Brilliant Autumn craft ideas that toddlers will love

From crunchy leaves in every shape, size and colour to pine cones and conkers, your garden and your local park is bursting with art and craft potential during the autumn months.

So take a woodland walk with your child and fill a bag with everything he’ll need for a few hours of seasonal crafting – at little to no cost. Winner.

Leaf prints

Encourage your toddler to learn about the different shapes of leaves by asking him to paint around the leaves. Then remove the leaves and he’ll be left with an amazing pattern. [Pinterest via buggyandbuddy.com]

Cone owl

Your child can craft himself a new birdy friend with just some wobbly eyes, a pine cone and some pipe cleaners. He can have a go painting the pine cone and sticking on the eyes while you tackle the pipe cleaner legs and wings. [Pinterest via ehow.com]

Leaf animals

From reindeers, to butterflies and owls, your tot can create a whole zoo of animals from a pile of leaves – leaving you free to tackle the washing up. [Pinterest via diyncrafts.com]

Your tot will look adorable in this festive crown. It’s fun and simple to make and he can wear it for Christmas lunch or at his nursery Christmas party. [Pinterest]

Leaf crowns

This fun and seasonal addition to your tot’s dressing up box is as simple as it looks. Create a ring of card that fits your little one’s head and set him up painting leaves and gluing them all around it. [Pinterest via ivillage.ca]

Leaf letters

This is a genius way to spruce up your child’s bedroom for the autumn – and won’t cost you a penny! Use an empty cereal box to cut out your tot’s initials and then let him go mad with glue and leaves. It may get messy but it will be lots of fun. [Pinterest via the36avenue.com]

Leaf mobile

Forget wind chimes – this DIY leaf mobile is the only decoration you need in your garden in the autumn months and it’s a great project that you and your toddler can do together. [Pinterest via goodhousekeeping.com]

Leaf collage

OK, so this will require you to cut out a pretty spot-on leaf shape (thank goodness for tracing paper) but then your child can take over and fill the leaf with scraps of coloured tissue paper to make a great window decoration. [Pinterest via fantasticfunandlearning.com]

Leaf wreath

This autumnal version of a holly wreath is great for making with your toddler and hanging on your front door. [Pinterest via dailymail.com]

Pine cone mobile

Send your toddler on a mission to collect at least four pine cones and then use string to tie them to a stick to hang up indoors. [Pinterest via flickr.com]

Cork print tree

Save corks from those Friday night bottles of win and give them to your toddler to use as a stamp. He can press corks into autumnal shades of paint and use the corks to make the leaves on a drawing of a tree. [Pinterest via indulgy.com]

Crafty bird

Rummage around for a pine cone, cardboard kitchen towel roll and some other bits and bobs to make this DIY bird. [Pinterest via thecraftycrow.net]

Conker snake

This is a great, tactile, craft project for your toddler to make. After collecting some conkers, you’ll need to make a hole through each and then your toddler can thread them onto a shoelace. All that’s left is to stick on some googly eyes and your little one has a new friend to play with! [Pinterest via redtedart.com]