10 Camping Crafts for Adults

Looking for activities to do on your camping trip? Then look no further. We'll give you ten ideas for sustainable camping crafts for adults and what you need for them.

Camping is a fun outdoor activity, but aside from the campfire and cooking, what else is there to do? Don’t worry, we’ll show you ten fun camping craft activities that you can do with minimal equipment needed — in fact, for most of them, you can just use what’s available in the natural environment around you.

Let’s get creative!

1. Make an Environmental Art Picture

This camping craft is especially fun in the autumn when the leaves on the ground are colorful. Use fallen leaves, rocks, or dried grass to make an outdoor collage. Make a frame on the ground using twigs and create a picture or pattern inside it. To stay as environmentally neutral as possible, don’t pull any living leaves from trees! You could also try making a rock sculpture by creatively stacking differently-shaped stones onto one another. 

2. Sculpt Using Natural Clay

Before going camping, check out the soil profile of the local area. If there is a spring or natural water source in the area, you may find a layer of clay at the bottom. If it is not too deep, dig a small hole using a trowel or shovel until you hit the clay layer, which will be a light brown color and stickier than the other layers — it could be around four to six inches deep.

Take a handful of clay in your hands and form it into any shape you want, such as a face or animal. Use pieces of dried leaves or grass for other features, or use a twig to carve some detail. When you have finished and taken some photos, put the clay and soil back in the hole and cover it.

Note: If you are camping on a private campsite, check with the landowner for permission before digging a hole. 

3. Camping Crafts: Paint Trees with Dirt

See how many colors of dirt you can find! Gather earth from different areas and put the differently pigmented soil in small pots. Mix them with water to create natural paint. You can use either paintbrushes brought from home or a fallen pine or fir branch to create your work of art. If there are large trees in the area, you could even paint the bark with the earth, or bring some recycled paper so you can take your artwork home.

4. Hang a Leaf Mobile

Use fallen leaves to create some hanging decorations. For this camping craft, collect fallen leaves from the ground and gently wash them. Next, take a long piece of natural twine and some wooden clothes pins and peg your leaves at intervals along the twine. You could hang your leaf decoration horizontally like bunting, or cut shorter lengths of twine and hang it vertically, for example, from the branches of trees. Remember to take them down before going home.

5. Build a Shelter

In a forest area, find a large tree and place large fallen branches against it to form an upside-down “v” shape. Depending on the season, you could cover the outside with dried leaves or add features using rocks. Make sure you take it down when you’ve finished.

Read more: DIY & Eco-Friendly Fix for a Hole in an Air Mattress

6. Camping Crafts: Do Some Charcoal Art

If you had a campfire the previous night, use some of the partially burned wood as charcoal to draw a picture on recycled paper.

7. Press Leaves or Flowers

For a simple and relaxing camping craft, try drying and pressing leaves and making a collection. You could also do the same with flowers. 

8. Weave a "God's Eye"

Make a cute “God’s eye” whilst sitting around the campfire. You might remember these from your summer camp days, they look attractive, and you can bring them home as a souvenir.

Materials:

• Colorful sustainable yarn (such as I’m Not Wool, available on Amazon**)
• Scissors
• 2 straight sticks of similar size
• White glue

Instructions:

1. Use the yarn to tie the two sticks together tightly in the shape of a cross.
2. Weave the yarn around the sticks clockwise in an over-under motion, repeating until a thick line of yarn shows around the sticks.
3. Tie a new color of yarn to the end of one stick, pull tightly, and then repeat the weaving steps.
4. Repeat again with the color of your choice until the desired shape is achieved.
5. When finished, tie the end and cut any stray pieces of yarn.
6. Tie a small loop of yarn to the top of one of the sticks to hang it.

9. Make a Natural Tic-Tac-Toe Game

Find four twigs of similar size to create your natural tic-tac-toe board on the ground. Use natural materials as the pieces such as stones, leaves or smaller twigs.

10. Camping Crafts: Make Natural Dyes

Try natural dyeing using food and flowers. You could also try out our 2-ingredient natural homemade beet dye— all you need are some white clothes, water, a large pot, a camping stove, a drying line, and pegs. Don’t forget the beets!

Read more:

• The Ultimate Sustainable Camping Packing List
• Wild Camping: A Beginner’s Guide to Free Camping in the US & Canada
• 10 Essential Tips for Camping as a Family

** Links to retailers marked with ** or underlined orange are partially partner links: If you buy here, you actively support Utopia.org, because we will receive a small part of the sales proceeds. More info.

Tags: Camping Crafts Green Living Guide Listicles Outdoors

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