Autumn is upon us which means lots of leaves, acorns and conkers are waiting to be transformed into paintings, animals and cheeky little creatures. We've rounded up 7 brilliant conker crafts for children.

Wrap up warm, go for a walk with your little explorers, collect some conkers and enjoy making these lovely and easy autumn crafts.

1) Conker paint rolling

You will need: A few conkers, lots of sheets of paper, paint in different colours and a washing up bowl Instructions: - Place a sheet of paper in the washing up bowl and squeeze in some paint in various colours. - Throw in your conkers and get them rolling to create a painting. Our tip: try out different colours and different sized conkers to make your paintings look even more interesting

2) Conker spiders

You will need: For each spider: a conker, a pair of googly eyes and four pipe cleaners + Glue and a small screwdriver to make a hole in the conker Instructions: - Make a hole in each conker - Cut the pipe cleaners in half to create four “legs”. - Thread the pipe cleaners through the hole to create legs. - To finish, stick on the googly eyes – your conker spider is ready. 

3) Conker snails

You will need: A conker for each snail, modelling clay in different colours Instructions: - Roll the modelling clay to create snail’s body and shape the tentacles with your fingers - Place the conker on top to create a shell

4) Conker pumpkins

You will need: A few conkers Orange paint (regular paint should be fine, but you can use acrylic paint for better coverage) A green pipe cleaner cut into small pieces PVA glue Scissors Paintbrush Black marker Googly eyes (optional) Instructions: - Paint the conkers orange - Stick a piece of pipe cleaner on the top of your “pumpkin” to create a stem. - Draw a spooky face with a black marker – your conker pumpkins are ready for Halloween!

5) Conker monsters

You will need: A few conkers (don’t remove them from their cases – leave them a little open so that they look like an open mouth) Googly eyes Instructions: It’s probably the easiest craft idea ever. Simply collect a couple of conkers (be careful as they are quite prickly) and add googly eyes – your monsters are ready!

6) Conker bats

 You will need: Two conkers for each bat (one bigger, one smaller) Glue A piece of black craft felt Scissors Googly eyes Instructions: - Stick two conkers together with some glue - Cut wings and ears from black felt and stick them to the conkers - Add googly eyes. Your conker bats are ready!

7) Conker worm

You will need: Lots of conkers (as many as you want, depending on the length of your worm) Top tip: find one bigger conker to create your worm’s head Googly eyes A small screwdriver or a skewer to make holes in the conkers A piece of string and a needle Instructions: - Make holes in the conkers and pull the string through them using a needle - Tie a knot at each end - Add googly eyes on the “head”. Top tip: stick your googly eyes on the non-shiny part of the conker – it holds better than the shiny part