34 GORGEOUS Camping Activities For Kids: The Best Nature Art Projects

Hands-down, there is nothing I like more than being with my kids outside. They love it, too: My girls have a blast hiking, swimming, exploring and, of course, digging like dogs in mole holes. (Don’t yours, too?) But sometimes boredom hits, and my kids get tired of simply being outdoors.

That’s when I suggest my girls and I do one of these nature art projects —and then watch their imagination and creativity blossom. These also make for fun camping activities for kids so you’ll never run out of things to do on your next family camping trip.

We’ve been doing these nature projects for kids for years. Now whenever we take our dog for a walk, the girls want to bring along their buckets so they can collect “nature art supplies” for later crafts. When I say, “Hey, want to do a nature art project?” they literally jump up and down, asking me what we’re going to do.

Because variety is the spice of nature art projects, and you might want a little inspiration, I’ve put together a list of 34 gorgeous camping arts and crafts that you can use while camping, or simply out in your yard. Go ahead, let your creativity shine!

And since you’re excited to have fun with your kids once you reach the Great Outdoors, you might as well have a wonderful time getting there, too! Grab your copy of my book Road Trip Games & Activities for Kids. It shares 33 fun, customizable games and free printables that will keep you and your littles entertained for hours! Click the image below to get your copy in e-book or paperback!

Beat boredom with these fun camping activities for kids

Boredom while we’re family camping or just out in the yard is unfathomable to me now—there’s little I’d rather do than just relax in a quiet forest or chill by a river. But I remember complaining to my mom—“I’m booooooored”—when I was a kid.

Get rid of the b-word when you’re outdoors with one—or many!—of these fun nature crafts which make for some of the best family camping activities.

But, before you get started with these fun camping activities for kids, be sure to come prepared with extra supplies including glue, paper, clay, crayons, washable paint and string. 

1. Nature collage: The most popular kids camping activity

There’s no questioning why this is number 1 on my list of best camping activities for kids.

With just glue, card stock and whatever nature supplies your kids collect, they can create gorgeous nature collages. My kids can happily spend an hour on this camping arts and crafts project, while hubby and I sit back, relax and enjoy the outdoors!

2. Nature mandalas: One of the most exciting camping activities for kids

Send your kids on a scavenger hunt for pieces of nature. (I always bring buckets on our camping trips for this part!) Then create symmetrical designs using flowers, pine cones and whatever else you find at your campsite.

3. Ash painting: Most unique camping arts and crafts activity

In a bucket, stir together a scoop of campfire ash (that has completely cooled off, of course!) and water until it makes a thin paste. Then invite your kids to create art with this DIY black “paint”! Paint the sidewalk or white paper, but not your clothes—it will probably stain.

Your kids will be even more excited about this camping art project when you explain that this technique is one of the ways cavemen made art on their walls.

4. Leaf animals

Collect a variety of leaves—aim for different sizes, shapes and colors. Arrange them on a piece of paper, the ground or a tree stump, using leaves for each animal part. You can add a googly eye (I love a good googly eye) or use something found in nature—like a pebble—for the animal’s eyes, nose and even spots.

5. Clay nature prints

When you bring clay on your next family camping trip, your kids can make nature prints—which are basically fossils. (Yes, you just upped your cool factor!)

Give small pieces of clay to each child. They can roll it in a smooth ball and flatten it to a disc, then press an item from nature into it. Carefully peel it out to reveal an imprint of a snail shell, twig or pine cone. This is one of my kids’ favorite camping arts and crafts!

6. Rock footprints

Find stones of different sizes. Then arrange them in the shape of footprints, using big rocks for the pad of the foot and pebbles for toes.

Depending on the shapes of your rocks, you can leave human footprints or animal footprints. Your kids may even be inspired in this camping art project to create footprints of the animals in your camp! Think of raccoons and squirrels, or bear and cougars!

7. Nature face

Use what you find in nature—sticks, rocks, leaves, pinecones, flowers—to make a funny face. You can set this up on the ground or a tree stump, or leave it on a picnic table for someone else to find—and laugh over! Your family can get quite creative with this fun nature art idea.

8. Nature puppets

With some glue and a popsicle stick (or even a regular ol’ stick), you can make an adorable, creative puppet with items you found in nature. My girls and I made this one with leaves, dandelion stems and even marigold seeds – Although I think I had more fun than they did with this nature art activity!

9. Home sweet tent

Collect sticks or rocks—whatever is most plentiful in your campsite. Then spell out the word “home” in front of your tent.

Doesn’t your tent feel cozier now?

10. Fairy houses: The best camping activity for kids

Using whatever nature materials you have at your campsite, your kids can build a home for fairies to live in! My kids got so into this camping art project that it stretched over three days.

They would add to it (the final fairy house included an obstacle course, playground and chandelier) and play with their ponies in the structures. They ended up using our firewood—so we had to get more, since we couldn’t burn their fairy houses!

This camping arts and craft project really allows them to use their imagination and will keep your kids entertained for hours on end.

11. Leaf rubbings

Remember doing leaf rubbings when you were a kid? Just have your child put leaves, ferns or other items from nature under a sheet of paper, then gently rub a paper-free crayon over the paper. Your child will watch an etching of the leaf appear!

12. Color explorations: the best kids nature art for the fall

This activity works best in the fall, when nature’s colorful side is on full display, but you can do it anytime of the year.

Pick a narrow range of colors—e.g. red-orange-yellow—and collect as many things within those hues as you can (e.g. leaves). Then arrange them on the ground by gradation of color. In this example, you’d start with the deepest red on one end, and the color would transition to yellow on the other end. It’s like nature ombre!

13. Nature paintbrushes

All you need to bring along for this nature art and crafts project is washable paint and paper. Collect different items in nature—a fern frond, a small pine branch, flowers, anything—and use them as a paintbrush.

Invite your kids to experiment by printing with the natural item or brushing. Your kids will be delighted by the diverse effects.

14. Leaf towers

It’s amazing how something as simple as a leaf can be used in so many different kids camping activities! To make these leaf towers, find a thin stick, then collect as many different leaves as you can. Poke the stick through the center of each leaf—don’t worry if you tear it, there are plenty more! Leave a few inches between the leaves.

You can create a pattern on your leaf tower (maple-ash-maple-ash) or simply add leaves in an order that feels natural.

When you’re done, help your kids poke the wider end of the stick into the ground, creating a beautiful—and unexpected—piece of nature art.

15. Fairy wands

Invite your kids to collect pieces of nature that call to them, like dandelion blooms, cattails, ferns or anything else. Arrange the items near the edge of a sturdy stick about 12 inches long. Use string (or even the twine that kept your firewood bundle together) to tie the items to the end of the stick. Now your kids have fairy wands!

16. Flower crown

If you’re anything like me, you have fond memories of sitting in the grass as a kid and weaving together daisy chains for a flower crown. Teach your kids this crucial life skill.

The last time I made a flower crown, I didn’t just stick to daisies; I wove in other wildflowers for a less uniform—and more organic—look. This is one of my favorite art projects and my kids get so excited every time we make these flower crowns.

17. Grass pom poms

Pom poms are having their moment—so you might as well bring them with you camping. Rip thick grass into sections about 3 inches long. Gather a small handful and arrange them so they’re roughly in an even stack. Use a longer, sturdy piece of grass (hay-like grass that’s in between fresh and dry works great) to tie the bundle together in the middle.

Fluff out the pieces of grass so they create a pom pom—and hang it from somewhere fun, like your rain fly! #pompomdecor

18. Leaf confetti

If you want your camping trip to be extra-celebratory, just bring along a hole punch: You can punch different colored leaves to make confetti! Simply punch leaves over a plate (so they don’t get scattered on the ground) until you have enough to take handfuls—and HOORAY! Instant camp party!

19. Nature necklaces

Since you have your hole punch handy, punch holes at the base of leaves and other items in nature. Then string them through a piece of twine you have on-hand—or even long strands of grass. Tie the ends together to make a gorgeous nature necklace for your kids.

20. Bodies in nature

Have your child lie down on the ground and trace her body with a stick. All along the outline, place whatever you have handy at your campsite: pinecones, rocks, or even seashells. Then have your kid fill in her portrait. This nature art project for kids is a beautiful—and engrossing—activity that could last your entire camping trip!

21. Tree stump portraits

Find a tree stump and use it as the starting point for a portrait. On the tree stump “face,” you can add hair (grass, moss), eyes (clovers, sand dollars), lips (leaves, berries) and anything else your child can imagine for this nature craft project.

22. Nature chalk drawings

Time to get really creative with the next few kids camping activities, and they’ll love it! With chalk, draw outlines of things you find in nature—then continue to draw to turn them into animals, landscapes or whatever your child can imagine! The outline of a leaf, for example, could turn into a hedgehog, the flame from a fire-breathing dragon or the top of a tree. 

23. Bark painting

Forget paper; paint on tree bark instead. Simply find some bark on the ground (though please don’t pull it off of living trees, as it stresses and harms the tree) and paint whatever you like. Your kids may be curious about the different results of painting on the rough outside and the smoother inside with this nature art project.

24. Decorate nature fairies

I recently printed out these free drawings from Mer Mag, and the girls and I transformed them into forest fairies by adding found objects from nature.

I’ll definitely plan ahead for our next family camping trip so we can add this camping art project to the mix!

25. Dangling nature art

Bring along string or yarn from home—your kids will love this camping art project. Simply tie things you find in nature to strings of varying length. Then hang the strings from a tree branch for a gorgeous art installation.

They remind me of disco beads, yes? 😉

26. Nature spirals

This camping nature art project is super-simple. Just collect a bunch of the same things—my kids gathered basalt rocks on a recent family camping trip—and arrange them in a spiral.

Spirals are found naturally everywhere in nature. Just think of the arrangement of sunflower seeds, the curve of a seashell or even a hurricane. Humans have been using a spiral as a sacred symbol in art and architecture for centuries; why not add it to your nature art project, too?

27. Nature God’s eye

You might have made these at summer camp with popsicle sticks and fluorescent yarn; you can make this all-natural art from materials found outside, too.

Cross two short sticks in an X. Take a bendable vine (such as a long ivy branch) and begin to wrap it back and forth around the intersection where the sticks meet in the middle. When you get to the end of the vine, tie it to another vine—either the same kind or a different one for an alternating pattern. Continue until the nature God’s eye is full to the edge of the stick (or earlier if your little ones lose patience!). Tie off the vine at the end, and hang it from your tent or a tree.

28. Hammered flower prints

We always keep a mallet in our camping box; you might have a hammer. Use it to create gorgeous flower prints, a camping craft idea you may not be familiar with!

Lay a piece of white paper on something sturdy that you don’t mind getting slightly dented (such as a beat-up picnic table). Lay out a design of brightly colored flowers. Cover your design with a paper towel. Gently tap all over the paper towel with the mallet or hammer, doing your best to not move the flowers too much underneath.

Lift up the paper towel and peel off the flowers to reveal your flower prints! 

29. Leaf stencils

Lay a leaf onto a sheet of paper. Hold it still by pressing one finger into the center of the leaf. Using a sponge or a wide paintbrush, dab the area around the leaf and on the edges of the leaf. Carefully lift up the leaf (it works best to lift it from the stem). You’ll reveal white space where your leaf used to be.

30. Mushroom prints

Pick a mushroom (just familiarize yourself with your region’s fungi to ensure you’re not picking something poisonous; check out this book on North American fungi), then remove the stalk. Place the mushroom cap gills-down on a blank piece of paper. Place a cup over the mushroom cap to keep the breeze from disturbing it and leave the mushroom overnight.

In the morning, pick up the cap—you should see a print left behind from the spores the mushroom released!

31. Life-sized nature people

Using rocks, branches, driftwood, even seaweed—whatever materials you have around—make a life-sized person out of nature. You can even dress him or her up, give a fancy hairdo, or add some bling!

What’s more, this is a fun nature art project you can continue to add to over the course of your time outside. Start this outdoor art project at the beginning of your camping trip, for example, and see how it evolves throughout your stay.

32. Nature weaving

Find three sticks and collect a bunch of long vines or grasses. Push the base of each stick into the ground, close to each other in a row. Tie one end of a vine or blade of grass to one of the outside sticks near where it meets the ground. Weave the vine in and out of the sticks to create a gorgeous nature weaving project.

33. “Paint” with dandelions

One of our new favorite camping arts and crafts: painting with dandelions! I love the vibrant yellow of dandelions—and did you know you can use them to paint or draw?

Simply pick a few dandelions and smudge them over paper. The pretty yellow hue shows up on the paper! This is the perfect camping craft for toddlers.

34. Braid flowers

If you’re like me, you might be skilled at braiding your kids’ hair—so why not transfer that expertise to flowers? 

Simply tie together three flowers with long stems. (I use a long piece of grass to tie them together under the base of the flower.) Then braid them, adding a new flower to the strand every other time you cross the stems. 

I recently braided flowers into a dandelion crown. The kids later used it to decorate the entrance to our tent. Then Maxine turned the flower braid into a zip line for her fairy house!

The best camping activities for kids (and the whole family)

Now that you’ve looked through all these fun camping crafts for kids, you have so many ideas for family camping trips—or just your back yard. You and your little ones will be inspired to play outdoors with all these outside activities for kids.

Do you have a favorite? One you’re most excited to try? Tell me in the comments! And don’t forget to pin this post or email it to a friend!

And if you want to make buckets for camping arts and crafts for your own kids, see the directions below.

PS – Want ideas for family camping in Oregon? Check out my post on yurt camping at Ft. Stevens on the Oregon Coast, or tent camping at Milo McIver State Park near Portland.