• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Home Made Modern

| DIY - Cooking - Crafting | Blog

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Home Made Style
    • Budget Decorating
    • Crafts
      • Kid Crafts & Activities
      • Knockoffs
    • DIY
      • Furniture Facelifts
    • Easy Entertaining
    • Gift Giving
    • Home Made Holidays
      • Christmas
      • Fall
      • Halloween
      • July Fourth
      • Spring & Easter
      • Summer
      • Thanksgiving
      • Valentine’s day
      • Winter
    • Home Organization
    • Outdoor Projects
    • Shortcuts & Tips
  • Recipes
    • Baking and Desserts
    • Kid-Friendly Recipes
    • Quick and Easy Cooking
  • Life at Our House
    • Blogging Life
    • Family
    • Home Updates
    • Motherhood
  • Retail Therapy
    • Tightwad Tuesday
  • Contact Me

Nature Collection Can & Leaf Rubbings

November 5, 2009 by Valerie Ott 1 Comment

Our daughter loves to collect rocks, leaves, fallen acorns and pinecones on our walks. The result is a stroller filled with a variety of items, none of which belong there. But to Liv, they are treasures so of course I can’t throw them away (at least not when she’s looking). To give her a special place for her collection, we made a nature collection can. I must admit, I totally ripped off this idea from a variety of sources, namely Plum Pudding, but here’s our version. It’s a great project for fall because of all the pretty leaves and nuts on the ground. (See the retro-activity at the bottom of this post.) AND it’s a wonderful way for you to express some of your own creativity, as well as get out into the fresh air with your child. Take your camera and snap some pictures while you’re at it!

Nature Collection Can
(no nap rating necessary because you can make this with your toddler!)

Tools & Materials

  • One empty can of some sort. We used a formula can. (Or recycle several formula cans to make more of these for other kids)
  • Decorative paper
  • Clip art images
  • Color printer
  • Scissors
  • Ribbon
  • Decoupage medium
  • Foam brush
  • Newspaper

Steps

  1. Clean out the formula can and remove its label.
  2. Use the label you just removed as a template for the covering. Trace the shape onto the decorative paper, then cut out.
  3. Working on a newspaper-covered surface, cover the surface of the can with decoupage medium and adhere the decorative paper to completely cover the sides of the can.
  4. Find some copyright-free clip art images on the internet or use the ones provided by Microsoft Word. Print them out in color. We used images of butterflies, bugs, nuts, leaves and clouds.
  5. Cut the images out and adhere them randomly to the can.
  6. Cover the entire surface of the can again with decoupage medium. Let dry completely.
  7. Poke two holes in the can on opposite sides, about 1″ from the top.
  8. To make a handle, thread ribbon through the holes and knot each end so it won’t come back through. I just used some leftover ribbon I had from another project, but made sure it was long enough for Liv to carry over her shoulder. And here she is with it!

Make sure to leave the lid off, though, if your son or daughter puts anything damp in the can. We collected some leaves and buckeyes that were a bit wet one day, put the lid on, and forgot about it for a few days. When we opened it up…mold!

Retro-Activity:
It’s so fun to rediscover activities I used to delight in as a kid. Remember leaf rubbings? Liv thought it was nothing short of magical watching the leaf patterns emerge as we rubbed our crayons over the page. So, make sure you collect lots of beautiful leaves on your nature walk!

Leaf Rubbings
(no nap rating)

Tools & Materials

  • blank white paper
  • crayons
  • leaves that are still pliable (the dead and crunchy ones don’t work!)

Steps

  1. Sandwich a leaf vein-side up between 2 sheets of paper.
  2. Remove the paper wrapping from some crayons–let your child select the colors!
  3. Rub the crayon length-wise over the paper until the shape and texture of the leaf underneath shows up.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Related

Filed Under: Crafts, Home Made Style, Kid Crafts & Activities

Previous Post: « Caramel Apple Cupcakes
Next Post: Christmas Cookie Sampler »

Reader Interactions

Share

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Explore

Comments

  1. Alicia says

    November 23, 2009 at 12:42 pm

    Val,
    LOVE the new look to your blog! That's a huge step in the right direction for increasing readership/notice-ability. Did you design the header yourself? It's gorgeous! And you MUST teach me how to take better photos.

    Of course you know I also dig this project as we've done it several times now. Kiddos are up, must run.
    Alcia

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Looking for Something?

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Reader Favorites







Footer

Connect With Me

Val is the Home Accessories Expert for About.com and the author of Home Made Modern. Learn More…

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
soap dish
pretzel rods for Valentine's Day class treat
word of the year 2017
yarn pom-pom wreath
Find thousands of craft supplies online!

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

HMM_Logo

I'm super-happy you're here!

Sign up to be inspired.

Guys, I have too many ideas and not enough time to blog about them.  Sign up and I'll send you exclusive and FREE ideas for making your house a home.

Thank You!
Something went wrong!
Privacy policy

We respect your privacy and will never share your information