Crafting with chestnuts, acorns, beechnuts and leaves has become a tradition for every parent. Hardly any child doesn't have fun with it and this fun starts with collecting the materials on a walk in the park. Today we would like to show you some ideas specifically for using horse chestnuts and, more specifically, a few cute and funny animals. What other materials you need if you want to make chestnut animals, as well as instructions, can be found in the following lines. So roll up your sleeves and get to work getting into the right autumn mood with your children.
In combination with various other materials and aids that, among other things, give us theNature in autumnAs a gift, you can make incredibly cute and original chestnut animals. So if the classics from our childhood that are simply stuck together with toothpicks are too boring for you, try out the following charming chestnut animals. So what can you make with chestnuts? Look here:
Instructions for a hedgehog with a chestnut shell
- chestnut
- brown dough
- Kastanienschale
- Googly eyes
- toothpick
- drill
As an alternative to the hedgehog instructions below, you can also try this variant if you are making chestnut animals. In this case, you simply use the chestnut shell to create the spines. Ideally, you should look for a chestnut with its shell straight away, because then you can be sure that it will fit and you won't have to cut it afterwards. Drill a hole in the chestnut where you want the hedgehog's nose to go and glue the shell in place if necessary. Then shape the muzzle out of the dough. Insert a small piece of toothpick into the prepared hole and then carefully insert the snout into it. Finally, fixate your eyes. If you want, you can also make a tongue using red play dough.
Make your own turtles
- chestnut
- green clay in two shades
- black dough
- optional: toothpick and drill
Use one of the two green colors of modeling clay to form the legs, tail and head of the turtle. In addition, you also need two small beads for the eyes. Attach the body parts to the chestnut and then add the eyes too. Now use the other green color to create several tiles that you attach to the chestnut. This is how you get the typical pattern of the turtle shell. You can now use a toothpick to design the nostrils and mouth.
Tipp:The turtle will be more stable if you attach the plasticine elements to the chestnut using toothpicks. To do this, drill holes in the respective areas and simply attach the dough. For an aquatic turtle, and more precisely for the fins, head and tail, you can use the kernels of apricots.
Monkey made from natural materials
- chestnut
- Acorn cup
- Stems of maple seeds
- Eichel
- brown and white dough
- Googly eyes
- brown pipe cleaner
- Hand drill
- Hot glue
Isn't this monkey incredibly cute? If you are of the same opinion, you should not forget it when you make chestnut animals. Glue a flat piece of white plasticine to the chestnut head of the future monkey. Then attach the maple seed stem to create a smiling mouth and the googly eyes. Now use the hot glue to fix the acorn cups on your head so that ears are created.
Now take the other chestnut for the body and drill a hole for the tail on the side opposite the one with the natural white spot. This is shaped so that its end is rolled up. Now glue the head onto the body, insert the bulwark into the hole provided and glue a flat piece of brown plasticine to the underside of the body, which serves as a flat surface for standing up the monkey.
Cute mosquito
- chestnut
- Eichel
- The maple seed
- stems of berries
- oversized googly eyes
- Hot glue
- toothpick
- Hand drill
The mosquito is relatively easy to make, but you need a lot of small parts. Drill a hole in the chestnut and insert the toothpick into it. Glue the googly eyes in place. Using hot glue, attach the acorn for the mosquito's body to the chestnut and then attach the maple seeds to make wings. You get the mosquito legs from the small stems of berries (e.g. rowan berries). Glue this to the glans with a few drops of hot glue and you're done. Mosquitoes are annoying insects, but making chestnut animals is a fun option!
Spider and snail make crafts with chestnuts
- Chestnuts
- Googly eyes
- Pipe cleaners
- toothpick
- Hand drill for craft purposes
Instructions for theSpider: Take a chestnut that is as round and flatter as possible and drill 4 holes in it on each side. Take pipe cleaners of any color (or different colors) and cut 8 pieces of equal length and then insert them into the holes. Finally, glue the wiggly eyes in place and bend the pipe cleaner legs as shown in the picture.
For theSnail: Take two chestnuts of different sizes and drill a hole all the way through the larger one. Then insert two pipe cleaners (preferably in different colors) through this hole and screw them in beforehand. The pipe cleaners should be longer on one side to represent the snail neck. Then drill a hole in the top of the same chestnut and another in the bottom of the smaller chestnut. You can now connect both chestnuts together with a piece of toothpick. Finally, fix your eyes on the pipe cleaners.
Tipp:If you have particularly small chestnuts at your disposal, you can also build the snail shell out of three pieces.
Slug and mouse
- Chestnuts
- Pipe cleaners
- Hand drill
- Googly eyes
- toothpick
- optional: snail shell
Nudibranchcraft: You need 5 chestnuts. First lay them out to determine where they need to be drilled. The last chestnut only gets one hole, while the first, which also represents the head, gets a hole for connecting and two more for the eyes. Once you have provided all the chestnuts with the necessary holes, connect them together using toothpick pieces. Put two pieces of plush wire of the same length into the head and attach the eyes to them.
Tipp:If you find a snail shell, you can hot glue it to the back of the snail and get a snail with a snail shell.
For the mouse:If you want to make mice, first take a chestnut to serve as a head. Then use the drill to scrape in the eyes, nose and whiskers. You will also need two holes above the face for the ears and another in the neck area. You make the ears out of wire, which you form into circles or loops and insert into the holes. Now drill two more holes in the chestnut body - one into which you will insert the head and another at the back into which the pipe cleaner flange will be inserted.
Tipp:You can also make the whiskers out of toothpicks that you simply stick into the chestnut. You can also draw the face with a marker pen instead of engraving it. If the mouse cannot stand because the chestnut does not have a flat side, you can also stick four toothpicks into the body as legs.
Instructions for a giraffe and a sheep as chestnut figures
- Chestnuts
- Acorns
- Googly eyes
- Pipe cleaners (white for the sheep and yellow and brown for the giraffe)
- toothpick
- drill
- optional: yellow and brown color
For theGiraffe: When making chestnut animals, you can also use paints to give them their natural color. If you want to paint the typical spots of a giraffe on the chestnuts, use the colors and start with this step. Once the paint has dried, take the head and drill two holes in it for the horns and one for the neck. The other end of the neck goes into the front of the chestnut body, in which you also drill a hole for the tail. Now make the neck, tail and horns out of brown and yellow pipe cleaners by screwing in both colors. Then drill the holes for the legs from toothpicks. Be careful so that the giraffe can actually stand later and doesn't keep falling over. Put everything together, glue on the eyes and you're done.
SheepDo it yourself: The sheep looks more real if you use an acorn for the head in addition to a chestnut. This is because sheep naturally have elongated heads, which the acorn can imitate very well. Drill four holes in the chestnut for the legs, as well as another one into which you can insert the head. On the sides of theneed acornAlso make a hole for each ear using small pieces of white pipe cleaner. Glue eyes on the acorn and connect them to the chestnut. Now make four more toothpick legs and you have a fun decoration with chestnuts.
Make your own owl and frog out of chestnuts
- Chestnuts
- Kastanienschale
- Acorn cup
- Googly eyes
- green pipe cleaner
- green color
- Hand drill
- Scissors
- Glue
OwlDo it yourself: If you want to make crafts with chestnuts without drilling, you canchoose cute owl, because it only involves gluing. Use scissors to cut the chestnut shell to size. Cut the wings out of this and then glue them to the sides of the chestnut. Then glue the two acorn cups to the front of the chestnut, then attach the wiggly eyes to them.
Tipp:If you want, you can also make feet out of two more acorn cups. The chestnut should also be big enough for the body.
The green onefrog: You can also choose frogs. Color is used again here so that it is really clear that it is a frog. So paint the chestnut first and let the paint dry. Then engrave the nostrils and mouth. If you would like to make the frog without drilling, paint these elements with a felt-tip pen instead. Take two equal pieces of pipe cleaner, shape them into loops and glue them to the sides of the chestnut.
Hedgehogs and squirrels
- Chestnuts
- brown pipe cleaner
- Googly eyes
- toothpick
HedgehogMake animals out of chestnuts: While the two examples above can do without drilling, the hedgehog needs a relatively large number of holes instead. Find a slightly flatter chestnut and drill several holes in the top. You can now design the spikes in two ways: either you take many short pieces of pipe cleaner in brown color or you cut toothpicks to size. Both are then inserted into the holes. Now fix your eyes and that's it!
Squirrelas a craft idea: If you want to make funny chestnut animals, consider the squirrel too. You will need two holes in the chestnut body - one for the head and one for the tail. The head has four holes, two of which are for the ears and one for the nose. Cut two short pieces of wire for the ears, an even shorter piece for the nose, and a long piece for the tail. Roll the latter up as shown. Put everything together.
