Artsy Activities for Midsummer

It's summer break for my kiddos!  Instead of spending time in the tablets and electronics, my daughter likes to walk around my garden and landscaping, finding random sticks and stones and attempting to mix "potions" with rain water.  

With the coming of Midsummer this month, I like to encourage my daughter to get creative with her outdoor activities, although every time she collects her items outside, I find stones and dried up leaves all around the house.  I've found a few ideas that helped in keeping all the objects in one place, and not only are they decorative, but there's a bit of meaning behind each project.

Creating Stars

Here's a fun activity I've done with my daughter!  We get quite a few dried up branches falling to the ground throughout the spring and summer after pruning, so we've found ways to make a beautiful star for our home!  This above image was from the blog "Close to My Art" by Michelle Allen.  She lists her works and inspirations on her site here.  By the way, Michelle, I LOVE your blog name!  The star is a very ant symbol in our home representing the light that shines within each of us.

Nature Mobiles

Another activity my daughter enjoys is collected random objects around the yard and on nature walks.  These objects would be found all around the house, especially when her younger sister got her hands on those sticks and stones!  Here's the link to the blog post created by Saucery!  This activity actually helped in keeping all my daughter's found objects in one place!  Plus, it's a pretty mobile in her bedroom!  I remember creating mobiles out of shells that I found at the lake when I was younger, so this one's a little nostalgic for me!

Fun Crafts to Make After a Summer Hike

Are you planning on taking a family walk through the woods?  Mama Stacey compiled a list of activities to create with found nature objects!  Such as:

Faerie Wands! (photo from Mama Stacey)  We've made quite a few of these wands over the past few years.  A few times, our cats have found the strings.  Oops!

Nature Mandalas

This activity just uses sidewalk chalk and flowers from your garden!  I highly recommend being there with your children as you pick the flowers to use, or else you will find the flower heads in your garden empty!  This project is provided by Nurture Store on their website.  When the run washes the mandala away, you can always start again.  

Here's another way to create a mandala!  "Moment to Moment" created a mandala project using all objects found in nature, similar to the artist Andy Goldsworthy.  

What activities will you be doing with your family?