Fall Tree & Peg Doll Family Keepsake

Make this keepsake of your family to celebrate Fall and bring out year to year!  This one is a gift for Grandma and Grandpa! 

Materials

• Wooden peg dolls (you can find these online or in craft stores)
• Paint pens (we love the Posca brand)
• Detail pens (we find that the Micron brand works well over the painted surface)
• Popsicle sticks/ tongue depressors of various sizes
• Glue (we used a glue gun, but white glue could work just as well)
• Brown paint
• Coffee filters
• Watercolour paint or food colouring (fall leaf colours)
• Scissors
• Cloche (We got ours at Michaels, but we have seen them at Ikea and other house ware stores as well.  You could also flip over a glass jar.)
• Modelling clay
• Drying rack
• Pencil/eraser

We always find these items useful too:

Directions

• Paint your coffee filters with watercolour paints or food colouring in your leaf colours.  Allow them to dry overnight.  We popped them on a cooling rack so they would dry faster!

• Glue your popsicle sticks into a tree formation.  We used a bigger one for the trunk and then worked our way to smaller branches with smaller popsicle sticks.  Make sure that your tree branch width will fit inside of your cloche.

• If you like, paint your tree.

• Cut out your leaves from the coffee filters. Glue them onto your tree (and save some extras to sprinkle at the bottom of your tree).

• With your pencil, sketch out your ideas for you and your family members or friends on your peg dolls.

• Colour in your ideas with your paint pens.  Allow them to dry thoroughly and then add any details that you may like with your thin, black pens.

• Form a ball with your modelling clay.  Insert your tree in the centre and then form a hill-like appearance.  Arrange your people around the tree and then sprinkle your fallen leaves around them.

• Have an adult help you put on the glass portion of your cloche and then put your fall tree and family on display.  Alternatively, skip the cloche and use your tree and figurines for small world play!

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Purpose

• Celebrating the changing of the seasons. recognizing the colours that are often present.

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you use a tray and a smock to protect your clothing and surfaces.
• Use scissors with care and direct, adult supervision.
• Cord, yarn etc. can be a strangulation hazard, therefore be sure to use with direct supervision and for its intended purpose.
• Beads can be a choking hazard, therefore be sure to keep them out of the reach of children ages 0-3 years of age or those that tend to put things into their mouths.