Crafting with walnuts is something that many have fond memories of from their childhood - traditional German crafts use walnuts, oranges and other edible things to make fun little decorations. We present some craft ideas to you below.
Do-it-yourself walnut penguin
Materials required:
Walnuts
Acrylic paints (blue, white and black)
Posca pen in pink
A little felt
A knife
adhesive
Hanging yarn
How to Make Walnut Penguin:
The most important thing about this craft is that you split your walnut first.Walnuts are actuallymuch easier to split cleanly than you think. It doesn't always work 100% of the time, but you can still use a "broken" walnut because you'll eventually glue it back together.
- Take something sharp (a small kitchen knife is perfect).
- Insert it into the bottom of the walnut and gently press down. FOR ADULTS ONLY!
- You may need to move the knife back and forth a little to split the walnut in half. Don't rush it or force it. Usually you get 2 perfect halves! Occasionally a small lip remains, but as I said, that doesn't matter because you'll glue everything back together later.
- Scrape out the insides and nibble!
- Now it's time to put the walnut halves back together into a walnut plus add the baker's twine for hanging! Don't forget to add it!
- Apply glue to one edge of the walnuts.
- Bring the knotted line of baker's twine into position. For the penguins, the hanging thread should be at the pointed end of the walnut. Add a little more glue to the second walnut (especially the end of the hanging thread). Press the halves together. Wipe off the excess glue.
- Paint the entire walnut the penguin color you want. Blue is good, but black, purple and light blue also look great!
- You can always paint the walnut halves first before gluing them back together if you find that easier!
- Allow to dry completely.
- After drying, add a small white belly, black eyes and rosy cheeks. Allow to dry.
- Cut out a small beak and a lining - you can use yellow felt, but also fabric, paper or cardboard. Glue the pieces on.
Ladybug crafts for kids
Materials required:
Walnut Half
Color (red and black)
Glitter color (red)
Goggle-eyed
Glue
Paint brush
Instructions for crafting:
- Paint 3/4 of the walnut half with red paint. The small, unpainted area is for the ladybug's face. Allow the paint to dry completely.
- Paint red glitter paint over the red paint. Let these dry completely too.
- When the red paint is dry, paint the front of the bowl with black paint and add some black dots on the red bowl.
- Glue the two goggle eyes onto the black surface. Let everything dry again. So you have these cute ladybugs ready!
Make cute owls out of walnuts
Materials per owl:
a whole walnut
Goggle-eyed
Felt remnants
PVA glue
Tape if required
How to Make Walnut Owl Ornaments:
- First you need to chop and hollow out the walnuts. Then insert a hanging ribbon and tape them back together.
- The children can choose the colors of felt for the circles and wings, cut them out and glue them on.
- Glue on the goggle eyes. These walnut owls with ribbons are a great little oneDecoration for autumn. It can be so fun and exciting for children to make crafts with walnuts!
Crafting with walnuts: make your own reindeer
Materials required:
A walnut
Brown felt (or brown paper)
Red mini pom pom (or a red button or red felt)
Hanging ribbon
Glue
Black pen
Messer
Directions:
- First you need to split the walnut.
- Clean out your walnut (and eat it! Nice and healthy).
- Cut out reindeer antlers. You can do this freehand.
- Add glue to the edge of the walnut. Position the antlers and string for hanging.
- Bring the walnut halves together and hold them in place. Smooth out the excess glue with your finger.
- Glue on the pom-pom nose. And paint the eyes. Googly eyes look funny too!
- Your reindeer ornaments are now ready!
