Hammered Nature Art Craft for Kids

Hammered Nature Art. What on earth is that? If you've never heard of hammering flowers, or “flower pounding” it's a pretty cool process of striking a bloom to release all the color onto your paper. It creates a press of sorts for each flower. Some flowers retain their detail, others just squish into a beautiful burst of color.

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Hammered Nature Art Supplies

• Freshly picked flowers and some leaves
• Rubber mallet or hammer
• White card stock or watercolor paper
• Wax paper
• Kitchen towel
• Hard surface
• Optional colored pencils or watercolor paint

First Step, Take a HIKE!

In order to hammer nature you have to get out and collect some. Take a hike, go to the park, or just walk around your block looking for flowers you can sample.

WARNING: Explain to kids ahead of time that they don't pick all the flowers they see. For kids – Just pick one blossom from each plant to make sure it doesn't get damaged. And please no picking of other people's flowers without permission. {You'll be glad you laid the ground rules ahead of time!😉}

And have I mentioned yet how much I LOVE these sun hats and Camelbak hydration packs for the kids!? Serious sunburn saver and I don't have to carry a bunch of water bottles in my pack!

Arrange Your Blooms

After you get home, blow any bugs off your flowers and arrange them on your cardstock or watercolor paper. Choose a mix of colors and sizes and fill the page to your liking.

*I found that working with a couple of flowers at a time produced better results than trying to hammer the whole page at once. The flowers moved around and didn't hold the composition.

Place them face down onto the paper and we found it's best to remove large bases from flowers with scissors. It might fall apart some, just gently arrange the petals again.

Hammering Nature

Lay the wax paper over your creation and hold the edge while you pound. Careful of helpful fingers and focus on one area at a time. You'll want to make sure you pound all areas of each leaf and flower for maximum color transfer.

Hammered Flowers

When you're done, life the paper and see the mess you've made! The most colorful flowers were also the messiest leaving behind a flower pulp.

Carefully peel off flattened flowers and scrape away the excess. If the paper is wet you might damage the surface so you might want to let it dry before removing the final bits of petals.

Hammered Nature Print

We loved our first result and had some surprises.

• None of our leaves left color except for the fuzzy Lamb's Ear {Dusty miller}
• Many of the wild flowers left brown instead of color
• The center of the big yellow flowers made more of a mess than anything!
• Our wild roses were the BEST for vibrant color
• Pansies are the BEST for most detail

Pounding More Flowers

Since we had some gaps and really wanted a full flower print the kids chose additional flowers to try and fill in the spaces doing just a couple flowers at a time.

And it actually works much better this way.

Hammered Nature Art

After the page is filled to your liking let the remaining flower petals dry and gently scratch them off later to avoid damaging your beautiful flower print.

Then sit back and admire your new work of art! It's the best craft ever. You get out in nature, pick flowers, create a floral arrangement, then make a huge mess with a hammer! It doesn't get much better than that.

If you make your own Hammered Nature Art please let us know! Share it and tag us @partieswithacause on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. We love seeing all your hard work! 

Summer Camp Activities: Week 3

The fun doesn't have to stop with an at-home summer camp to keep your kids busy most of the summer! We've got 6 weeks worth of crafts, activities, snack ideas, exercise recommendations, books suggestions, and even themed tv show and movie ideas.

You can join the Facebook Group below to see a daily schedule and tons of ideas! We'd love to have you join us!

Summer Camp! Private group · 57 members Join Group A group for parents who just went from being first time homeschooling teachers to being summer camp counselors. Join us for fun summer activity idea…

It's NATURE WEEK!

After you create your own flower print there are lots more ideas coming your way.

Join us each week for NEW summer camp ideas! Get a whole weeks worth of activity ideas sent straight to your inbox each week. Sign up here and receive a free printable Summer Adventure Field Guide!

Did you miss DINOSAUR WEEK?

Check out the Dinosaur Activity Ideas

• Dino Dig Party Activity
• DIY Dinosaur Egg Piñata
• Dino Drool Clear Slime Recipe
• 21+ Dinosaur Crafts For Kids

And Dinosaur Food Ideas

• Dinosaur Pasta Recipe For Kids
• Prehistoric Dinosaur Food Ideas
• Dinosaur Themed Food for Kids

Did you miss SPACE WEEK?

Check out the Space Activity Ideas

• Galaxy Slime Recipe Without Borax
• Outer Space Jewelry – by DIY Candy
• Marshmallow Constellations Space Crafts for Kids
• Cricut Craft DIY Space Mask
• Space Crafts for Kids: 30+ Out of This World Ideas

And Space Food Ideas

• Sandwich Cutters for the Ultimate Rocket-wich
• Space Themed Foods for Kids

Up next….Week 4: AROUND THE WORLD

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