If you’ve come home from an autumn walk with a pocket full of conkers, you don’t have to leave them sitting in a bowl. You can turn them into animals, garlands, little characters and simple autumn decorations without needing many extra craft supplies.
Conkers are the seeds of the horse chestnut tree, so you may also see similar projects described as horse chestnut crafts. Their naturally smooth, glossy surface means you don’t need to do much to make them look good.
Here are some simple things you can make with conkers.
Make Conker Animals
Conker animals are probably the classic place to start.
A single conker can become a body or head, while twigs, pipe cleaners, felt and acorns can be used for the details.
You could try making:
- Conker Spiders
- Conker Hedgehogs
- Conker Caterpillars
- Conker People
- Woodland Animals
A spider is particularly easy: use one conker for the body and add pipe-cleaner legs.
If you need to make holes in the conkers, an adult should handle this part for younger children.
Paint Conkers
If you don’t want to drill or join conkers together, just paint them!
The dark brown surface works well for simple designs, especially if you’re using a light-coloured paint pen.
Try adding things like these:
- Funny Faces
- Dots and Stripes
- Flowers
- Autumn Leaves
- Halloween Faces
This is also a good option if you’ve only found two or three conkers and don’t have enough for a bigger project.
You could paint several in different styles and use them as little characters in an autumn display.
Make a Conker Garland
A conker garland is a useful project if you’ve managed to collect a lot of horse chestnuts.
Carefully make a hole through each conker and thread them onto strong string or cord.
You can keep the garland completely natural or break up the conkers with other autumn materials such as:
- Wooden Beads
- Felt Leaves
- Acorns
- Tassels
- Small Pine Cones
Don’t worry about making everything perfectly symmetrical. A slightly uneven garland can actually work really nicely with natural materials.
Use Conkers on an Autumn Wreath
You don’t need enough conkers to make an entire decoration from them. If you’ve only collected a handful, add them to an autumn wreath instead.
They work well alongside dried leaves, pine cones, acorns, ribbon and other seasonal decorations.
This is also a nice way to use particularly glossy conkers without painting over them.
You could use the same idea for an autumn table decoration or centrepiece.
Build a Miniature Woodland Scene
If your autumn walk produced more than just conkers, turn your collection into a little woodland scene.
You could use:
- Conkers
- Acorns
- Twigs
- Pine Cones
- Dried Leaves
- Small Stones
Use a sturdy piece of card or a shallow box as the base.
Conker animals can become the characters, twigs can look like tiny trees and dried leaves can cover the ground.
There’s no set way to make this one. It’s really about using whatever you’ve collected and seeing what you can turn it into.
Make a Simple Autumn Display
You don’t actually have to craft with conkers at all if you don’t want to.
Fresh horse chestnuts already have a lovely glossy brown finish, so a bowl or tray filled with conkers, pine cones and acorns can make an easy autumn decoration.
It’s particularly useful if you like the way your conkers look and don’t want to drill, paint or glue them.
You can also add a few to an existing autumn display rather than making something entirely new.
Do You Need to Dry Conkers Before Crafts?
If your conkers are damp when you collect them, it’s a good idea to let them dry before you use or store them.
Don’t put freshly collected damp conkers straight into an airtight container, as trapped moisture can encourage mould.
Spread them out somewhere dry first and give them a chance to lose the surface moisture.
Conkers are a natural material, so they won’t stay glossy and perfect forever. They may shrink, dull or wrinkle as they age, which is why they’re best treated as a seasonal autumn craft material rather than something that has to last.
What’s the Easiest Thing to Make With Conkers?
If you want a quick project, paint a conker or turn one into a simple spider or other small animal.
If you’ve collected a whole bag, you’ve got enough to try something bigger like a garland, wreath or woodland scene.
You don’t need to buy lots of supplies either. Conkers work particularly well with twigs, acorns, leaves and other things you can pick up on the same autumn walk.