Next cut small circles of yellow or red tissue paper for apples
Place the apple cut outs around the tree
Fill in the leaves using green tissue paper
Leave a few sticky places without paper to easily affix to the window for displaying.

Easy Rain Drop Craft

Spring is here and we have been trying to make the best of the rainy days that comes with the season. Harper and I thought a raindrop craft would be the perfect way to spend the last rainy day we had. This was perfect for my 3 year old. Oh, who are we kidding?! I had a lot of fun with it too. I mean, there is glitter involved!

This craft was so easy, yet so engaging!

All you need is:

A pair of scissors

A few sheets of blue paper

glue

glitter

Begin by cutting a drop shape 

Next have your toddler or preschooler liberally apply glue to the paper.

Next, invite the child to shake some glitter on the drop!

And there you have a way to add a little sparkle to any rainy day, regardless of the season!

This was a 5 minute craft, it took very little time to assemble, but it completely engaged my little one! We love easy paper crafts for those hey, let's make a craft moments.

Easy Aquarium Craft for Kids

This easy aquarium craft is perfect for kids of a variety of ages. It gives them a chance to explore their fondness of fish and get creative! Requiring simple supplies, this is sure to be a fun activity kids will flip a fin for!

 This post contains affiliate links. 

My kids love to look at the fish whenever we visit a shop that sells them! I am convinced that between the free cookie at the bakery and a chance to look at the fish the kids look forward the grocery store more than almost anything!

They have been asking if we can get an aquarium, but I hesitate. I am solely responsible for the care of the hamster they begged for last year. Now, don't get me wrong, Hamish, the winter white hamster has brought me a lot of joy, but I am not looking to dive into the world of fish keeping!

To appeal to their interest and buy a little time, in hopes they move on from fish to something else before they talk me into buying a tank we made this incredibly easy fish tank craft! We used two sided tape and contact paper for this project, but you can use construction paper and glue if that is what you have on hand!

Supplies:

A piece of green card stock

A section of contact paper or a piece of blue cardstock 

2  or more colors of construction paper

two sided tape

scissors

googly eyes

Directions:

Cut your contact paper or blue cardstock to resemble a fish bowl.

Cut several fish shapes from your construction paper

Secure the fish inside the fish bowl with two-sided tape

Secure the eyes to the fish using two-sided tape

This was an easy activity for the kids to complete together. They needed a little help with the contact paper but overall did a great job smoothing it out. We proudly displayed this one on the fridge!