
It’s fun collecting things in nature because it feels like a treasure hunt. We collected all the bright coloured foliage that we could find to contribute to our natural glitter crafting projects.
Making glitter or ‘fairy dust’ out of flowers and leaves is biodegradable and free! Sure it’s not sparkly like plastic glitter but it’s a way to make a colourful craft project without using paints or harmful glitter.
Did you know that plastic glitter is harmful to the environment? Any kind of plastic product can be harmful to the environment, but microplastics often ends up getting washed down drains and enters our water system and goes into the oceans and lakes. Fish and plankton can ingest it which can be deadly. It also ends up in landfills and can be eaten by birds and other wildlife. These small pieces of polymer that we call microplastics account for over 90% of the trillion pieces of plastic floating in the ocean.
If colourful flowers and leaves aren’t readily available, you can create salt glitter using food colouring and salt. Colouring rice is also a good substitute. Since prehistoric times, glitter was made from many natural materials, from sparkling crushed stones and rocks, like mica. Glittery river and beach sand, glass and even insects.
Many Scientists have been advocating to ban plastic glitter and some schools and nurseries have already put a stop to it.
So, let‘s make some Natural Glitter!

step 1: Forage leaves and flowers from your backyard or on a hike
step 2: Cut the foliage into tiny pieces, you can either pre-dry the plants or cut them up first then left them dry. You can also crumble dry plants into tiny pieces or blend them into finer pieces.
step 3: create a fun art project using the glitter. We created dragonflies and butterflies. (view dragonfly blog for instructions).

If you absolutely can’t live without modern store bought glitter, make sure that the label says Biodegradable. Stores now sell Biodegradable glitter. It looks exactly like real glitter. Check out this dragonfly my daughter made using biodegradable glitter;

Comments