Decorative Crafts

• Make mushrooms for home decor out of an egg carton and other materials. The website, Marcel's Kid Crafts, suggests using an egg carton that has cups and peaks to create the craft. Cut an egg cup out to be the top of a mushroom. Cut a peak off of the carton, too. Put glue on the underside of the cup to glue it the bottom of the peak. Another option is to use an empty spool as the mushroom stem. Paint the mushroom top red with white spots and the stem white to make a traditional toadstool, or paint the top brown and the stem white to make a different variety. Put a hole in the stem and insert a chopstick so you can make a mushroom bouquet or decorate a potted plant.
  
  Make a decorative mushroom out of a cork as seen on the Craft Ideas website. Cut a 1 inch plastic foam ball in half to form the top of the mushroom. Glue the flat part of the ball to the top of a wine cork. Paint the stem white and the top red with white dots. Add googly eyes and a red bead for the nose to the stem. Draw a smile with a black marker to complete the mushroom. Add a small felt hat or a cotton ball beard to add whimsy to the character. To make a girl mushroom, draw in eyelashes above the googly eyes and give it rosy cheeks.
  
  

Gift Crafts

• Make mushroom themed crafts to give as gifts. The Family Fun website suggests making a mushroom spore print to use as a decorative front for a greeting card. Remove the stem from a mushroom and expose the gills with a knife by cutting the lower edge of the cap. Put the mushroom on a sheet of paper. Put a piece of wax paper on the mushroom and press it with a heavy book. Let it stand overnight. The mushroom will have released spores from the cap to create a pattern. Use colored pencils to color the spaces and create a colorful design. Experiment with different types and sizes of mushrooms.
  
  You can also make a mushroom out of a toilet paper roll and fill it with candy. Paint a toilet paper roll white. Add a top to the mushroom by cutting a piece of red tissue paper into a circle and filling it with cotton batting. Stuff the ends of the tissue paper into the end of the roll and use glue to secure it. Turn the mushroom upside down and fill the tube with candy. Cover the bottom of the container with a circle of cardboard, tape it shut and give it as a gift.
  
  

Imaginative Play Crafts

• Make imaginative play mushroom items. Make a mushroom fairy house and watch young imaginations soar. Use an empty round cardboard salt container as a mushroom stem. Cut a hole in the side of the container to use as a door. Make a mushroom top by cutting a circle out of craft foam. Put some batting on top of the salt container and glue the foam on top of it to create a small dome mushroom top. Paint and embellish the house with silk flowers and leaves, twigs and rocks.
  
  You can also make a garden diorama including small mushrooms. Use a shoe box. Glue green felt to the interior and glue some silk flowers to the bottom of the box. Make small mushrooms out of modeling clay. Paint the mushrooms and set them in the box. Buy small plastic bunnies or bugs to embellish the diorama.
  
  

Jewelry Crafts

• To make a fun mushroom brooch, cut a mushroom shape out of brown felt. Make a duplicate of the shape. Put some cotton batting between the layers and hot glue the edges. Sew or glue some sequins to the top of the mushroom. Add a pin on the back to use it as a brooch, or add a ribbon and use it as an ornament.
  
  You can make another mushroom pin out of clay. Form the mushroom shape, then bake it per the instructions on the clay packaging. Paint the mushroom and glue a pin back (available at craft stores) to it to use it as a piece of jewelry.