Common craft materials you can replace with nature

There are heaps of craft materials you can replace with nature! It will save your money and make you feel better when you reduce your carbon footprint!

Here are some of the benefits of changing your common craft materials to nature:

• It’s free. Most craft materials are expensive, whist getting nature craft is free!
• It’s easily available. You don’t have to go anywhere to get them, only outside.
• It’s creative. There really are so many things you can make with nature. See our nature craft category.
• It’s Eco friendly. Your nature craft will biodegrade much faster than the synthetic material in craft items.
• It’s good for your kids. There is a school of thought that believes it is vital, both to the well being of our children and to raising the conservationists of the future, that children interact with nature.

I’m not suggesting you change all your craft to nature but ease it in there. You may be surprised with how beautiful it looks and how much fun your kids will have playing with it.

Craft materials you can replace with nature

Paper

Rather than painting or drawing on paper, make nature your canvas. Paint on leaves, bark, rocks and more!

Popsicle sticks

Sticks work just as well and are so much more textured. You can also get them in an variety of sizes and shapes!

Pipe cleaners

It took me a while  to think of an alternative to this one. Some sticks can be flexible so this is something I’m going to try in future. Can you think of another alternative to a pipe cleaner?

Beads

We’ve been using gumnuts in quite a lot of our craft lately. We made this beautiful Gumnut Bracelet and I’ve seen one made using acorns too. They make a great alternative to plastic beads.

Paint

We use acrylic paint in most of our craft but it you want to go even more natural, why not make your paint using rocks, mud or crushing up flowers and mixing them with a little bit of water!

Glitter

One of the most popular posts on Mother Natured is our Nature’s Glitter. Instead of using little shards of plastic to decorate your craft you can use nature instead. See how we made ours here.

Dye

Dying with nature products is another area I’d like to explore with my children in future. I’d like to try natural dyes using left over fruit and vegetables.

Ribbons

There’s not quite a perfect nature product that works just like a ribbon but long grass or lomandra leaves look lovely as ribbons on presents! We’ve also used grass and lomandra leaves for a threading activities too.

Stickers

Well, items from nature may not be sticky on the back but you only have to add a little bit of glue and you have nature stickers. They’ll be easier to get off the walls too!

Paint brushes

These are the most beautiful paint brushes ever and the texture created from them is just spectacular. We love painting with flowers and different items in nature.

Googly Eyes 

It took me a while to think of an alternative for googly eyes but I found an answer. All I needed was a spotty leaf and a hole punch. Easy!

Buttons

Make our own wooden buttons by cutting up small branches and drilling two holes in each slice. So pretty!

Sequins

Our replacement for sequins are hole punched leaves. We’ve made a pretty bracelet out of star hole punched leaves. It’s stunning! There’s still more craft materials you can replace with nature!

Pom poms

We made nature pom poms last week.  They are easy to make and so much prettier than regular pom poms.

 While collecting Nature be mindful of:

• Ensure you’re collecting nature that’s safe for you and your family. If your child gets asthma or hay fever, best not to collect nature’s glitter, for example, and perhaps it’s best not to pick those berries for crafts if you’re not sure what they are.
• Please be mindful of the environment you take your nature from. It’s not environmentally friendly if you’re killing a plant or tree in the process. Try to reduce as much impact to the environment as possible.
• Try to be safe while collecting. We’ve haven’t any problems whilst collecting nature but you should always be mindful of creature’s that may be near you when you’re collecting. We never see any but we always do a quick snake safety refresher before we go collecting.

We adore nature craft and creating this list alone as inspired to me to get even more creative with the kids. I can’t wait to use those googly eyes in a craft with them. They will love adding them in our craft box.

Can you think of more craft materials you can replace with nature?