Whether you potter around with your plants, have a BBQ with your friends or make daisy chains with your kids. Most of us spend a lot of time in our gardens all year round but summer has it’s own hazy specialness to it.
The rest of the year. We’re all busy with our jobs, school, 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 fun 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 with your kids.
So, get out and spend some time together and see where your imagination takes you.
Before we begin though. I wanna let you know I have included some Affiliate links in this post to help you find the best materials for each craft.
I only recommend products that I use and LOVE and ones that I have found to be useful or superior to others.
If you decide to buy any of these products I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
So let’s get to it.
12 Amazing Garden Crafts For Kids
1. Sun Catcher Garden Craft
We have tried various crafts over the last 11 years, but I can honestly say this one is our favourites. You can buy Pony beads for this crafts here.
The kids spent a few hours lazing around the garden making their designs with a big box of pony beads and a cocktail stick but you can make this craft as quick as you like -you could just toss the beads in the dish if you’re not looking for a specific design, but it’s a great way to while away the hours getting your design just right.
We decided to make one each and I filled a fairy cake tray with extra beads to make smaller circles for underneath.
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.
2. Wildflower Seed Bomb Craft
Do you wish you could get the kids gardening but no idea how to start?
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
3. Pet Rock Painting.
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.
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.
We always have stacks of rocks on hand from various beaches we visit and our caravan is very close to a beautiful river bed where the children love to look for pretty stones.
They skim the flat ones, and have competitions like ‘who can find the weirdest shaped river rocks’ etc.
They’ve painted rocks , built them into huge sculptures, used them as targets and so much more.
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.
4. Tic Tac Toe
You don’t have to spend a lot of money on plastic toys that never get played with but ruin the planet. Why not try making your own?
In this craft we found a flat stone that we used with a hot glue gun to make the lines for our game board on the stone.
Next, we painted 10 stones with opposite colours on them as game pieces. There you go.
This Tic Tac Toe is a game that you can play indoors or leave outside as a garden game, ready and waiting for the next match.
The rules for this game if you’ve never played it before…
Each player must take turns to place a stone on the 3×3 grid. The object is to be the 1st player to get 3 in a row.
5. Bottle Top Art
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 decided 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. This time we chose a butterfly. What do you think??
6. Stepping Stones
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.
7. Pressed Flowers
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.
8. Cross Stitch Fence Panel
Source: Mymodernmet.com
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.
This idea from kidscraftroom.com is really cute. We are making a whole set of these to line our path with for our end of Summer party. Each year we have a party before the kids go back to school so we’re going to decorate the garden with these cute little cans. We will reuse them for Halloween and Christmas too.
10. Tin Can Flowerpots
This is an easy craft. And best of all it’s reuseable. The can in the picture are ones we made 5 years ago. They’ve got a lovely rusted colour that looks FAB.
Simply take a tin can one with a ring pull top is ideal.
Take off the top ring pull part and recycle
Turn the tin upside down and very carefully using a long nail and a hammer. Make some holes in the base
Now, take a tin opener, carefully open the base and let the loose bottom now slide inside the can. It wont fall out of the bottom because on the ring pull top is slightly smaller.
There you have it. Just fill with soil and pop in your favourite plant.
We used violas but ivy, marigolds, or any other small plant will do. The tin containers do dry out quickly so make sure you check on them regularly.
11. Clay Pot People.
We LOVEthis idea from Thewhoot, they have great instructions here too. We are making out own flowerpot people to decorate our garden. These are so much cuter than a garden gnome but double the fun as we can make our own. The kids want to make minion ones. What would you make??
12. Bottle Butterflies
Easy craft but so effective in the kids garden as the bottle butterflies flap their wings when the wind blows. You could try bees, dragonflies or even birds. Add beads or glitter too. Find out how at fabartdiy.com.
We are making lots of these to hang in our tree and to pop on garden stakes to ‘float’ about the flowers. Butterflies, Bugs and Bees.
So there you are, some amazing crafts to keep the kids amused in the garden this Summer. Which one are you gonna try? Remember to send us a picture of your activities!!
Some really great ideas for summer!
SO many great ideas! I am totally intrigued with the bottle cap idea. Pinned.
Im so glad you found them helpful. The bottle cap idea is great fun. Here’s another post to check out where we made a full butterfly out of bottle caps. http://growinghealthykids.co.uk/fantastic-plastic-bottle-top-idea-for-your-garden/ id love to know if you try it out. X