Whether you are bringing indoors evergreen boughs, a whole tree, or just a smaller reminder of the turning of the seasons, decorating with nature helps your child to connect with nature and the cycle of life, death, and new life.
This year, I adapted a velvet acorns project I found in a surprise issue of Better Homes and Gardens in my mail (which also brings up the question, why am I receiving a magazine I didn’t subscribe to?).
Collect Acorn Caps. I sent my son out to find acorn caps, and they only kind he could find were a bit rough, but we use what we find.
Wash the Caps. Before you use them for crafts, rinse the caps thoroughly then leave them to dry for a day.
Freeze the Caps. Before you use natural materials for crafts that you plan to keep indoors, you might want to make sure that you aren’t bringing in any small creatures with them. I freeze sticks, corn, acorn caps, or anything else that is going into crafts. Be sure they are completely dry before you freeze them, so they won’t crack, then leave them to warm up to room temperature before you start your project.
Fabric Circles. I have a lot of colorful, organic cotton fabric scraps, so I gathered a nice rainbow and cut 2 ½” circles. You can prepare the circles by making a loose basting stitch around the edge. If you have fast-drying glue, consider this optional.
Stuffing. If you have scraps left over from cutting your circles, bunch them up into a ball about the size of a cotton ball and hold inside one of the cut circles.
Glue. Put plenty of glue inside an acorn cap to hold the gathered fabric.
Gather. Pull the edges of your circle in around your ball of scraps, and hold the gathered edge firmly inside the glue in the cap until the fabric doesn’t try to pop back out.
Repeat. I spent about 20 minutes total cleaning acorn caps and creating a dozen fabric acorns.
Our colorful acorns are going with us to Granny’s house, where we will be celebrating the holidays this year.
