My Favorite Apple Crafts
I don’t know about you but as soon as September 1st hits it is officially Autumn in my house. I want to start doing all things apple or pumpkin-themed. I bust out all the fall decorations but don’t worry I keep the decorations inside my house until the official start of autumn for those that are mourning the loss of summer. But, in my defense, I have Multiple Sclerosis and summer and I seriously do not get along. So adios heat and humidity and hello cool breezes and the cozy treats. (Check out my post on tips to beat the heat if you have MS here).
So, I decided to pull together all of my favorite apple-themed crafts. Each of these crafts has different difficulty levels. For example, I have a 3.5-year-old and a 19-month-old so obviously they aren’t able to do the same things. I will explain how you can adapt each craft depending on your child’s age.
1. Handpicked for you
I am a total sucker for handprint art (as you will see throughout this post) and I think this is one of my favorite art projects of all time I have come up with to do with my boys. Because it has their cute little handprint, a sweet message and it is super easy to make.
What you need: construction paper, paint, a marker (or pen is fine), scissors, and your little one’s hand.
Step 1 Make a painted handprint (cut it out and glued it on a different piece of paper but you can just keep it on the same piece)
Step 2 Decorate the hand like an apple
Step 3 write “handpicked for you” and that’s it!
For younger ones just do their handprint and finish the rest of it yourself. The older the child the more freedom you can give them do finish it themselves. Let them practice with preschool safe scissors and cut out the leaf and glue it on.
Unless your child can already write you will have to write the phrase on the paper.
Apple Cores
This craft is adorable and super easy.
What you need: Popsicle sticks, glue, construction paper, scissors, and a marker
Step 1: glue four popsicle sticks together using a small piece of popsicle stick along the back (see below) and let dry
Step 2: cut out apply shapes (I used the shape of an umbrella to trace for these but if your child is old enough and has the desire to free cut out the shape totally let them. Letting your child express their creativity without limits is such a learning experience).
Step 3: cut and glue on a leaf and stem
Step 4: draw on seeds
Finger painting apple trees
Both of my sons absolutely love art. If you are like me and a little type A (sometimes a lot I admit it) just try and set up your space so you can let your kids express themselves. I have tablecloths that they can get paint on, art smocks, etc so they can have fun during art.
One day my son was asking me questions about trees so I was showing him my arm, hand, and fingers explaining the tree which then turned into an art project.
What you need: Paper, Paint, your little one’s hand/arm, and a paintbrush (optional).
Step 1: for my three-year-old I painted his arm and hand to make the tree trunk, branches, and leaves. For my 19-month-old we just did his hands. Sometimes I have to balance my desire to let them express themselves and make the mess they want with being a work at home mom and I don’t always have the time to let them destroy the kitchen and themselves and that is okay! You are doing great momma and sometimes we can’t let them paint their entire arm. I can’t let my mom guilty go nuts over that. Believe me, it goes nuts over enough already. I also painted on the trunk for my 19-month-old’s painting just to complete it.
Step 2: finger paint apples on the tree and that’s it!
Apple of my eye picture frame
What you need: popsicle sticks, construction paper (green and brown), glue, pen, magnet strips, scissors, and a picture of your little one.
My son’s preschool picture has him holding an apple which made me think of the song with the lyric “you’re the apple of my eye” from the song “You Are the Sunshine of my Life” by Stevie Wonder (which has literally been stuck in my head since I started working on this blog post) and that made me think of this project.
Step 1: (This if for a wallet-sized picture) Glue 10 popsicle sticks together using smaller popsicle stick pieces along the back (same as the apple cores). Let it dry.
Step 2: Paint the popsicle sticks red. Let dry. It took me about 4 coats to get the red color that I wanted. Make sure you let it dry between each coat or it will pull up the previous coat and it will look patchy.
Step 3: Cut out and glue on the leaf and steam.
Step 4: Glue on the picture in the center underneath the steam (leave enough space at the bottom for the word piece)
Step 5: cut out a strip of paper, write “you’re the apple of my eye” on it and glue it underneath the picture.
Step 6: glue magnet strips to the horizontal popsicle sticks on the back
If you have younger kids they can help by finger painting the popsicle sticks (I would do this before you glue them together). Or, for toddler/preschoolers you can let them paint the popsicle sticks with a paint brush to work on those fine motor skills
Apple paper plate light catcher
What you need: dinner-sized paper plate, tissue paper (red and green), wax paper, scissors, and glue
Both of my boys love crafts with tissue paper. Sometimes I will cut up the tissue paper into small pieces ahead of time. Other times I will let them just tear it up. It just depends on the day and what we have going on. Same as before the more creative freedom I can give them the better! But again I am not letting mom guilt take over about tissue paper (clearly it has in the past or I wouldn’t be emphasizing it so much. I don’t want any moms having any mom guilt from this post!! You are all doing aahhhhhmaaazzzinnnngggg. That is what I want you to take away from this ☺)
Step 1: Cut out the center of a dinner sized paper plate
Step 2: Glue wax paper across the hole you just made and let dry
Step 3: Put Elmer’s glue all around the ring of paper plat that is left.
Step 4: let your children stick red (or green depending on whatever color apple you want to make) pieces of tissue you paper to the glue covering the paper plate ring.
Step 5: Glue green (or red if you used green on the outside) pieces of tissue paper on the back side of the wax paper
Step 6: Cut out and glue on a stem and leaf from the construction paper.
Hand apple tree
What you need: construction paper (blue, green, and brown), tissue paper (red), glue, a pencil, scissors, and your little one’s hand
This project is great for all different age groups! If you have really little ones you can help a lot by doing all the tracing and cutting. Or, if you have older kids you can let them trace and cut out their own hands. You know your children best whatever their skill level is let them express themselves.
Step 1: trace your little one’s hand 8 times onto green construction paper. Or if they are young and won’t sit still for that many tracings like my 19- month-old just trace one time and use that tracing as a stencil for the rest.
Step 2: cut out all of the traced hands and glue them to the blue piece of paper in the shape of the tree leaves
Step 3: cut out a tree trunk out of the brown paper and glue it to the blue paper in the place where the trunk goes
Step 4: tear off pieces of red tissue paper and crumple them into little red balls to represent the apples. Glue them all of the green handprints like apples on the tree.
You can personalize this one however you’d like. You can add a sun, clouds, apples falling from the tree, a basket of apples on the ground, a picnic under the tree. Anything you and your little one can think of!
Tissue paper apples
This one is perfect for all ages!
What you need: Glue, tissue paper (red and/or green) construction paper (green and brown) scissors, and paper plates (I used dessert size but any size is fine)
I love this craft because any age can participate. My 19 month old loves to smash the tissue paper into the glue. Both of my boys love to rip of tissue paper and it’s a great opportunity for my preschooler to practice is cutting skills.
Step 1: rip up or cut up a bunch of small pieces of tissue paper (how much you will need will depend on the size of paper plate you are using and how many you want to make but you won’t need a ton for this project)
Step 2: put glue all over the plate
Step 3: Let your little ones stick the pieces of tissue paper all of the glue and let it dry.
Step 4: Cut out a stem and a leaf from the green and brown construction paper and glue it to the top of the plate.
Painted paper plate apples
This craft is also supper easy and perfect for all ages! You can modify using paint brushes or let them paint with their fingers.
What you need: paint (red and/or green, paper plates (I used dessert sized but you can use any size), glue, construction paper (brown and gree), scissors, and a marker
Step 1: Paint the outside ring of the paper plate (facing up just like if you were going to use it to eat off of). Let it dry and do a second coat.
If you have a really young child let them finger paint if they get paint outside the ring that’s okay it is all a sensory learning experience! If they are older let them use a paintbrush to build their fine motor skills.
Step 2: Cut out a stem and a leaf from the green and brown construction paper. Glue it to the top of the paper plate once the pain is dry.
Step 3: draw sees in the middle of the plate.
Apple Stamp Basket
I love this craft because you use an actual apple as a stamp! I love when we can work in food and nature into our art.
What you need: An apple, a knife, paint (red and green), construction paper (brown and white), glue and scissors.
You can modify this craft based on your child’s age in a few different ways. First if you have a really young child make sure you paint is baby safe because we will be putting it on an apple and they will probably try to put it into their mouth.
If you have younger kids you can help let them push the apple into the paint but help them do the stamping and have the basket premade for them.
For older toddlers let them do the stamping themselves and assist them with the basket
With preschoolers let them do the stamping and show them how to do the basket on a separate example and let them do it themselves.
Step 1: Cut your apple in half (this should always be done by the adult)
Step 2: Use one half of the apple as the red stamp and the other half as the green stamp. Using the apple stamp red apples onto the paper. Let those dry then do the green stamps. If you don’t let them dry they will mix. Which if that happens just use it has a fun less on colors!
Step 3: cut out strips of brown paper for the basket. You will need 8-10 depending on the size of your apple stamps. Use the strips to weave a basket.
Step 4: Cut off the extra white paper along the top of the paper
Step 5: Glue on a final strip of brown paper as the baskets handle
Apple Music Maker
This craft is so fun for kids because it combines art and music!
What you need: Paper plate (I used dessert sized paper plates but I think dinner size would be fine. I use the paper plates that a little but shiny so it would make more noise when the rice hit it), glue (for this one you need Elmer’s glue, not a glue stick), dry rice, paint (red or green), construction paper (brown and green), a paintbrush (optional) and scissors.
For this craft you can modify it based on your child’s age using finger painting or using a paint brush. If they are young let them finger paint for a fun sensory experience. If they are a toddler/preschoolers let them build their fine motor skills using a paint brush.
Step 1: Paint the backside of two paper plates. We did three coats letting it dry between each coat.
Step 2: Place one of the paper plate face up (so the white side is facing up). No put two tablespoons of rice on the plate)
Step 3: line the edge of the plate with a thin ring of Elmer’s glue. It needs to be thick enough to hold the plates together but not thick enough where it will drip into the rice. Take the other paper plate and connect the edges together so the red sides are both on the outside with the white sides and the rice on the inside. Hold the edges together with your fingers (or if you have paper clips or clothespins you can use those) until it is dry enough to stick before leaving it dry without holding it. Let dry for several hours.
Step 4: Cut out a stem and leaf from the brown and green construction paper and glue it to the top of one of the paper plates.
Step 5: Shake to make noise!
