This week we’re going on a nature scavenger hunt to see what autumn treasures we can find. But where do we carry all our finds? I bet those of you with prams and buggies are finding the basket and folds of the hood filling up with leaves and conkers at this time of year. Our buggy days are long gone, and it seems my handbag is now the ‘carry all’ place to stash whatever we pick up along the way. Hmmmm. Time to change that, with a fun craft thrown in.
How to make a simple bag for autumn treasure hunting
We’re using two sheets of laminated paper threaded together to make our bag. If you don’t have access to a laminator then contact paper / sticky backed plastic would work as well and if there’s no sign of rain some thick card could work too .
We started by marking each child’s initial with tape in the centre of one of their pieces of paper. You can make the bag portrait or landscape to suit the size of your child. Then it was time to get messy. By special request we did some handprint painting using autumn colours, on both of the sheets of paper. Super squishy fun.
When the paint was dry, we peeled off the tape to reveal the artist’s initial and then laminated each of the sheets of paper.
Using a hole punch, each child made a series of holes all the way around three sides of the sheets (the two sides and the bottom edge). More holes, close together, will mean none of the treasures will fall out.
Using wool (or ribbon or piece of string) each child threaded through their holes, ‘sewing’ the two sides of their bag together, leaving some extra thread to make a handle. Tie the loose threads with a knot and your bag is ready to go.
But wait: there’s a surprise!
We didn’t just use handprints on the back of the bag. Come back tomorrow to see the added extras.
For more simple sewing projects for children, try:
:: make a doll
happily shared with outdoor play and monday madness and made by you monday and made by little hands link and learn and craft schooling sunday and sunday showcase and something for the weekend and fridays nature table and for the kids friday and it’s playtime and kids get crafty
Neat idea! I like that each child would not only get their own bag, but be part of the creation of it.
Ooh how lovely! I DO DO DO need to get a laminator. So many great ideas for it…
Thanks for linking on Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
Well, I love the front, can’t wait to see the back! I think I need to get a laminator!
how neat and they can keep it forever since it’s laminated 🙂
That is so cute! I NEED a laminator! xx
So cute! I pinned this on Pinterest (now that I am finally on it) Thank you for sharing on The Sunday Showcase!
love it! a truly wonderful idea, and thanks so much for sharing on Craft Schooling Sunday!
Cute! I like the tape resist to make the A on the bag. Also great that the kids did the threading. So many learning activities in one project! Thanks for sharing on Monday Madness. Hope you come back again tomorrow!
My daughter would love to make one of these to gather her “fall collection”. Thanks for sharing this – I will be featuring it this week on Monday Madness!
This is a GREAT idea and so cute! I love the extra sewing ideas for kids, too.
What a clever idea! Thanks for sharing at the Outdoor Play Party!