Whether it be lazy Sundays reading, having a BBQ with friends around or making daisy chains laying on the grass, we spend a lot of time in the garden all year round but in summer there is a hazy specialness to it.

The kids love spending time hanging out, the rest of the year. We’re all busy with our allotment, days out, woodland walks etc but in the summer, there’s time to hang out and just let life happen.

Occasionally though, the kids look for a craft or something to do, so we have come up with a few crafts we’ve enjoyed over the last few years. Summer is thee best time to give these a go so you can enjoy taking your time and experimenting.

So, get out and spend some time together and see where your imagination takes you.

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So let’s get to it.

We also used the same technique with some metal cookie cutters to make key rings.

These ones we tried to heat on a disposable BBQ but it may have been too hot as the plastic seemed to have filled with tiny bubbles. So we do prefer the oven.

Do you wish you could get the kids gardening but no idea how to start?

Well check out A Beginner’s Guide To Gardening With Kids

 

To get you started off try this craft about making seed bombs. It’s so super easy that even little toddlers can take part.

And even if you don’t have your own garden to plant in, or room for a few pots, don’t worry! This is a super simple craft you can do with the kids to make seed bombs with paper which you can plant ANYWHERE to make your local area a little bit brighter!

You can plant them in any wasted space you like and in a few months have a bounty of wild flowers to brighten up the most unloved areas. Check out how to get started here

Plus you will help the butterflies bees and insects as wildlife need all the help we can give them. Here’s some other seeds bees love

The kids love making pet rocks. We can be at a park, beach or river and the first thing they will ask is can they look for rocks to paint.

They paint them, varnish them then place them around their play area in the garden.

definitely better than an old gnome.

• Paint your rocks with white masonry or acrylic paint.
• Once they are dry, paint them like your favourite animal.
• Again let it dry then use a black permanent market to go over the lines and make your pet really stand out.
• Then, varnish with clear varnish-especially if your pet is going to live outside. (I use this spray varnish.Standing outdoors though and put some newspaper down. I decided to varnish a pebble on out glass outdoor table and completely ruined the shiny glass!)
• Once it’s dry, try adding googly eyes, whiskers even a tail to make a little pet.
• Use a hot glue gun to stick these legs on too.
• We even went so far as to make a little house from a cardboard tube and some wrapping paper.

Find out some other uses for your rocks here.

Also there is a growing trend of Hide and Seek style groups popping up encouraging people to collect and paint rocks and hide them in popular locations for others to find and rehide. If you join your local group you will be able to put the group name on the back of your rock so if someone playing the game finds your rock, the snap a picture of it and put it on the group page.

It’s great fun and the kids are excited to go for a walk where they can find other rocks and hide their own.

This of it like a low-budget Pokemon Go!!

We also used rocks to make the game below. The kids love playing Tic-Tac-Toe in the garden and it is a lovely addition to my outdoor table.

This is a craft we have planned this week. We have been collecting bottle caps for months.  our plan is to use them under our swing set as a play mat. The kids have worn away a patch of grass in the shape of a butterfly so we are going to use the bottle caps to infill the space and protect the remaining grass while adding a colourful artwork to our space.

 We plan to remove a layer of soil so the bottle caps sit at the same level as the ground. Then spread a thin layer of cement over the bare soil and lay out the bottle caps in our chosen design. So keep watch out for a post coming soon detailing how we get on. If any of you have tips please let me know!!

This craft turned out fantastic! We used large cake pans from Aldi to make cement stepping-stones for our garden.

Firstly, we lined the tins with oil, then cling film. I made up a thick mix of cement and water and we shovelled it into the tins. We used a butterfly and a dinosaur.

To make sure there was no bubbles in the tins we used an old stick to mix and move the cement around into all the corners.

Afterwards, we tapped the tin on the ground to ensure there were no bubbles left.

We then left our stones to dry overnight before we removed them from the tins and then we unwrapped them and left them for a second day before we painted them.

Using acrylic paint to paint our design on them worked well as they seem to be lasting really well.

See the rock painting instructions above for more instructions on painting your stones.

We also filled aluminium trays with cement and the kids used beads, shells and buttons to make a design on the step stones. 

We are going to make the best of our garden flowers by pressing some of them and drying them flat so we can make a picture to hang on the wall. This post from greetingsofgrace has great instructions on how to do it.

Last year the kids also made an extra one to laminate and we turned it into a flower place mat the kids could use at mealtimes.

This is another craft at the top of our list. The kids plan on decorating our mesh boundary fence at the allotment with a cross stitch pattern. We’ve collected wool scraps, string in so many different colours and even shredded plastic carrier bags into thin strips to use as thread. Using graph paper, we will plot out the area on graph paper and include elements such as a scarecrow, veggies and some wildlife.

You can buy large square mesh fencing here.Easipet 1″ x 1″ welded wire mesh, 15m or 30m roll in 3 widths (24″ x15m)

9. Tin Can luminaries

10. Tin Can Flowerpots