We love nature study around here. It’s one of our favorite real life homeschool topics and can fit in to pretty much any moment of the day. But it also means that we have quite the conglomeration of feathers, rocks, skins, twigs, beetles, moths, and other cool finds. We use nature journals to save pictures, drawings and notes (along with the occasional leaf) but our adventures to the Virginia Living Museum inspired me to create nature study display frames to put on the walls in our newly painted playroom.

It ended up exactly how I wanted and was a super simple project! I can envision a whole wall covered in a collage of nature!

I used a 12 x 12 scrapbooking shadow box and a 12 x 12 piece of fusible fleece. I happen to have the fusible fleece leftover from another project and was very happy with how smoothly it fit and that it was the perfect thickness and cushy-ness for the project. But I think any thick fleece or batting project would work. Look for something about 1 inch thick, but with a lot of give. Don’t be thrown off by the prices online–that’s usually for a whole bolt or a big piece. You only need a small piece and they carry it at JoAnne’s and Hancock Fabrics around here too. I’m sure you could even find a coupon to get the cut at 20-40% off.

Take the backing out of the frame and lay it on the table.

Lay your 12 x 12 fleece on top of the backing.

Lay out your nature study items how you want them to look in the frame.

Lay the glass of the frame on top and see if you like it. Life it off carefully to rearrange if necessary.

Then flip your sandwich over and fasten the backing to the frame.

Voila!

A bird nest with sheep wool in the center, two turkey feathers, and a snake-skin.

I had put in little labels and then took them out because I couldn’t seem to be the proportions or locations right. And I hate my handwriting! {smile} I haven’t given up on the idea of labels, but the kiddos were excited to get it done.

The shadow box style of frame gives room for 3D items like the nest and some beetles we’re working with in our second frame. The fleece batting is really key to holding everything in place without causing any damage. We love how they’re turning out (We have two more frames we’re working on right now) and I’m a little stuck trying to decide which wall to hang them on upstairs because I want to have room for more.

We still use pictures to record a lot of our finds because we always let life specimens go after a few minutes.

Do you have any thoughts or ideas on the labeling? I think I’ve struggled partly because the frames have a very simple, spare, modern-ish feel to them and my style tends to be more rustic and antique and nothing I tried seemed to look good.

We also use cleaned out peanut butter jars to house “specimens” that don’t make the display cut. (There’s only so many rocks I’m willing to put on display!) I love that they are plastic, but have secure lids so I don’t have to worry about the munchkins breaking them and they are allowed to keep them on their dressers to manage themselves.

How do you display cool nature finds at your house? Our kiddos also tend to bring home other “discoveries” like rusted hinges or old chunks of brick they found in the woods. Right now that stuff is in their collection jars but I’m thinking about putting some if it in our frames too. Would you?

See where I’m sharing this week…