Arts & Crafts

Fall Craft: Apple Lei and Printable Template

My brother recently went on a trip to Hawaii and brought back some fabric flower leis and little hula outfits for my girls. I’m a little grumpy about having to follow them around picking up bits of green raffia “grass” that have come loose from the hula skirts all over my floor, but the girls are loving the outfits. These leis inspired me to make an apple lei, or necklace, with my preschooler just in time for fall and apple season.

Here’s all you need for this easy craft: construction paper, plastic straws, and string. You’ll also need scissors, a piece of tape, and a hole puncher (the barrel type works better than the scissors-style punch).

Fall Craft: Apple Lei and Printable Template | This West Coast Mommy

If your kids are older, they can cut out their own apples, but I did the cutting here as Tee is only three. She loves practicing her scissor skills, but forget about her actually cutting anything out.

I cut out about four dozen apple shapes in different fall colours of construction paper. (Scroll down to the bottom of the post for a printable apple template.) To save time, I layered my paper and cut out multiple apple shapes at the same time. Four was a good number of layers to cut at one time. I punched small holes in the centre of all the apples using my barrel-style hole puncher. I cut five straws worth of spacers, about 3/4″ in length.

We measured how long her lei should be, added six inches or so, and cut  the twine. I wrapped tape around one end of the twine to make it easier for her to thread the apples and pieces of straw, and I tied one of the straw pieces onto the other end to stop the pieces from sliding off. Then I showed Tee how to alternate apples and spacers. She got the hang of it quickly and made her apple lei pretty much on her own.

Fall Craft: Apple Lei and Printable Template | This West Coast Mommy

Once she’d filled up the whole length of twine, we pulled off the tape and tied the ends together.

Fall Craft: Apple Lei and Printable Template | This West Coast Mommy

And here’s her finished product. She was pretty proud of herself!

Fall Craft: Apple Lei and Printable Template | This West Coast Mommy

Here’s a printable template of the apple shape for you to make your own apple lei. Feel free to size it up or down to suit.

Printable Apple Template

This post is linked up to some fantastic arts and crafts link parties. Check out my Link Parties page to see where I’m linking up and to find some wonderful blogs and more fun activities for kids!

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