My three year old started the day off today by waking up his little brother at 7 am because he wanted to go outside and play. My outdoors loving one year old more than happy to wake up and go outside. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time outside today. Since we were outside, I decided it would be fun to do some kids nature art activities.
If you follow along with our activities, you may notice that we do a lot of kids crafts that involve nature and cardboard. I love these activities because they can be done outside, they are easy to set up, and they are great for all ages. Oftentimes when we do crafts similar to this one, we use contact paper. I like to use contact paper because it is mess free. This time, however, I decided to try out glue for our kids nature art instead. I liked how quick and easy it made the set up of this activity. I was able to create it in minutes. The downside to the glue, though, was that by the end of this craft, my one year old had globs of glue all over his hands. My three year old, however, did very well with the glue.
How I Made This Kids Nature Art Activity:
First, I cut pieces of cardboard off of a cardboard box and drew a butterfly on one piece and a dragonfly on another.
I then glued seeds from a tree to the center of the cardboard insects.
Next, I filled the wings with glue and had my boys find different pieces of nature to stick to the glue. I found working on one wing at a time worked well. That way the glue didn’t dry to fast and the mess stayed a bit more contained.
Finally, we set the art out in the sun to dry.
What You Will Need:
Cardboard box, box cutter, sharpie marker, elmer’s glue, nature pieces
Directions:
- Cut pieces of cardboard out of a cardboard box
- Draw insects on the cardboard with a sharpie marker
- Glue nature pieces to the center of the insects
- Fill the insect wings with glue
- Have your child gather nature pieces and stick them to the glue
- Place in the sun to dry
- Enjoy your beautiful kids nature art project
Inspired by: aplayfilledlife
love this activity; great way to spend time outside and craft as well
This butterfly craft activity is so cute, and I will definitely invite my kids to try this. Thank you!
i am absolutely OBSESSED with this! All of it! Your kiddos are so artistic too! We’re homeschooling and trying to integrate a lot of nature art into our curriculum too. I will definitely be referring to this post and your others! Thank you so much!
I couldn’t love this more! We love doing nature art but we always did it with dried leaves on paper in the fall. I like the idea of using cardboard better because it wouldn’t warp from the glue.
What a fun idea! I love this idea and the art all came out wonderfully.
This turned out so cute. I want to do the same type of activity with my little!