Horse chestnut crafts for the fall

As the days grow shorter, brighten up your home with chestnut crafts! Our brief guide presents several lovely horse chestnut craft ideas as inspiration for engaging projects as well as elegant home décor.

• Chestnut craft ideas
• Common materials for chestnut crafts
• How to make a wire chestnut crafts wreath
  

Chestnut craft ideas

Don’t overlook these autumn gems. Chestnuts may look unassuming lying on the ground, but they can be used to create an endless array of cute animals, unique accessories, and elegant decorative items.

When combined with other natural materials, such as twigs and leaves, these sleek nuts can form the heart of your chestnut crafts project or add the crowning touch. For example, if you want to make chestnut crafts for kids, you can string and paint chestnuts to create friendly snakes, worms, and other critters. If you are looking for a more elegant endeavor, try creating classy wreaths and centerpieces or paint understated patterns onto chestnuts using contrasting colors.

Common materials for chestnut crafts

Which materials are useful when making chestnut crafts? The short answer is: lots and lots, so experiment a bit. Many crafts fans, for instance, pair horse chestnuts with other natural materials like wood, pine cones, berries, dried flowers, grass, and stones in their chestnut arts and crafts.

Many chestnut arts and crafts projects involve gluing chestnuts or other materials together. When it’s time for this step, you’ll want to have the right adhesive on hand so you can display your chestnut crafts for years to come.

When selecting your adhesive, ensure it can bond to the materials you are using.

If you need pinpoint precision, reach for Loctite’s Super Glue Precision Pen. This transparent glue goes right where you want it, does not run or drip, and bonds with many porous and non-porous surfaces, making it perfect for chestnut crafts. Loctite Extreme Glue is also a worthy contender: this great all-purpose adhesive makes it the best candidate for many crafting projects.

How to make a wire chestnut crafts wreath

This section describes how to make a chestnut wreath like the one shown below.

1. Gather your materials. You’ll need chestnuts, firm wire, adhesive, and any other decorative materials you want to intertwine or glue to your chestnut crafts wreath. Examples include chestnut shells, leaves, dried flowers/pods, ribbons, and beads. If you want to create holes in your chestnuts and firm materials beforehand, you need a needle/similar implement.
2. Prepare firm materials. Feeding wire through chestnuts and other firm materials is easier if you make holes in them first using a needle/similar implement.
3. String materials onto wire(s). Feed the wire through your chestnuts and other materials. The great thing about using wire is it’s bendable to create a range of different shapes, and you can intertwine several layers of material to create a more complex wreath or modify your project as the seasons change. You can also wrap thinner wire around lighter elements like dried flowers and weave them into your wreath. Curling these delicate wires to resemble tendrils creates a pleasing organic effect.
4. Glue additional materials. You may need to glue some fragile materials, such as dried leaves or berries, to the wires or chestnuts.