Nature Archives - Rhubarb and Wren

Conker Creatures

One of our favourite autumn activities is making conker creatures. Like most families, we absolutely love collecting conkers (or horse chestnuts) in the autumn. There’s something so tactile about those smooth, shiny shells that’s just irresistible. A conker hunt means the thrill of finding a shiny conker hiding under crinkly leaves, or revealing hidden treasure by winkling them out from a spiky green casing. Just irresistible!

It takes the kids no time at all to amass a great big pile of them and, as they last for ages, they make a great material for some lovely autumn crafts. We’ve come up with lots of ideas on how to use them, and one activity we often do, is creating these cute Conker Creatures.

A conker creature made with twigs and feathers. — *A friendly conker creature!*

DIY Twig Letters

Whether you want them for ornaments or to use in a party banner, making DIY twig letters is a wonderfully easy craft to do. Here at Rhubarb and Wren, we’ve been making them for forest school parties, seasonal events, and even as individual letter ornaments to hang on the Christmas tree and decorate presents!

Want to make some too? Read on to find out how!

How to make twig letters by Rhubarb and Wren — *Making these wool wrapped twig letters is easy, and you can use them for a whole host of things.*

DIY Conker Eyeballs!

Quick and easy autumn craft that’s perfect for Halloween.

These DIY conker eyeballs are a great way to use up those slowly-wrinkling conkers that the kids collect in the autumn.

A simple and fun autumn craft, it’s easy enough for preschoolers to do and gruesomely creative enough for big kids to enjoy too, which makes it a marvellous Halloween activity for siblings.

So whether they want to make zombie eyeballs or monster eyes, read on to get our top tips and tricks for this Halloween!

DIY conker eyeballs - perfect for an easy Halloween craft! — *Use up their old conkers to make these spooky Halloween eyeballs with your kids!*

How to Make a Giant Bubble Wand

A DIY ‘Tri-String’ Giant Bubble Wand

Making a giant bubble wand is the easiest thing in the world, and all you really need are a few sticks and some string!

These kid-made tri-string wands make the biggest bubbles I’ve ever seen – the kids won’t be able to resist playing with these all day long…

Read on to find out how they can make their very own giant bubble wands, with our totally home-made and plastic-free tutorial!

child making giant bubbles with tri-string giant bubble wand — *Making giant bubbles is child’s play with our diy giant bubble wands!*

How to make a magical twig ball lantern

DIY twig Ball Lantern

Whether you love fairytale multicolour twinkles or a soft, golden firefly glow, a twig ball lantern can add a really enchanting touch to a party, wedding, or festival.

No party to decorate for? Hang them in a corner of your garden to add a touch of magic to long, summer evenings.

You don’t need specialist equipment, a willow tree wood or vineyard full of grapevine to make them either. The kids and I made ours with trimmings from the common garden climbers that regularly take over our back yard.

Want to make some too? Of course you do – everyone needs a twig ball lantern in their life! So read on for the full tutorial…

A colourful twig ball lantern hanging in the garden — *This beautiful twig ball lantern was made just with cuttings from the garden and a string of cheap LED lights.*

No-Plastic Play Dough Play!

All-Natural Toys, Tools and Accessories for Play Dough

In our efforts to go plastic-free, we took a hard look at one of our favourite activities to see what it would take to have plastic-free play dough play-time.

It turns out this is really easy to do! We’ve found all sorts of alternatives to plastic right here in our own home, as well as out in the garden. And it is amazing what you can find in charity shops or thrift stores once you start looking.

Replacing our mountain of plastic play dough stuff with an all-natural kit was really easy, and what we’ve got now is far more open ended and even more fun to play with! So read on to see how we play with play dough without without a single bit of plastic…

Plastic-Free Playdough Play Kit — *Playing with play dough needn’t mean getting out a pile of plastic toys!*

Conker Comets! Autumn Fun for Kids

Have your kids conkers gone wrinkly? When autumn comes around my kids just can’t help collecting bucket loads of shiny horse chestnuts. However conkers start to lose some of their charm once the shrivels (as we like to call it) sets in. There are only so many games of conkers we can play, so, to avoid being buried alive by these puckered leftovers, we’ve found other ways to make use of them. One of our favourites is to turn them into Conker Comets…

Probably the most fun you can have with conker – and it makes a great bonfire night craft too! Read on to see how we do it.

Brightly coloured conker comets - kids' conker activity — *Make a throwable comet out of conkers and tissue paper!*

DIY Sparkly Spiderweb Stamping!

This fun spiderweb activity combines two of our favourite things – threading and printing. Using homemade stampers, kids can make gorgeous sparkly spiderweb pictures. The stamps are simple and quick to make, and the best part is you can make them from bits and pieces that you will already have.

Read on to see how we did this fabulous spiderweb craft!

Sparkly spiderweb stamping — *Use a simple, homemade stamp of a spiderweb to create glittery web art!*

How to Conquer Playing Conkers!

At this time of year, our local park is littered with conkers (otherwise known as horse chestnuts) – at times they are literally (and rather painfully!) raining down on us. Who can resist prising open spiky cases for that thrill of discovering shiny brown nuts inside?

My kids certainly can’t, and so over the first month of autumn we tend to accumulate a big pile. And what better way to make use of this autumn bounty than through a smashing game of conkers? We love it so much, I had to share it with you. So read on to discover all the do’s and don’ts, rules and the cheats, hows and whys of playing conkers!

Horse chestnuts threaded on butchers string for playing conkers — How to conquer playing the traditional childhood game of Conkers!

How to Make a Magnificent Forest Mini Den!

My kids love making dens when we’re out in the woods. But there are times when it’s not practical or possible to make one that’s kid-sized. Yet we don’t let that stop us – instead, we just think smaller… Read on to see how to make an adorable mini den!

Tag: Nature