Fall crafts are a fun way to celebrate and learn about the shift in seasons with your kids. The changing leaves, crispness in the air, anticipation of Halloween, and the bounty of the fall harvest season all provide wonderful inspiration for clever things to make at home. But crafting with your kids need not be overly complex. In fact, simple supplies and easy steps are all that’s needed to create some truly cool autumn crafts.
Below, some of the best craft bloggers and experts on Instagram share 10 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.
DIY 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.
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.
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 aged 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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.