Found art is all about taking things that might not necessarily be made for art and turning them into beautiful creations. And, bonus, found art usually means free or cheap, especially because so many found art materials can be found outside.
Pine cones
Ever looked closely at a pine cone? They’re already pretty beautiful! And their many crevices make for great found art. You and Baby can make a classic bird feeder with some peanut butter and bird seed, cover a pine cone in paint and roll it around on some paper, or paint the pine cone to make it look like a flower, a tree, or even a pineapple!
Leaves
Find a couple newly fallen leaves outside, and you’ll have a world of leaf-print art options ahead of you. Lay a leaf flat on between two pieces of paper and rub a crayon on top to produce a rubbing of the leaf on the paper! Alternatively, you can paint on top of and around a leaf, lift it up from the paper, and have a perfect outline of it. Leaf collages, leaf cuttings, leaf animals…if you can dream it, you can be-leaf it!
Flowers
To make pressed flowers, all you need to do is find some good flowers, place them between parchment paper, and stick them in a heavy book! Walking through a park with Baby and having them help you pick out the perfect flowers is an activity all on its own, and the fun doesn’t stop there!
Once your flowers are pressed between the pages of a book, you can also put things on top of the book for extra weight. That’s not really the craft though, because you’ll have to wait up to 10 days for your pressed flowers to be ready for action (they should be paper-y and totally dry). Once you have the pressed flowers, you can use them to make collages, cards, “stained” glass, or fancy soaps.
Once you and Baby start exploring, you’ll see that almost anything can be made into found art! Twigs can become little bird nests, sticks can become ladders or wands, and rocks can become murals or canvases. And on rainy days, don’t forget that sponges, balls, and even spaghetti can be found art indoors!
