DIY nature weaving

I was scrolling through Pinterest recently when a pin from Craftiments caught my eye and I knew the boys would love it! It’s perfect for this pretty long weekend and ended up looking so nice displayed in the kitchen.

We made looms and weaved in things found in nature!

I was actually surprised by how into this task my 4 year old was. The two year old loved the gathering part, but wasn’t super into the weaving.

And I personally enjoyed making one myself! Check out the process below if you want to try these beautiful natural looms.

The first step is finding the right sticks. I had two boys who were very game to help on this part. We ended up with about 20 too many, but we found the ones we wanted to make 3 different looms (mama wanted to play too!).

I opted for wood glue (just because I came across it in the craft drawer) to make them extra strong. I don’t really think that was needed, though.

Wrapping yarn tightly around where the sticks meet should do the trick. All we had on hand was red, and I like the bright pop!

Run your yarn back and forth to create the loom so you can weave in any treasures you want! Some of my spacing was a little large for delicate flowers, but it worked great for bigger leaves.

Now you are ready to get collecting! We took buckets outside and explored our yard and my parents’ yard (and the yards in between). There was a “no picking other people’s flowers” rule unless it was weed flowers.

We found so much stuff! I was holding out for a blue jay feather, but no luck.

Just toss in whatever catches your eye and you can sort it out later. The boys were SO involved in this part of the craft. They’d spot new flower (weed) and RACE towards it to see if it was a new variety to add to the bucket.

I honestly had to drag them inside for the next step. So…if you don’t think weaving is the thing for your kids I think a walk with a bucket is equally entertaining.

But I sure did love the art work we made!

The final step is to come inside and dump out your findings, then get to weaving!

Sam wasted zero time once he realized what I wanted him to do. He weaved in everything on his own. I think Tom was a little young for this part. He did in a leaf or two and let me help him with some, but he was ultimately entertained playing with his collection of outside stuff.

I know many of the picked flowers won’t last long, but I think these look gorgeous displayed. I think we’ll pull them out again as the seasons change and repeat this fun activity!

So happy to have found this fun and easy idea on Pinterest–let me know if you try it out!