Friday, June 4, 2010

Camping Crafts and Activities for Kids

First of all, thank you for all of your nice comments! I love to read them and appreciate them all.

My kids both love to make crafts so I put together a few craft projects for our family camping trip. I thought I would share them in case any of you were planning a family camping trip this summer.


I wanted to buy t-shirts from the craft store but I ran out of time so I picked up these pillow cases from the Dollar Tree instead.

For this craft project you will need:

Foam paint brushes
Assorted colors of acrylic paint
Pillowcases or t-shirts
Assorted shapes and sizes of leafs

Paint the back side of a leaf. Carefully place the painted side of the leaf on the pillowcase or t-shirt where you want it and press down. Repeat with different leafs and paint colors. Lay on a flat surface to dry.

For this craft project you will need:

Clear contact paper (I bought a roll from the Dollar Tree)
small flowers, leafs, and leaf stems
Card stock cut out into the shape of a butterfly or any other shape you want

I found a pattern for a butterfly online. I traced it onto pink card stock and cut out the inside of the wings. To make the craft lay the butterfly on top of a piece of contact paper sticky side up. Let the kids place flowers and leaves on the inside of the wings. Next have them place leaf stems and flowers on the contact paper for the antennas. Then place another piece of clear contact paper over the top to seal the two pieces of contact paper together. The sticky sides should touch. Cut out around the butterfly leaving a little bit of contact paper around the outside of the butterfly to make it waterproof. Use a small hole punch to make a hole in the top and string some thin ribbon through the hole. Hang the butterfly up and watch it fly around in the wind.

I found these butterfly nets at the Dollar Tree. My kids loved them! They used them to catch frogs, minnows, butterflies and bubbles.

I also found these bug catchers at the Dollar Tree. My kids both loved walking around searching for pet bugs.

Depending on where you live or go camping you might not be near a beach but in case you are here is a cheap and fun souvenir idea.

Our last project was making beach in a jar souvenirs. We collected some sand from the beach and the kids picked out some of their favorite sea shells to place in their jars.

I would love to hear if you have any fun camping craft ideas or activities for kids!