For Seniors: Easy Crafts Recommended for October
October brings cooler, more comfortable weather.
There are events like the Harvest Moon (Jūgoya), Sports Day, and Halloween.
As the phrase “autumn is for ____” suggests, the mild climate makes it easier to get out and do things, making us want to enjoy our favorite activities and try new challenges.
Let’s create autumn-themed crafts so that older adults can also feel the season!
In connection with the idea of “autumn is for ____,” it could be nice to spark lively conversations with older adults about what to enjoy in autumn.
Be sure to make use of this “October Crafts for Older Adults.”
They say “autumn is for reading” because, among the four seasons, autumn has the shortest daylight hours, and the longer nights are perfect for reading.
For Seniors: Easy Crafts Recommended for October (1–10)
Mummy-kunNEW!
Here’s a great idea to try when you’re looking for a Halloween-season craft.
It’s a mummy mascot you can make using a Yakult bottle, pipe cleaners, and yarn.
First, attach the pipe cleaners to the bottle as arms, then wrap the yarn around to create the mummy.
Finish by sticking on googly-eye stickers you can find at 100-yen shops.
The steps are simple, but wrapping the yarn may require some dexterity.
It’s a recommended idea when you want a craft that doesn’t take much time but still gives your fingers a good workout.
picture letter
Isn’t “etegami,” hand-painted postcards, just lovely? Receiving a letter adorned with a seasonal picture can really lift your spirits.
So how about creating your own autumn-themed etegami as an October recreation activity? Even if you’re not confident in drawing, this time we’ll be making pictures with Japanese fabrics, which makes it easy to try! We’ll prepare templates like saury, autumn leaves, and mushrooms—just place your favorite fabric over them.
Japanese fabrics with rich textures and patterns create a beautiful atmosphere on their own, helping you make a charming etegami.
Creating an autumn harvest festival with quilling
Paper quilling is an art form where you roll thin, narrow strips of paper into coils to create artworks.
This time, why not use paper quilling to depict autumn delicacies like grapes, mushrooms, and persimmons? It’s tricky to roll the paper with just your fingers, so try winding it around a toothpick or similar tool.
Unlike torn-paper collage, this technique produces a three-dimensional finish, and the completed piece will make a wonderful interior decoration if you frame it.
It helps build concentration and gives a sense of accomplishment, so even seniors who find fine motor tasks challenging are encouraged to give it a try.
Moon-viewing mobile
Let’s make a mobile full of seasonal charm using twine and colored construction paper! When we think of autumn, there are so many iconic events and flowers: moon-viewing (Otsukimi), the autumn equinox (Ohigan), Halloween, maple leaves, cosmos, and more.
Create autumn-themed items with origami or colored paper, and hang them to make a gently swaying mobile—so cute, right? Make whatever you like and attach each piece to the twine.
Autumn flowers like bellflower (kikyo), as well as mushrooms and grapes, are easy to craft with origami and highly recommended.
A jack-o’-lantern would be adorable too!
Making Halloween decorations
In the past few years, Halloween has become firmly established as an autumn tradition.
It’s great to see more events that everyone—from children to adults—can get excited about and enjoy together.
Speaking of Halloween, you often see decorations featuring motifs like jack-o’-lanterns, ghosts, and black cats.
How about making some decorations like that to boost the Halloween mood? It’s an easy craft: accordion-fold colored construction paper, join the ends, and just stick on eyes and a mouth.
Halloween decorations
Halloween has become an established event in Japan as well.
How about a craft activity making Halloween-themed decorations that evoke the deepening of autumn? Let’s make orange Halloween ornaments that add a touch of seasonal color! Wrap candy with tissues and crepe paper, then glue on a stem to finish.
They’re very easy to make and also serve as good fine-motor practice, so please try doing this together with older adults.
These easy-to-make decorations will be a big hit at Halloween events, too.
We hope this crafting activity helps everyone feel the fun of autumn.
Maple leaf photo frame
Maple leaves have often been the subject of waka poetry since ancient times.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro’s poem, “Akiyama no momiji o shigemi madoinuru imo o motome mu yamaji shirazumo,” is well known.
It’s quite charming to go on a momijigari (autumn leaf viewing) with everyone from the day service while thinking of such poems.
How about decorating a photo frame with the maple leaves you gather? It will make a lovely autumn memory, and photos taken in the fall will surely shine.
The photo frame can be handmade or store-bought—either is fine.
Arrange various shades of orange paper and maple leaves beautifully on the frame you’ve prepared.
Halloween wreath made from paper plates
A great way to feel the autumn season indoors is to add seasonal decorations.
Halloween may not be very familiar to many older adults, but your grandchildren would probably be thrilled to see the decorations when they come to visit.
It’s also important to try new things, so why not make some cute pumpkin decorations?
Making Japanese-patterned bookmarks
Autumn is often called the season for reading, isn’t it? How about making a simple bookmark with a traditional Japanese pattern? For the bookmark body, cut a piece of fabric with a Japanese motif to the size of two bookmarks, apply double-sided tape to just half of the back, then fold it in the middle and press to adhere.
That alone is a bit too simple, so let’s add a small temari ball and a ribbon—often used in hanging decorations—as accents.
Punch a small hole at the top of the bookmark, thread a slightly long ribbon through, then thread a temari ball onto each end of the ribbon and tie them.
This alone gives it a festive look, and the temari balls swaying at the ribbon tips are very cute.
If you prefer a stiffer bookmark, you can insert cardstock between the layers of fabric.
Making an autumn calendar
Let’s try making a handmade calendar for each season that you see every day! Autumn brings many images to mind—an appetite for delicious food, sports, and reading—and it’s full of iconic flowers and foods like cosmos, maple leaves, chestnuts, and sweet potatoes.
Let’s create and decorate an October calendar inspired by autumn! You can make cosmos and autumn leaves out of origami and paste them on, or draw directly on the calendar.
Collage, paper cutting—feel free to express your own vision of autumn.