A is for Acorn

I was excited to find these acorns on the Family Fun site the other day, since we have a profusion of ‘acorn hats’ in the yard. The kids were thrilled when they first found some and loved going out and finding more for this project!

So, first you need to find yourself some small children to go out and hunt for ‘acorn hats’.

Good job, kids!

Then you need to gather a tray covered with a piece of wax paper (not pictured), another piece of wax paper (to catch the mess), scissors, a paper bowl or cup to hold glue, some Elmer’s glue, and tissue paper in your choice of colors. (Preferably fall hues!)

Cut the paper into one 5 inch square and one 2 inch square (per acorn). Ball up the 5” paper. By the way, I wasn’t super precise when cutting up the papers. You just want a biggish piece to crumple and a smaller piece to smooth over the outside. I actually preferred the acorns made out of slightly larger pieces of paper. I was able to compress them into a much smoother looking acorn. So try a 5” square first and then go for a bigger one, like maybe 8” square. Let me know which one you like better!

Paint the 2” paper with some glue.

Okay, here is where you get to benefit from my mistakes. I found it was MUCH easier to skip the paintbrush all together and just glue up your fingers and slather it on that way. The tissue sort of tries to come apart when you’re trying to squish it into the cap (when you are using the brush), but if you use generously glued up fingers you can mold it without tearing the tissue. Plus you can really mash it into the cap, you can’t really do it that well with the paintbrush without leaving a big, unattractive dent. The molded ones look so much better!

So, just push up your sleeves and prepare to get messy! Your kids will love you for it. Plus, when you’re all done, you can gross them out by peeling off your skin. (dried glue! Remember doing that when you were little?!)

Place the ball in the center of the gluey paper.

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Roll up the paper around the ball.

Paint some glue into the ‘acorn hat’.

Insert the ball, kinda push it in with the paintbrush your fingers.

Then paint a good ‘topcoat’ of glue all over the tissue and set it on the tray to dry. (Don’t worry if you get any on the cap. Makes no difference later.)

Lather, rinse, repeat until you have your desired amount of acorns! Family Fun claims this craft takes an hour. Which I guess it does (if that), but the acorns take alllllll day to dry.  I know this because I had two little kids asking me every 5 minutes if they were done. I suggest you do this craft right before bedtime to avoid that same scenario.

Next up. . . . edible acorns!!!

 

While I was cruising the Family Fun website I also found these. How cute are they???

Start with a box of doughnut holes (plain, glazed, or cinnamon and sugar), some straight pretzels, peanut butter (I used creamy, but I don’t see why chunky wouldn’t work here.) and some chopped peanuts.

Start with a doughnut.

Spread some peanut butter on the top.

Roll it in the peanuts.

Break a pretzel.

Push the pretzel into the top of the acorn.

It’s so easy a four year old could do it!

A three year old too!

Gotta hold your mouth juuuuuuuuust right though.

Pretty cute, huh? (Looks like he only has three fingers, hehehe!)

                      

Voila! Acorns! Enjoy!