Fall craft ideas from Highlights

This scarecrow is absolutely adorable, and kids would love to make one! If you wanted to make it more "outdoor-friendly," you could use yardstick-type sticks in place of the paper tubes, use some rafia in place of the yarn, use felt or some other stiff fabric (or a real hat) in place of the paper hat and use a plastic or styrofoam plate instead of the paper plate.



This pie-tin decoration reminds me of some things that my dad has made. He's really good at woodworking and has made many, many things for my mother and us kids over the years. He made a cabinet for my mom that has the tin-punched panels in the door. Here's a picture of it in the background from the post I did about the girls' sewing project.



This twirler looks super easy to make and actually reminds me of something you might make for the 4th of July or something, but maybe if you use fall-colored ribbons or attached some fall leaves (real or silk), it would look more fall-like.



This pumpkin-patch ring toss game is a really neat way to reuse those water bottles that we occasionally accumulate. We usually recycle the bottles, but if you held on to a few of them, I bet your kids would really enjoy this game. We would have to come up with another idea for the rings, because I don't think we would ever have 8-10 plastic coffee can lids. If you don't either, maybe you know someone who drinks coffee that would be willing to give you the lids when they finish the canister. I have some from when I used to drink coffee, but I use them for storage. We put the kids markers in one, some decorative scissors in another one, etc. I got that idea from my mom. She's so smart! =)



This Jack-o'-Lantern looks really cute and seems very easy to make. Since we don't drink soda, we would probably use an aluminum food can or maybe some glass jars. If you use varying sizes and heights, you could do a cute little grouping of them. Remember, pumpkins aren't all the same size and shape. =)



These bead rings are another great way to recycle some things that you may ordinarily discard. Plus, it's jewelry, and what little girl doesn't LOVE to make jewelry? =) The only thing I might try differently than what the instructions tell you to do is to twist the wire ends together (once all the beads are on and it's the size I want) and then try to work the wire ends back through a couple of the beads so that you don't have to worry about the end scratching or using unsightly tape on the back side. Does that make sense? One wire will go in one direction and the other wire will go in the other direction. The only problem would be if the holes in the beads aren't large enough to hold two widths of wire.

Here's the complete list of all 12 of this month's craft ideas. I'm sure you'll be able to find something that your child will enjoy. =)