Fall Party Craft Favors

It’s All About The Colors

Autumn colors are very earthy. Orange, red yellow, burgundy and gold are the colors that the leaves turn and so are the colors you should focus on using. Typical icons of the season are fruits like pumpkins, pears, apples and gourds. Because fall is the harvest season, corn and corn husks are common as well. Acorns, pine cones are also common in the autumn.

Fallen leaves are a staple for the season. Maple and oak are most traditional, but where I grew up there were sassafras trees as well as the usual so feel free to add your own favorites to your crafts.

Of course early in the fall people think most often of Halloween images like witches and ghosts while later in the season thoughts turn to Thanksgiving, turkeys and cornucopias that are generally associated with the holiday.

Depending upon which holiday is coming up, your fall craft party favors will naturally reflect that holiday's images.

Use What You Have on Hand

If you live in an area where deciduous trees are abundant then you will have a great supply of colorful leaves with which to work. One project is to spend an afternoon collecting the most colorful leaves you can find. Then go home, brush them off, and clean them the best you can. Then arrange the leaves in a rectangle about the size of a place mat. Beforehand, take a quick trip to the nearby hobby and craft store and get some pre-cut plastic sheets, sticky on one side like a laminating sheet. Then peel the backing off of one sheet and carefully place the leaves on the sticky side. Once done, peel the backing off the second sheet and carefully stick them together creating a colorful seasonal place mat. Of course, this project is vastly easier when you live near trees that have leaves that change color and then fall.

Go Shopping

Most supermarkets will have plenty of gourds on hand in the autumn. A fun fall party craft favor is the gourd turkey. You will find that some gourds look a bit like turkeys to begin with and these are the ones that you want for this kind of party favor. Some toothpicks and some colored construction paper are all you need, but if you happen to have some kid safe markers handy they will help as well.

The tail, the wings and the wattle are all you really need to create with the paper. The eyes can be either drawn on with the markers or a couple of whole cloves can be inserted in the proper place.

If you have a good source of corn husks, either saved during the summer, supplied by a local farmer, or the local craft store, you can make corn husk dolls.

• For this you will need:
• Dried corn husks
• Raffia
• Scissors
• Pipe cleaners

1. Soak the corn husks in water for about 10 minutes so they become soft and workable.
2. Cut your raffia into 12 inch lengths
3. Take 15 or twenty of the raffia strips and tie a knot at one end about an inch from the end. This is your dolls head.
4. Cut some of the husks down to about 6 to eight inches long.
5. Place the raffia bundle between 4 pieces of corn husk (two on each side). This is the body of the doll.
6. Take a piece of raffia and tie it around the doll just above the knot you made in the raffia bundle.
7. Peel the husks down to expose the knot.
8. Tie a piece of raffia around the doll where the neck should be.
9. Take one of your pipe cleaners and roll some corn husk around it. This will be the arms of your doll.
10. Insert the arms of the doll through the body of the doll.
11. Take three pieces of husk and roll them (individually) and then braid them together to create a leg. Do this twice.
12. Tie the legs to the body of the doll using a piece of raffia
13. If you are making a boy doll wrap a bit of husk around each leg.
14. For a girl doll wrap a piece of husk around the dolls waist and secure it with raffia
15. To complete the doll, wrap a couple of pieces of corn husk over the shoulders of the doll and secure them with a piece of raffia.

Fall Party Craft Favors

The autumn is a great time to make party favors with your kids. There are endless projects and themes to work with these are just a few ideas to get you started.