Rowan crafts

Rowan berries and leaves, harvested in the fall, are an excellent material that can be used to create all kinds of crafts. Autumn appliques, figurines and decorations made from the fruits of this tree are popular with both children and adults.

In order for crafts made from natural material to serve for a long time, berries and leaves must be properly harvested before work. You need to collect these gifts of nature at the right time. So, rowan begins to be harvested at the end of August. The leaves are harvested and dried in late September or early October. You need to carefully choose the material for creating crafts. The leaves should be neat and solid, and the berries should not be too ripe.

The collected mountain ash should not be washed. This will lead to the fact that it quickly deteriorates. To preserve the berries, they must be properly processed. You can use different products for this.

• Glycerol. To make the berries always look bright and beautiful, they can be soaked in glycerin. This product must be diluted in hot water in a ratio of 1 to 2. When the solution has cooled, all the berries must be placed in it. You need to withstand them for about a week. As the solution evaporates, it must be gradually topped up. If the liquid darkens, it should be drained and replaced with a new one. After a week, the berries will become soft, supple and shiny.
• Wax. This material for processing berries can be prepared in just a couple of minutes. To begin with, the candle needs to be cut into pieces or grated, and then melted in the microwave or in a water bath. A bunch of berries is dipped into a wax mass for a couple of minutes.To prevent the wax layer from being too thick, the branch must be removed from the container after a couple of seconds. When the wax hardens, the berries can be transferred to a jar or immediately used for their intended purpose.

Rowan leaves can also be treated with wax or soaked in glycerin. This should be done a few days before creating crafts. In addition, they can simply be dried. To prevent the leaves from curling or crumbling, they should be kept between the pages of the book. If they need to dry quickly, the rowan leaves are ironed with an iron. To do this, they must be placed between two pieces of fabric or sheets of paper, and then ironed.

Having prepared the required amount of materials, you can start creating crafts. Using rowan berries, kids can make simple applications. One of them is a three-dimensional figure of a squirrel. To create it, the child will need a thick piece of cardboard, berries, scissors, pencil and paint.

The figurine creation process consists of five steps.

• First, you need to prepare the basis of the picture. It needs to be cut from a piece of thick cardboard. The edges of the future painting must be pasted over with decorative tape or strips of colored paper.
• The base of the craft must be painted in a suitable color.
• When it dries, you need to draw a squirrel shape with a pencil on the cardboard.
• After that, it must be thoroughly coated with glue.
• The rowan tree prepared in advance must be quickly laid out on the basis of the picture. This is done so that the glue does not dry out. The figurine turns out to be beautiful and voluminous.

You can decorate the finished craft with a bow or attach a small bump to it. The base of the picture is also decorated with thin spruce branches.

From bright rowan berries and spruce cones, a child can easily make a big bear. The step-by-step instruction consists of three steps.

• The first step is to make a base of cones. They are connected together with hot glue.
• After giving the craft the desired shape, it is decorated with acorns and chestnuts. They are attached to the animal's face at the site of the nose and eyes.
• Rowan in this case is used only for decorating crafts. Bunches of berries are attached to the paws of the animal.

The craft turns out to be cute and cute. It may well be attributed to a school or kindergarten.

There are other interesting mountain ash crafts that are suitable for children.

It will be interesting for a child to make bright red beads from ripe berries even at 3-4 years old. Rowan can be used fresh to create. Before work, you will have to prepare it a little: the berries must be washed to get rid of dust, and then dried well at room temperature. The process of making mountain ash beads consists of four stages.

• First you need to choose a thread of a suitable color. You need to put it in a needle and tie a knot at the edge. This is done so that the thread does not slip out during operation. The length of the thread must be selected with a margin.
• Each rowan berry must be carefully pierced with a needle and put on a thread.
• The bead needs to be brought almost to the end of the thread.
• After stringing a sufficient number of beads, the thread must be cut from the needle. The ends of the jewelry must be tied together.

Another craft that even kids can cope with is the mountain ash caterpillar. To create it, you can use the brushes of chokeberry and red rowan. In addition to them, the child will also need toothpicks and felt-tip pens. The figurine creation process consists of five steps.

• To begin with, the rowan brushes need to be disassembled into individual berries. It is worth choosing parts of the same size for work.
• Each berry must be pierced with a toothpick in the place where the flower was.
• The berries on a toothpick can be attached at the same distance or at different distances. In the second case, the caterpillar will turn out to be wavy.
• Short antennae should be made from small branches of mountain ash. They are attached to the top of the track.
• When the craft is ready, the head of the figurine must be decorated with a black felt-tip pen.

Such a simple caterpillar will be an excellent decoration for a school composition on the theme of autumn.

A child of 6-7 years old can make a beautiful vase from autumn leaves. For work, in addition to the main material, you will need PVA glue, a brush and a balloon. The process of creating an original autumn vase is as follows:

• the balloon must be inflated to the desired size and placed in a cup or bowl;
• its upper half must be abundantly greased with glue;
• leaves previously cleaned of cuttings and dried with an iron are attached to the base of the craft;
• in order for the vase to turn out to be voluminous, several layers of leaves need to be glued onto the ball;
• this blank must be left to dry overnight.

In the morning, when the craft is ready, the ball must be carefully blown off. To make the vase more durable, it can be covered with a layer of clear varnish. Instead of rowan leaves, you can use any others.

Dried rowan berries are often used to decorate finished paintings. Crafts are very beautiful. You can understand how to do them using the example of a picture with a kitten. The background for this work can be painted with gouache or watercolors. When the base of the picture is dry, you need to depict the figure of a kitten on it with a pencil. After that, it must be smeared with glue. The figure is filled with red and chokeberry berries. Dark seeds, dry leaves and blades of grass will complement such a craft. The finished craft must be dried well.

To decorate the room, you can use original compositions from leaves and other scrap materials. In working on such a craft, the child will come in handy:

• dried leaves;
• bunches of rowan;
• wild apples;
• acorns and nuts;
• scissors and glue;
• wooden skewers;
• colored tape.

There are four steps to making a craft.

• First, wild apples need to be planted on wooden skewers.
• The dried leaves must be folded into small bunches.
• The resulting blanks must be collected in a small bouquet and secured with a rope or decorative tape.
• Rowan berries, nuts and acorns are used to decorate the craft. They can be fixed in the right places with glue.

Even a small child can make a cute bird from mountain ash leaves with his own hands. For work, the baby will need dried foliage, colored paper, cardboard, glue, a pencil and a bunch of berries. Such a figurine is made very simply.

• First, the leaves need to be dried with an iron.
• On a sheet of thick cardboard, you need to draw a figurine of an owl. This blank must be carefully cut out of paper.
• The leaves are attached to the sides of the figurine and act as wings.
• The owl's eyes and nose are made of colored paper. They are also glued with glue.
• The bird's legs are made from rowan twigs. They should be smooth and neat.

The finished owl can be glued to a branch with rowan berries. In addition, it can be made part of a large volumetric applique.

You can make a beautiful autumn garland from dry leaves and rowan berries. It is made according to the same principle as beads. But, in addition to rowan berries, dry leaves, nuts and other natural materials are also used to create it. Complement this autumn craft with figures cut from double-sided colored paper. This garland can be used to decorate a room or yard. It will be possible to admire the finished craft until the onset of cold weather.

A wreath made of scrap materials will also look beautiful in the interior of a modern room. The process of its creation consists of five stages.

• First you need to prepare a frame for the craft. It can be cut from a piece of an unnecessary box or several sheets of thick cardboard connected to each other.
• The finished base must be wrapped with twine. Its edges are attached with glue or double-sided tape. It will be much easier to fix various decorative details on it.
• Such a craft is decorated with voluminous bunches of mountain ash, spruce branches, moss and dry autumn leaves. All these parts are attached to the base using hot glue. You can arrange them in any order.
• A neat loop must be attached to the back of the craft, for which the wreath will be hung from the wall.
• The finished wreath must be dried overnight. In a couple of hours, all the details will adhere perfectly to the frame of the craft.

You can also decorate this wreath with fir cones and dried flowers. Colored bows are also often attached at the top of the craft. Such a decorative detail can make the wreath brighter and more beautiful. For decorating crafts, ribbons of red or golden color are most often used.

For information on how to make a cute mountain ash squirrel, see the next video.