Below, some of the best craft bloggers and experts on Instagram share 11 inspired fall craft ideas. From pumpkins, apples, and ghosts to hedgehogs and pine cones, you are sure to find a craft your child will adore.
DYI Fall Leaf Garland
“My daughter loves to paint, and I love decorating for fall, so this was a great way to combine the two,” explains Chloe Duffy, mother of two and the crafter behind Instagram’s chloe_duffy3. She created this gorgeous fall leaf garland craft. This fun-to-make project also doubles as a special seasonal decoration. Just about any child can participate in this project—just increase the parental involvement with younger kids. While the end result looks beautiful and intricate, it’s actually quite simple to make. “With just some painted paper, scissors, and strategic folds, you can transform your child’s art into décor,” says Duffy, who made hers in under 30 minutes.
Instructions
Follow these steps to make your own fall leaf garland:
Feathered Pinecone Turkeys
These quirky, personality-filled turkey pinecones are a blast for kids to make. Los Angeles-based crafting guru and a mother of 4 boys Kelly Ray Robson designed this project for children ages 5 and up. Kids will enjoy how a few simple supplies can be put together to create such lively creatures. Plus, you can go with the kids on a walk to find some pinecones outside—or source them at your local craft store. “I’m a huge fan of holiday table settings and thought these little turkeys would be great as place card holders or even built into a centerpiece,” says Robson, who shifted her blog k.raycollective toward crafting once the coronavirus pandemic took hold. “Crafts are a way I can share the things I love to do with my boys along with helping develop their creativity.” Additionally, this project gives kids the chance to showcase their work, something kids always get very excited about.
Instructions
In five simple steps, you go from pinecone to turkey:
Fall Mushroom
Katrina and Stephanie of Crafty Moms, who developed this mushroom craft, use their surroundings (and upcycling items in their homes) to inspire their projects. This unique craft, which is geared towards kids age 2 to 6, is also a fun sensory activity. Cut-in-half cotton swabs double as the mushroom’s scales that kids can put in and out of the mushroom cap. “We love making activities that encourage kids to learn and practice a skill by playing and having fun at the same time,” says the duo. This craft develops both fine motor skills (inserting the cotton swabs) and math skills (counting the cotton swabs) as well as the fun of creating the mushroom. “We put clear tape on the stalk to make it erasable to be able to write numbers for kids to count the [cotton swabs] while inserting them on the cap.”
Instructions
Use these instructions to make your own fall mushroom:
3D Paper Pumpkin Craft
“These 3D pumpkins are a great way to both decorate and display a festive craft made by the kids and/or the family,” says Alyssa DiPietropolo, a mother of two from New Jersey who started her love.always_alyssa feed on Instagram in July 2021. Toddlers will love this craft because they can help by passing the pieces to their caregiver while they watch as the pumpkin takes shape. Additionally, it can be done more independently by older kids. This is a great one for a mixed age group. “There is nothing better than seeing your child so proud of something that they created or helped to create,” says DiPietropolo, who aims to share simple but fun to do crafts that can be used as keepsakes. “Crafts allow you to create a tangible family memory that you can hold onto for years.”
Instructions
Follow these steps to make your own 3D pumpkin:
Fall Bean Mosaic
“There are so many things to love about fall,” says Eliza Spingos, mother of three, the mind behind Learn Craft Grow, and the crafter behind this apple-themed bean mosaic project. “Autumn is a special season for our family and we always make sure to visit the orchard to gather apples,” says Spingos. Like this one, many of her apple craft ideas are inspired by this annual family tradition. Kids will enjoy the tactile experience of gluing down the beans on the cardboard background. Kids also tend to love just about anything involving glue. Designed for ages 2 to 10, this project only has a few steps but offers lots of fun along the way. Little kids will enjoy painting on the glue and can hand you the beans to place down. Older kids, from 5 on up, can do the project independently.
Instructions
These simple directions take you from a pile of beans to an apple:
Pinecone Halloween Friends
Kylee Bailey of create.share.play took Halloween crafting to a new level with these adorable “costumed” pinecone friends. “Fall is my favorite season as that crisp air comes in and fall colors explode, making everything so gorgeous and cozy. I love taking that aspect from nature and its fall process into our crafting and learning,” says Bailey. Kids of all ages will have fun turning pinecones into creatures dressed in their favorite Halloween costumes. Plus, this craft involves painting, googly eyes, and glue—what is not to love? Even better, the project only takes a few easy steps and you end up with inspired Halloween decorations.
Instructions
Try your hand at creating these pinecone Halloween friends:
Easy Autumn Leaf Rubbing Activity
“The thing I enjoy the most about crafts for kids is watching the ‘ah-ha’ moment they have when they learn something new and when they achieve or create something they are proud of,” says Brenda Robledo of Riverside, California, who is the brains behind crafts_and_adventures on Instagram. This craft combines the activities of selecting leaves, placing them on paper, and choosing colors with the hands-on work of leaf rubbing. Kids of all ages can successfully enjoy this project. Make this craft into an outing by taking kids outside to collect the leaves to use. Challenge them to find leaves in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes.
Instructions
Use these steps:
Popsicle Stick Pumpkins
“This activity is designed to engage kiddos in a festive craft that also helps them to work on valuable fine motor, bilateral coordination, visual perception, eye-hand coordination, and sequencing skills,” says Regina Allen, a pediatric certified occupational therapy (OT) assistant and craft blogger. Allen’s COTA Life Instagram and blog aims to increase OT awareness and help other professionals and parents with craft and activity ideas to support the children in their lives. “I enjoy creating crafts and other activities that motivate children to engage while incorporating festive and seasonal themes into the craft.” Here, multiple skills—weaving, gluing, coloring (or painting), and building—are combined into one winningly complex project. This craft is intended for kids around fourth grade and up, but can also be done by younger kids with more parental support. Kids will enjoy personalizing their pumpkins, as well as the sensory experience of twisting and interlacing the pipe cleaners and paper.
Instructions
Follow these steps to create your own unique popsicle stick pumpkin:
Autumn Hedgehog
“The giant Sycamore leaves in our yard inspired me to put this craft together for my young kids,” says Lindsay Smith of Little School of Smith’s, who has four children aged 7 and younger. “I love doing fall crafts with kids based on how the seasons are changing. It is a great hands-on way for them to explore and learn.” In this craft, kids get to select leaves and then layer them in order to create a cute hedgehog. Older kids can take the project up a notch by drawing an environment on the page for their hedgie to live in.
Instructions
Make your own leaf hedgehog by using these directions:
Colorful Fall Trees
“Some of my favorite crafts involve items from nature (sticks, leaves, etc.) because it forces us to get outside and go for a scavenger hunt as part of the process,” says Meghan McCloskey, a mom of three in Portland, Oregon, who has been crafting online as Craft + Boogie since 2017. “I love weaving the colors of nature into the projects I create.” This craft can be completely individualized to suit each artist’s sensibility. So, let the trees, branches, and colors outside (or in your child’s imagination) inspire you. This project is ideal for kids aged 2 on up—and adults will undoubtedly have a blast making their own tree, too.
Instructions
Follow these steps to make your own tree:
Pumpkin Arrow Trucks
“I love making crafts with templates,” says Jeannie Irwin, a mother of three from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “Stapling templates to construction paper and making all kinds of animals, vehicles, even food crafts is so much fun.” Plus, Irwin, who started her Crafting Jeannie blog in early 2020, loves that when you use templates you don’t have to be creative or an amazing artist. “Using a template guarantees the base craft will come out like it is supposed to, every single time!” This craft, which is intended for kids aged 4 to 7, also has the bonus of becoming a fun activity, as kids are sure to love putting the pumpkins in and out of the pocket in the truck bed. Kids can also individualize their craft by making other items to go into the truck, such as hearts, flowers, farm animals, or hay bales.
Instructions
Use these directions to make your own pumpkin arrow truck:
