You’ll need:
Wool felt squares
Needle and thread
Template for gnomes- https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/177610779049046034/
Stuffing
Wool for beards and hair
Wool for nose
Felting needle
Step one
Trace your template onto your felt squares and cut out.
Step two
Fold the gnome outline in half and blanket stitch up the tummy and up the hat.
Step three
Stuff with stuffing- be careful not to over do it!
Step four
Place the bottom circle at the base and blanket stitch around.
Step 5
Gently tease the strands of wool apart for the beard, less is more! It’s surprising how a little goes a long way. Push the wool into the stuffing using the felting needle. You only need to push it in a cm at most.
Step 6
Gently tease strands apart for the moustache, this should be a bit shorter than the beard and push in and shape with your needle.
Step 7
Roll up the wool for the nose into a loose ball and push in with the needle, shape a round nose; I think a big nose always looks very cute. Little and gentle movements is the trick.
Step 8
Gently tease apart strands of wool for the hair and push into the stuffing around the nose
Step 9
Trim any necessary wool away, do this with caution as you can’t add it back on without thickening the beard/hair.
Step 10
Place him somewhere special in your house/gift him to someone you love/carry him in your pocket always.
Enjoy!
]]>You will need: Felting wool, Felting needle, Felting pad, Embroidery thread, Scissors, Embroidery needle.
1. Pull away some wool and roll it into a ball, as tightly as you can.
2. Protecting a surface with a felting pad, push your felting needle in and out of the ball of wool. The small barbs on the needle will mesh the wool together so that the ball starts to hold shape by itself.
The more that you use your needle the tighter the wool will become, but you can always add extra layers of wool if you feel that the ball is becoming too small.
Don't make it too tight though, as you want to be able to create those lovely pumpkin segments with your thread:
3. Cut a piece of embroidery thread that you can wrap around your ball a minimum of 4 times, with some extra for knotting the ends.
4. Tie a big knot at one end of your thread and push it through your ball of felted wool. When it comes out the other side take it back down to the hole it first went through and push it up again.
5. When your thread comes out the top again bring it down on the opposite side, and take it back through the original hole once more.
Give your thread a bit of a pull to tighten it and create the segments.
6. Repeat this process to divide the ball into quarters and then eighths, then take the thread back down through the middle and tie it to the knot at the bottom.
7. Take a small piece of wool in a different shade and felt it into something that could be a stork, leaving some strands of wool loose so that you can felt them to the top of the ball.
8. Decide what to do with your mini pumpkins! Give them to a child as play food, string them together as a halloween garland, or have fun scattering them on your nature table!
Autumn nature tables are just the best, with all the amazing colours and shapes of the leaves, cones, nut shells and caps to play and craft with, not to mention the berries, mushrooms and pumpkins providing inspiration!
If you're feeling creative we have so many Autumn Crafting ideas on our blog. Check out these for starters:
Conker Fun, Autumn Nature Weaving, Teasel Hedgehog, Wet Felted Acorns
]]>You will need:
For me, Stockmar is the only option for watercolour paint. Not just because I’m a Waldorf teacher (although it is mandatory to have it in your basket at all times) it’s because the colours are so highly pigmented they last and last and create the most beautiful colours and tones on their own and mixed together.
Step one
Dampen your paper and stretch onto a board. Mix your paints to create a “meadow green” and apply in a thick wash to your paper.
Step two
Now, things get a little odd but you’re going to sprinkle salt over the entire page, it doesn’t need to be perfect. In the more organic the better! Watch over 24 hours as the salt absorbs different colours and creates different tones.
Step three
Brush off salt. Trace and cut out a circle from your painting.
Step four
A little weirder… paint a liberal amount of oil to your circle. This transforms the paper into a translucent sun catcher! Leave to totally dry.
Step five
Using PVA glue and a paint brush, stick your dried flowers onto the suncatcher.
Step six
Hang from a string in a window that receives lots of light and admire your meadow suncatcher!
Blog post by Flint & Fern Forest
]]>This week I’ve felt inspired to fetch my trusty foraging bowl and head into the woods and hedgerows in search of plants and foliage to make my own summer butterfly.
You will need
Top tips
Step one
Cut out a butterfly shape from your fabric. I used pinking shears as it stops the threads in the fabric from fraying.
Step two
Gather your garden goodies or woodland wonders. If picking nettles, washing up gloves are always useful or make sure there’s a dock leaf nearby!
Step three
Place your plants on your fabric butterfly. Make sure your butterfly is on the hard surface before placing the leaves and flowers.
Step four
Cover the butterfly with excess fabric, a piece of paper or a piece of kitchen roll; all will work fine. Hammer the butterfly until you can start to see colours and shapes appear.
Step five
Remove the top layer and gently peel away the flowers and leaves. Push the middle of the butterfly into the dolly peg and there you have a summertime butterfly of your own.
Craft Blog by Lottie Alderson
]]>We made two versions: a very basic one, with ingredients that you are likely to have in your craft cupboard and kitchen, and a pro version that you might need to order special ingredients for.
You will need: Cotton fabric, Pinking shears, Baking tray, Greaseproof paper, Beeswax Pastilles, Paint brush, Coconut oil. Additions for the pro version: Pine resin, Saucepan and bowl to make a bain-marie, Jojoba oil (instead of coconut).
Basic version
1. Use your pinking shears to cut your fabric to size. Even if your fabric is already the size you want it's a good idea to trim the edges with the pinking shears anyway, to stop it fraying.
One of the things with the basic version is that is that they turn out more oily and less sticky. We don't mind this so much for ramekins and snack pots, rather than bigger food dishes, so we cut smaller squares when doing this version.
2. Preheat your oven to 100° and put a sheet of greaseproof paper in your baking tray. Place your fabric on top and then sprinkle it with beeswax pellets.
The more sensible thing to do would be to melt a handful of pellets and a dollop of coconut oil in a bain-marie first, but this is such a fun way for children to do it, noticing how the beeswax melts into the fabric.
3. Pop your tray into the oven for 5 or 10 minutes. When you take it out look for patches of fabric that are still dry and sprinkle some more beeswax there, then pop it back in the oven. Next time you take it out dip your paintbrush into some softened coconut oil and spread it onto your fabric, aiming to create an even distribution of beeswax and oil.
4. After a final blast in the oven, (it's amazing how quickly the beeswax starts to set), peel your fabric off the greaseproof paper as quickly as possible and peg it up to dry.
Pro version
1. As for the basic version, trim the edges of your fabric with pinking shears. Re. the baking tray, we realised that the size of fabric we were using this time was too big to fit, so we just put it on some greaseproof paper and slid that straight onto an oven shelf. This time we melted our beeswax pellets, pine resin and jojoba oil together in a bain-marie, (a heatproof bowl sitting on top of a saucepan of water).
For about 5 wraps measuring 30x30cm use 30g beeswax, 15g resin and 1tbs jojoba oil. As you can see I added a smidge of coconut oil too, but this is not essential!
2. Once everything has blended together, dip your paintbrush into the mixture and spread it evenly over your fabric.
Do you know, I wouldn't have thought this craft was suitable for younger children, but my 3 yr old nephew stopped by and got stuck in, making himself a lovely wrap for his sandwiches!
3. Once you have spread your mixture over every part of your fabric pop it into the oven for a few moments to melt everything again. When you take it out of the oven peel it off the greaseproof paper as quickly as possible and peg it up to dry.
The wraps dry in seconds, and are ready to use almost immediately! Now, for the test, to make sure it was all worthwhile... did they to stick to our dishes?!
Yes! Bye-bye cling film and plastic tupperware, hello pretty wraps brightening up our kitchen and lunch boxes.
]]>You will need:
Glue
Cardboard/Paper Egg - we have our nesting sets in white or kraft, and different sizes of solid papier maché or wooden eggs
Scissors
Paint brush
Decorative paper (we used old wrapping paper & tissue paper, but if you don't have any spare you might find something you like in our origami or wrap collections)
Cut your patterned paper into small pieces.
Cover your cardboard egg with glue. We love using the Yamato nori starch glue, its so easy to use, just about the right amount of stickiness, easy to clean and leaves a lovely shine.
Start covering your egg with your decorative paper, adding glue on top.
The white eggs covered in small flowers are mine, but my daughter chose to use the kraft paper ones and wanted to create her own unique design. Instead of covering the whole egg with paper patterns she cut out individual flower shapes.
These 3i-n-1 eggs are great fun to decorate. You can fill them with little easter gifts or use then as part of your Easter decoration.
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Materials:
If you are doing this with small children, you can skip the drawing and just let them explore their own creativity. Polka dots all around look gorgeous!
Back to the tealight: Pick up your glass head pin and stick it onto the back of a pencil to make it longer and easier to work with. We will now start painting over your design with the wax. Bring your tealight close to your egg. Start dipping the head of your pin into the melted wax and filling in your design.
Wax dries incredibly quick so you will probably be doing one dot at a time, but you will be working faster than you would expect! It might take a bit to get the hang of it, but once you find your rhythm go with the flow! As I was working in silence with my daughter, we could hear the clock ticking in the background and soon realised we were both working at exactly the pace of 2 seconds: 1 dip in in wax, 2 paint the egg. Pretty quickly we were both done and wanted more!
Once you have finished your design, it’s time to dye! Carefully dip your eggs in the dye. Take out once they’ve reached the depth of colour you want and leave to dry. Make sure you drain the egg completely before moving on.
Once they are completely dry, we will remove the wax with the hairdryer. This magical process was fascinating for the little ones to experience. Get them involved but be careful as it will get quite hot! Take one egg at a time and start drying. As the warm air heats the eggshell, the wax will start melting away. Use a paper towel to gently rub the surface of the egg spreading the wax evenly over the eggshell. The melted wax will become a varnish, leaving the surface smooth and shiny.
Your beautiful eggs are finished! As always, these are just suggestions and ideas of what has worked for us. The possibilities are endless! The more you make, the more confident you will get and you will be surprised by the results. We played around dipping the eggs in different colours after removing the wax giving a tie-dye effect.
I used brown eggs, and they worked fine for darker colours bur next time, I’m getting white eggs and try dyeing them first thing in a light colour, then drawing, add wax and dye again. And maybe even a third time!
I hope you this has inspired you to try it out for yourself and experiment beyond. If you enjoyed this, why not take it a step further using this Pysanky Egg Decorating Kit or this one. You can find a helpful tutorial on how to use them here.
And make sure you check out Rebecca’s wonderful article with plenty of creative ideas for Easter crafts for kids.
We are going to make beautiful cards where the recipients gets to reveal their Valentine's message themselves with watercolour paints. You will need: Watercolour Paper and/or a Notecard Set, White Crayon, Watercolour Paints, Paintbrushes
1. Take a white wax crayon and draw with it on a piece of watercolour paper. (There was no point taking a photo of this as you wouldn't have been able to see anything, but that's the whole point... it's a SECRET!).
You can draw straight onto pre-cut cards if you wish but I always feel like if you're going to get the paints out you should really go for it, especially with watercolours as they're so dreamy...
As you can see from the 'what you'll need' pic, we used the Stockmar watercolours in Carmine and Vermilion Red and Ultramarine Blue. The Vermilion looks orange in the dish but goes onto the paper as a strong red, with the Carmine being deeper and softer. I mixed up some of my own pink and lilac, (using a squeeze of white from a tube I had), but realised after that I hadn't needed to - just mix more water into the red for a pink effect, and you can also enjoy the blending of the paints on the paper for lilac or purple, even without it being wet-on-wet.
2. Enjoy revealing all of your Valentine's doodles to yourself, because even you won't realise what you've done until the paint reveals it!
Your paper may start to curl up once you've painted on it, to flatten it out just dab it dry with some tissue or kitchen roll and then pop it between some books, perhaps with some greaseproof paper on top.
3. We cut our painting into heart shapes to use as alternatively shaped cards, and they'll also be so pretty to use for hanging decorations.
4. Here comes the fun bit! Write your message onto the back of your card and give it to your Valentine, for them to reveal the message themselves!
We also used one of the recycled card sets for more traditional style cards and they were just lovely to work with. The paint goes on beautifully, and I love that you can see the grain of the paper through the watercolour.
You can choose as to whether you put the paint on the front of the card yourself or if your valentine does all the painting.
Will you be brave enough to put your name?!
We will be giving cards like this to all our loved ones this year, along with some paints and a brush, to spark some creativity, and also some love!
Twirling Hearts
Now, what to do with all the beautiful wax-resist paintings you found yourself dreamily making, if you've run out of people to write notes to?! Make them a twirling heart, of course! Check out our reels for inspiration:
]]>You will need:
Let’s get started!
Start by gathering your pressed flowers and leaves, playing around with them until you find a composition that you are happy with. Consider not only colour, size and shapes, but most importantly texture. Hard stems tend to poke out and may be difficult to bend around the candles, thick leaves or flowers with many layers of petals may be too bulky while fine petals tend to break off and need to be handled very carefully.
Be gentle and take your time with this step as there is no going back once you fix them on the candle. Light a tealight and leave it to start melting away in a safe spot while you decide what you will start with.
Next, place your chosen leaf or flower on the candle and bring your tealight as close as possible. Grab your paintbrush and start “painting” with the melted wax, sticking the leaf onto the candle. Be gentle, but quick as wax dries immediately. It requires a bit of practice to find the precision you will need, but it’s not difficult. What works best for me is: dip the very tip of the brush only into the melted wax, quickly hover it over the flame until it drips and immediately seal the edge of the leaf/flower onto the candle. Short brushstrokes using very little wax work best.
Work your way all around the edges of the leaf before you move into the centre. Carefully layer the wax making sure you keep your leaf flat creating a thin veil that will seal it onto your candle. Now you are ready to move onto the next leaf/flower.
I found that the candle tended to look a bit messy as some lumps of wax had formed or a few brushstrokes became visible, so I decided to hold the candle horizontally above the tealight in those spots to gently warm up the wax again, allowing it to briefly melt back and create a smooth final surface. Be careful to not overdo this as you may end up burning the dry flowers!
Once you have smoothed out the surface you are done! It’s a very quick craft with beautiful results, so I’d advise you to do a good batch once you’re at it and let your creativity loose!
Final note: As always, there are many ways to do this craft, and no right or wrong so explore and find what works for you , just be mindful that you will be using fire and dry plant material, so take the necessary precautions, particularly if you are doing this with children.
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You will need: Air drying clay, Rolling pin, Modelling tools or a knife. Optional: Clay shape moulds or icing cutters, Stamps
1. Slice off a piece of clay and roll it out until it's somewhere between 5mm - 1cm thick.
2. Trim the edges so that the bottom and sides are straight.
3. Cut a roof shape out of the top.
4. Cut out your windows using cutters or pottery tools.
5. Decorate your house, with a front door, stamps, and any other little touches you would like.
6. Carefully fold up the sides of your house, making the edge as flat as possible.
7. Prop your house up and put it somewhere safe to dry. It should be ready the next day.
One pack of 1kg Das clay gave us a little hamlet of 12 houses.
And just in case you needed a reminder of how atmospheric candlelight is... ta da!
The beady eyed amongst you might have noticed that not everyone in the village was home - make sure that you leave enough space for a tea light when you fold the sides of the house back! Placing one there whilst they dry would be a good idea.
We still have a good few houses lined up as presents, (with the smaller ones going to be kept for use with candle stubs or cake candles).
We hope you enjoy this quick and easy idea, and that you feel just as cosy when you're crafting them as when you see them lit up after!
]]>You will need: Felt sheets, Pencil, Scissors, Pipe cleaners, Beads, Embroidery thread, Needle, Carded wool, Glue.
You can either use our template sheet below to get the shapes you need or make them up yourselves, in which case a star biscuit cutter may be handy!
Click on the image above or on this Star Babies Template link to print.
1. Cut the body shape out of a piece of felt and fold it in half, then round the points of the star with a pair of scissors.
2. Fold it in half longways and, lining up your scissors with the top point, cut a small slit no more than 1cm long. (That's only 5mm either side of the fold).
3. Take a pipe cleaner, (the 18cm ones work perfectly with the templates we made), and fold it in half. Push the folded end through the slit you've just cut in your felt, then push it through a bead.
4. Bend the top of your folded pipe cleaner over the bead to hold it in place.
5. Cut a pipe cleaner in half and lay it under the 'body' part of your folded pipe cleaner, along the line of the star baby's shoulders. Fold each 'arm' over to the opposite side to hold it in place. Then bend the bottom parts of your folded pipe cleaner out to the sides from the middle of the star, so that they go down into the 'legs' of the star baby.
6. Measure out a piece of embroidery thread by circling it around your star three times. Tie a knot at one end and thread your needle.
If you choose not to do blanket stitch you won't need quite so much thread, but if you would like to do it here's a little demo:
7. Starting at one of the 'hands' of your star baby, take your needle through the felt from the inside of the fold and begin stitching the felt together.
8. When you've got about half way round your star take a little pinch of carded wool and stuff it either side of the pipe cleaners. Continue with your stitching until you reach the other 'hand', adding a little more carded wool as you go.
9. Cut the hat shape out of your felt, bring the two flat sides together and sew them up. (You should have enough thread left from when you measured it out earlier).
10. Glue the hat onto the top of the bead and prepare for your heart to melt!
Don't let your little star get lonely up there in the night sky, give them some friends to twinkle with.
Star Babies will make your heart melt in whatever colours you make them in, and the mini ones, (made with the 10-12mm templates), are super cute!
My kids soon got the hang of this and are planning on giving star babies to everyone this Christmas. (Shhh)!
They decided to embellish their creations with even more stars, cut out from the felt scraps.
To turn your star baby into a hanging decoration you can either put a stitch in the hat, or at the back of the shoulders so it looks like they're flying. (The great thing about using pipe cleaners is that you can bend them back, to add to the flying effect)!
Attach hanging stars to their hands for even more cuteness.
Something that's irresistible to do with a star baby is make a moon pocket for them, because, really, have you ever seen anything more adorable?
We hope this idea's got a few presents sorted for you, and brings a twinkle of joy to your Christmas Crafting!
]]>Here I share a few tips and techniques a wise old gardener taught me many moons ago and I hope they inspire you this Christmas.
You will need:
Optional:
A note on greenery: Ideally you want to collect 3 different types to have a variety of texture and colour. I find yew works great as a base and everything else can be added on top. Make sure you find 2 or 3 sprigs of holly with red berries to add that extra festive mood and colour!
Always be mindful and respectful of what and where you forage. You only need little amounts. And do keep in mind what greenery you use if you are doing this activity with little ones as many berries (such as yew berries) are poisonous.
It’s all in the prep!
Separate the foliage you’ve gathered and prepare independently. Cut your yew branches as long as they remain green and flexible (basically until the stem gets stiff). I find cutting them between 40 and 50cm is ideal to provide continuity to the structure but still keep it easy to handle.
Next, trim the rest of the material creating small bundles with 2, 3 or 4 springs at a time, depending how thick and lush they are. Make your tiny bouquets around 10cm long. You will be adding these onto the yew base.
Putting it together:
One of the trickiest bits I always struggled with was adding the candles at the end and ensuring they were safely secured onto the wreath so finding this structure to include in the base was a gamechanger! Metal Ring Advent Wreath
I find it helpful to think of your wreath as a clock: if you are righthanded, start at 9 o’clock and work the round counter clockwise; if you are left-handed, start at 3 o’clock and work clockwise.
Start by wrapping a generous bunch of yew at its tip onto the metal structure with the garden wire. Wrap the garden wire a few times around the yew sprigs, 10 cm below the tip. Pull it tight to ensure its safely attached. This will become your base and you will be adding greenery on top of it, always working from the tips, downwards. If you are not using the metal structure I mentioned, follow the same instructions, just shape as you go accordingly, using the yew as your base until you have a good size circle (I find 25cm a good diameter for a table centrepiece).
Add the bundles of greenery one by one, safely secured with the garden wire, every few centimetres ensuring you cover all sides of the wreath evenly, keeping the base flat. I find it useful to start with a bundle on the outer side of the wreath, then add another on top and finish with the inside, working in a sort of spiral.
Add longer branches of yew when needed keeping a consistent thickness throughout the wreath.
Add a stem of holly with berries or something special every so often to keep if festive and cheerful. Be creative and try different options.
Finish by tucking in your last bouquet of greenery underneath the first yew bundle. Give it several rounds of wire and tie securely.
Finishing touches
Once you have your basic wreath done, go back to add bits wherever you find gaps and hide wire if needed.
Now you are ready for your candles and the final touches. This is a good time to add holly as its hard to handle in the round and you want the red berries to stand out! Add a few pinecones around the candles, cinnamon sticks, dried oranges or whatever you feel inspired to do. This pack has a great variety of items that will make your wreath unique and special Nature Table & Wreath Decorations Advent & Cristmas | Conscious Craft
You’re now ready to light your candles and experience the warmth it will bring to your home this festive season. Enjoy!
Maintenance:
Spray your wreath with water regularly to ensure it keeps fresh until Christmas!
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At the turn of the autumn equinox, with days getting shorter, temperatures getting lower, earlier bedtimes and the school rhythm in full swing, I often realise that my handwork practice (if one could call it that) also transforms. Those long, ongoing summer projects that could have me focused for hours at a time on lazy pyjama days, or with the whole family gathered around the table during those long evenings, are now replaced with short, simple, individual crafts that can be done out and about, as a way to keep the practice going. On school days, my children are quite tired in the afternoons and have less ability to focus on an elaborate and long project, so doing little bits at a time works really well for us.
I’ve realised that short pockets of time such as car journeys, the dentist waiting room, the bench we stop on to rest on our walks, have become great opportunities to do meaningful handwork and make those little moments joyful. For that, I make sure I always have a few crafting essentials in my bag on top of the basic paper and crayons and/or pencils. A good folding knife and colourful yarn are my go to at the moment. With small children, I never know where I’ll end up and how long things take, so always be prepared.
Something that always works for us is finger knitting. Finding a colourful, thick yarn in natural materials makes it fun and attractive for little ones, and if you don't know how to do it this bare hand knitting book may inspire you. We turn our finger knitted cords into balls and use them for all sorts of things.
Here’s an idea for something you can do with them this autumn, a Hanging Apple Ring Frame:
This harvest moon has gifted us a generous amount of apples so we’ve decided that on top of processing it for puree, we’d try drying some. As I mentioned, I’ve become ‘on-the-go’ crafters, so we do an apple or two at a time. Watching the collection grow every time we add a new one is a wonderful sight. It is not only satisfying but a great opportunity for children to visualise time and understand process. It’s become a sort of calendar in our home. Starting from scratch on Monday, they know its the weekend by the time the rack is full! Leave it to dry in the warmest spot in your home and enjoy when they are ready. We tend to eat ours half way through, as we like them still moist and chewy, but depending on how warm your home is, you might need to finish them off baking them at the lowest setting in your oven for a bit.
Steps to make the frame:
1. Finger knit 1 meter of cord (you can use your bare hands or this fun fork or flower to make it a bit more special). Remember: you can do this anywhere and a bit at a time, it fits in your pocket and keeps you from reaching for your phone every time you have a few spare minutes.
2. Whittle some sticks: go on a walk with your child. Find sticks no longer than their arms length. And when you need a break on your walk, take out your pocketknives and start whittling away. If your child is young and new to this, it’s a good idea to start off with a whittling peeler instead of a knife. Once they learn how to hold their stick and peel safely, move on to small knives. Make sure you take the time to teach them how to use the tools safely, reminding them of the downward and outward movements.* It takes courage to both teach and learn the process, but once you overcome the challenge, you will treasure these moments of connection with your child forever, where often the best conversations happen while you gift them a valuable life skill.
3. You can finish off by sanding the sticks to ensure a smooth surface. Make sure the children experience the changes in the surface, enjoy smelling the fresh wood and play to identify the tree their stick came from. This memory game is a great resource to learn to identify trees in a playful way.
4. Putting your frame together: Fold your finger knitted cord in half and position your stick on each end making a triangle. Slip each end of the stick through the first and last loop on your cord. Add as many sticks as you wish, keeping them 10 cm apart. Your frame is done and you are now ready to cut your apple rings!
5. The apples: Wash, core and cut your washed apples into thick slices. Put them on to the sticks, making sure they don’t touch each other. This simple activity is a wonderful lesson for children to experience weight and balance and a great opportunity for counting games.
6. Hang up to dry in a warm spot, wait a week (if you can) and enjoy!
If you are interested in whittling and would like more guidance take a look at our Whittled Picture Frames blog.
]]>I haven't come across this idea anywhere else since, so it's with great pleasure that I share my friend's idea with you now.
You will need: Beech nut caps, Felt, Wooden beads, Glue, Paper/Card, Pencil, Scissors, Needle, Thread
1. Create a little template for yourself by copying the following shape. I've given you some measurements but don't worry about being too exact, or indeed modifying, as the pixies all turn out differently anyway depending on the shape of the beech nut cap.
2. Draw around your template on some felt and cut out a little cape for your pixie.
The round wooden beads in the set I used come in 4 sizes, and I picked out the larger 3 as options for head sizes for the pixies.
3. Dab some glue around the stem of your beech nut cap and then put a bead on it.
4. Whilst you are waiting for your glue to set start sewing up your pixie's cape. I tied a knot at the bottom of my thread and started on the inside of the top of the hood, with enough thread to use for the hanging loop too.
5. Once the edges of the hood are all stitched up you can take the thread inside and out through the point at the top, so that you have something to hang your pixie up with.
6. Bring your felt and your beech nut cap together and let the magic happen!
7. Now all you need is a little stitch under the bead to help keep the cape on, though it seems that a lot of the work is done by the felt sticking to the prickles. I decided to tie a little bow under my pixie's chin with some embroidery thread.
Seeing my little pixie hanging up I felt it looked a little too shy, so I decided to make the next one with a larger bead. It definitely looks a lot bolder!
Soon the pixies were queueing up for a new outfit for Autumn.
And I was happy to oblige!
And of course, aside from bringing your nature table to life, these pixies can really stand out on a Christmas tree in capes of white and red.
For the clasps on these capes I repurposed some beads from an old necklace, and I think the sparkly thread makes all the difference!
I hope this blog gets you excited about crafting with what you might come across on your autumn walks, and I have one more suggestion for you: set up a craft group where you can make things with friends over a cup of tea, and bring the sharing of creativity into your friendships this festive season.
]]>I'm very proud to say that this blog has been entirely led by my 11 yr old daughter, inspired by a few of the sewing projects she's done at school. She's made it as simple as possible to make it easier for younger children.
You will need: Fabric, Card or Paper, Pencil or Tailor's chalk, Scissors, Pins or Safety pins, Needle, Thread
1. Lay your doll onto your piece of card or paper and draw a rectangle around the torso. It will need to be a fair bit wider than the doll to leave room for the stitching and the depth of the body, including the head so that the dress can be pulled over.
2. Cut out your rectangle.
3. Use it as a template for the size of fabric you need, drawing around it with a graphite pencil or tailor's chalk.
4. Cut out two rectangles from your fabric.
5. Lay one piece of fabric on top of the other, with the two 'outsides' facing each other.
6. Pin them together so that they stay in place when you start sewing.
7. Just before you start sewing make sure that you have marked on the fabric where the arm and neck holes on the dress will be, so that you don't sew them up! (You may need to measure round your dolly again, if you didn't do it whilst drawing the rectangle).
8. Start sewing from the bottom of one of the long sides. My daughter looped round and round the fabric but I'm sure running stitch would work just as well.
You'll need to stop before the top, leaving enough space for the doll's arm to get through, and then sew a little on the sides of the neck line for the shoulders.
9. Turn the pieces of fabric outside in to hide the stitching, and reveal a shift dress for your doll!
Now, remember when we said about making sure you can pull the dress over the doll's head? We learnt that the hard way! Poor Dolly, her new dress didn't fit her!
But, my daughter remembered that a doll she had made herself in school was a different shape and that it would fit her, so it all worked out alright in the end.
We made another, bigger dress for Dolly the next day.
The dresses we made weren't perfect, and without hems they may not last that long, but it was wonderful to see the confidence and speed with which my daughter knocked them up, and how quickly the dolls were ready for their summer tea party.
If new ones need to be made soon then that's more practice for our little tailors, with patience for more detail perhaps growing as they get older. The important thing is that they feel that sewing is something that's accessible to them.
What was really nice for me to see, as my daughter seems to be reaching an age where she is growing out of role play, is that crafting gave her another way to engage with her well-loved dolls.
If you would like to find a doll that can be as well loved as ours you may find one in our Soft Dolls Collection.
]]>You will need: Yellow and/or orange paper or card, Scissors, Glue, Pencil, Ruler, Something round to draw around, Needle and thread
Draw around your 'something round' in order to get a circle shape.
For this sun we were using the Paper Poetry Origami Paper leftover from our Swirly Stars blog, and as there wasn't room to get another circle from the square we used the extra paper to create some long triangles to go around our circle.
It doesn't matter what the measurements are for your triangles, as long as they feel right to you in relation to the size of your circle. You will need 6-8 circles for the middle segments of your sun, and a minimum of 6 triangles for your rays of sunshine.
With the Paper Poetry set we were able to cut two sheets at a time.
Fold two of your circles in half and glue one side of each together.
Add one or two more segments so that they fan out into a spherical shape.
Once you have repeated this step with your other 3 or 4 circles it is time to plan how you will arrange your rays of sunshine.
This part reminded me of our Giant Freestyle Window Stars blog, which would be perfect for using as inspiration to create a kite paper sun at the window for Midsummer.
Now it's time to start gluing your triangles onto the back of one of your half-spheres. (We also glued two layers of the origami paper together to make the points more sturdy, but this isn't necessary with thicker paper or card).
Once all your points are on you can glue the other half-sphere on top, being careful to line it up with the other side.
The last thing you have to do is use your needle to attach your thread to one of your points, so that you can hang your sun up and bask in its warmth!
Next we tried a smaller sun made from kite paper, (again, double layered). You can't quite see it in this photo but the translucence gives it a lovely quality:
Taking a little bit of time out from the summer excitement to do some crafting proved to be a really good reset for my son. Crafting is always so calming and nourishing, even if it is has an exciting theme!
We hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating the Summer Solstice!
What's great about the suns we've made is that you can hang your sunshine wherever you like, and remember the feeling of sunny days.
]]>To make your own bubble wands you will need: Pipe cleaners & Beads
There's no hard and fast way to make bubble wands - as long as you've got a shape to blow the bubbles through and a handle to hold it, you've made a bubble wand! We experimented with different bead and pipe cleaner combinations, and with a good Bubble Mix they will all make beautiful bubbles.
Depending on the length of your pipe cleaners you may need to join some together to form your shape. We were using the 18cm cotton pipe cleaners from Conscious Craft, leftover from our Spooky Spiders, and found that we could join two together simply by putting the ends into the same bead, and it held. We were mostly using the 12cm beads from Grimm's, which is a common size for wooden beads.
When it comes to joining your shape to your handle, (which we made by stringing lots of beads along a pipe cleaner), we found that you could actually fit three ends of pipe cleaners into a bead if necessary, making it even more secure.
At the end of your handle you can bend the pipe cleaner up and tuck it into the bead above.
Of course you can make bubble wands any time but it made such a lovely summer party activity for us.
The children came up with so many more ideas than I did for different ways of making them.
The big loop on the left was made as per the examples given at the beginning of the blog, the stars with the help of a biscuit cutter shape, and the double loop one is circles made by 18cm pipe cleaners, held together by the bead in the middle.
The hearts were the simplest of all, with both ends of the pipe cleaner fed into the top of the handle and the top of the loop pushed downwards.
And how about this clover?! I never would have dared but it worked really well.
Off we went to the park with our bubble mix and to my great relief the colour on the beads didn't run or fade, and each of the shapes made fabulous bubbles. (The pipe cleaners also dried to looking good as new afterwards!).
All that was left to do was have some fun, and my question was answered: no, children never grow out of bubbles.
Check out our Dr Zigs Bubbles or the Sand, Water & Bubbles collection which is part of our Outdoor Play.
]]>You will need: Knitted square*, Yarn, Scissors, Wool Needle, Stuffing. Optional: Felting needle
*You can knit your squares in whatever yarn and size you like, but we used this Mini Yarn Set and knit 20 - 30 stitches on 4mm Bamboo Needles.
1. Cut a long piece of yarn and sew a triangle on one half of your square in running stitch.
The bottom of the triangle goes across the middle of the square, then take the yarn up to the middle of the edge above and back down to where you started.
2. Put some stuffing in the middle of your triangle and pull both ends of the yarn to gather the top half of the square around the stuffing.
We found that we needed about three times what we'd first thought once the yarn was pulled tight.
The knitting on the other side of your triangle will form the ears of your bunny!
3. Knot the yarn to hold your gathering in place. Take the longer piece of yarn and start sewing the outer edges of the rest of your square together, from behind the ears.
4. When you have brought together those two outer edges put some more stuffing into the gap at the bottom.
5. Sew up the bottom of your bunny, tucking the end of your yarn inside.
6. Take a small piece of stuffing or carded wool and shape it into a ball, then attach it as a tail for your bunny using a felting needle.
If you are not using wool for stuffing you also have the option of making a mini pom-pom and sewing it on. (You can find all you need in our Loome collection, and a tutorial in our Pom-Pom Easter Chick blog).
7. Enjoy the lovely bunny you have just made!
We thought our bunny looked a bit lonesome so we decided to give it a family, and here you can see some of them on the beginnings of our Easter nature table:
Mumma Bunny, (as my children have decided), was made using the wool we had left over from our Knitting Fork Tutorial, and it comes with this Organic Knitting Kit.
Bunnies on a field trip...
Looking for carrots!
Happy Easter everyone, from us and the bunnies x
]]>You will need: Orange and green felt sheets, Orange embroidery thread, Scissors, Safety pins, Needle
1. Cut out 2 triangles, with a longer point at one corner, from your orange piece of felt and 2 squares from your green piece of felt. Make the width of the squares a bit shorter than the width of the triangle.
The funny shaped carrots are always the tastiest ones, but the triangles we are using here are approximately 10cm at the top and 20cm along the sides.
2. Use a safety pin to secure the green felt pieces to the orange ones, with a 1-2cm overlap.
Try to pin as close to the bottom of the green square as you can, so that you can sew above it.
3. Making sure that the sides which show the green felt overlapping are facing each other, pin the two sides of your carrot together.
4. Cut a piece of embroidery thread which is two times the longer side of your carrot, with some extra for starting and finishing.
5. Tie a knot at one end of your thread and thread your needle, it's time to get sewing. Starting on the inside of your pouch just underneath the green felt, take your needle through one of the orange pieces, close to the outer edge.
We closed the top of the pouch with a loop that went round, through the other piece of felt and back through the same hole again.
6. Staying close to the outer edge, sew running stitch along the two longer sides of your triangles.
The only thing you have to worry about with the size of your stitches is whether any eggs could escape!
7. When you reach the opposite point to where you started create another loop going round the outside of your carrot, and use the thread on the inside to tie a knot and finish your sewing.
8. Cut some more embroidery thread, this time two times the width of your green square, plus extra for the handles of your drawstring.
9. Again starting on the inside of your pouch, take your needle through the green felt at one end and begin some more running stitch.
Keep your sewing as close to the safety pin as possible as you will need another row of stitches above.
10. When you get to the other side of your green felt take your thread over to the other side of the pouch and continue your running stitch back to the direction you came from.
11. Repeat this process with another row of stitching above the one you've just done, this time starting from the other side. When you've finished knot the ends of your thread together on each side.
12. Cut down from the top of your green squares to create strips, aka carrot tops!
13. Remove your safety pins and pull the handles of your pouch outwards to close the top. (You might want to round the corners of the triangles slightly, to make it look more carroty).
All you need to do now is fill it with Easter eggs!
]]>You will need: Carded or Merino wool roving, Something smooth and round that wool can't stick to, Pair of old tights, Washing machine, Scissors
The 'something smooth and round' is to create a cavity in the felt ball you are going to make, enabling it to become a pod! You can use whatever you like. We bundled up some plastic bags with rubber bands, which also allowed us to change the shape for different styles of pods.
Inspired by one of our favourite books to read at this time of year, The Story of the Root Children, we wanted to make little earthy pods for the root children to come out of when the time is right. That's why we're using greens and browns, but you can make these in any colours that take your fancy.
1. Wrap some pieces of wool around your 'smooth and round thing' until all of it is covered.
Bear in mind that your wool will condense in volume by up to a third when it felts, so you may want to add a few layers.
2. If you would like your pod to show layers of different coloured wool when you open it up, choose your next colour and add layers of that.
3. When your ball has got as many layers as you would like, stuff it into the leg of an old pair of tights.
4. Knot the tights on either side of the ball to hold it in place.
You can make multiple pods at the same time this way, by putting different pods between knots along the tights.
5. When you have a load of washing ready chuck the tights in with it, and pick up a book whilst your washing machine does the work.
Tip: The washing temperature doesn't have to be really hot to do the felting, it's the change from one temperature to another and the friction that does it.
6. We put ours in the tumble dryer too but I don't think the wool would take long to air dry once spun. When you are ready, cut the knots away from the sides of your pod.
7. Peel the tights away from the pod. You have to pull quite hard to separate the tights from the wool but don't worry, it still leaves a smooth surface.
8. Cut a slit in the pod, going deep enough to reveal your smooth round object.
If the felt is very thick you may have to get it started with a sharp knife.
9. Pull the two sides of your pod apart, (don't worry about stretching it, the felt has a lot of give), and remove your object.
10. Enjoy your pod!
Who shall live inside it? Or what precious treasures will you keep in there?
Our round pods were perfect for little seed dolls, and the oval one we made could take two in there together, as well as being just right for a flower fairy getting ready to come above ground.
The pods make great toys, providing little homes for dolls in small world play, and they can also bring your nature table to life: pop a seed pod in, and when flowers start to bloom outside, so can your nature table!
And let's not forget the pocket dwarves - they love their new home!
And the colourful pods we made are great for looking after little treasures.
If you would like to extend your crafting, and make a sensory activity out of it, you can wet felt your pod by hand. Repeatedly soak your pod in hot soapy water, roll it and rub it, then rinse in cold water. We stock a beautiful Organic Felt Ball Kit if you would like to give it a try.
You may also enjoy making your own Springtime toys and decorations with our lovely tutorial on Flower Peg Dolls.
]]>You will need: Candles, Candle stubs or wax pellets, Crayons, Tin cans, Saucepan
We took this as an opportunity to use up some of our old crayons that never really get used - the kind you get given in restaurants for colouring. They're not very nice to draw with compared to Beeswax ones, I don't know why we kept them, but I was very pleased to discover that they worked just fine for this craft project. Waste not, want not!
1. Put your candle stubs and pieces of crayon into your tin cans. How much wax you put in depends on how deeply you want to be able to dip your candles.
For about a half a tin of wax we used a couple of crayon sticks, but the friend that introduced me to this uses only a tiny corner of a Stockmar block as the pigment is so strong.
2. Place your tin cans into a saucepan partially filled with water and heat it up on the hob.
We made the blue and some other colours on our trial run - they're so easy to store and heat up again when needed.
3. When your stubs and crayons have melted and blended together you are ready to start dip-dyeing.
We stirred ours with butter knives to make sure the crayons were totally mixed in. (The wax comes off easily with hot water).
4. Making sure the tins are cool enough to handle, dip one end of your candle in to get a layer of coloured wax.
The hotter the wax, the more translucent your layer will be, but careful not to hold it in there too long in case your candle starts to melt! For thicker layers and stronger colours, either dip your candle several times or wait until the wax has cooled a bit and is thicker.
You can create a lovely rainbow or ombre effect by dipping your candle to different depths in different colours.
Or create diagonal lines by tipping your tin whilst dipping.
Warning: this is one of those highly addictive crafts. You just want to make more and more...
... because it's so dreamy!
And the fun doesn't end there. Watching the cascade of colour as they melt is super exciting!
Candlemas marks the midway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. This craft, and the enjoyment of your candles, are a beautiful way to celebrate the returning of the light and the first stirrings of Spring.
Please be careful when working with boiling water and hot wax, and take precautions relevant to the age of the children you are crafting with.
You may also enjoy this Water-Dipped Candle idea.
]]>You will need: Paper (this origami set worked brilliantly for us), Scissors, Glue or a stapler, Thread
1. Take a square piece of paper and fold it in half into a triangle shape.
2. Fold it in half again into a smaller triangle.
3. Holding it so that the fold line of your triangle is at the bottom, make a cut that goes through the middle of your shape, stopping at 5-10 mm before the top. Make two further cuts either side, evenly spaced between the middle and the edges of the shape, also going no further than 5-10 mm at the top.
4. Unfold your piece of paper.
5. Starting with the small square in the middle, curl the two corners towards each other so that they overlap, and stick them together.
We used a stapler for our big snowflake stars, for speed, and when they are facing forwards the staples are hardly visible. We used glue for our smaller creations, and a more solid kind of glue stick actually didn't take too long to get the pieces to stick - I'm going to try it with the bigger ones next time.
6. Flip your paper over and curl your next layer of strips towards each other, again sticking them together.
7. Repeat the last step two more times, until your square of paper has been transformed into this:
This is one point of your snowflake star, and you need six of these.
8. Once you have six points, pinch the tips of them all together and secure them. (We used a stapler for both sizes we made but strong glue or washi tape may do it).
9. To stop the segments flopping about when they're hanging you may wish to attach the sides to each other too.
We didn't have to attach the sides of our small ones, they just sort of looked after themselves.
10. Finally, string some thread through the top of one of your points, and hang it up!
]]>You will need: Felt sheets, Scrap paper, Pen or Pencil, Ruler, A cup or something circular, approx 6cm in diameter, Scissors, Needle, Thread
1. To create a template for the shapes of felt you need to make your hearts, draw parallel lines that are 12cm long and 6cm apart. Take your cup or circular shape and place it between your lines, so that the ends of them come to the mid-way point of the cup. Use the edge of the cup to draw a semi-circle.
If you're unsure whether you've got the right measurements, the template should be 18cm long between the two highest points of the semi-circles.
2. After you've cut out your template place it on your felt and draw around it to get the shape you need. Each of these shapes will be one half of a heart.
3. Fold your felt shape in half and mark 2cm gaps along the fold line, so that it is divided into 3.
4. Keeping your felt folded, cut straight lines up from the points you've marked to where your parallel lines end. (We also put marks for where we were headed to keep us on track!)
5. Once you have two pieces of felt cut it's time to start weaving!
Up until this point my son kept asking me 'But Mummy, how does it turn into a heart?!'. This is where the magic happens. It's complicated to explain but hopefully these images will help, and there's instruction below as well:
6. Angling your folded pieces of felt so that the ends of the loops are pointing towards each other, take the top loop in your right hand and put it through the top loop in your left hand. Then take the middle loop in your left hand and put it through the top loop in your right hand. Then the top loop in your right hand into the bottom loop in your left hand.
7. Slide the top loop in your right hand up the piece of felt in your left hand, to make space for your next layer of weaving. So now it's top loop in left hand through middle loop in right hand, middle loop in right hand through middle loop in left hand, bottom loop in left hand through middle loop in right hand.
8. To complete your heart slide the piece of felt in your right hand up as far as it will go along the piece in your left hand, and it's bottom loop in right hand through top loop in left hand, middle loop in left hand through bottom loop in right hand, bottom loop in right hand through bottom loop in left hand.
And there you have it, you have woven a heart basket! If you would like to put a handle on it so that you can hang it up, you can secure a strip of felt with one simple stitch. Our strips were approximately 1.5 x 15 cm.
And now for deciding what to put it in your baskets! Depending on what you want to put in there it may be of benefit to add an extra stitch on the sides to keep things in.
We think these hearts are great for making an Advent garland.
And of course just perfect for hanging on the tree!
]]>We can think of no better gift to pass onto people than that glowing feeling, so this year we have made Christmas cards that fold out into paper lanterns. We've also used it as a chance to experiment with some transparencies, and these are the results.
You will need: Thick paper or card, Pencil, Ruler, Scissors, Kite paper, Glue, Hole punch, Ribbon/String, Tea lights. Optional: Crayons, Biscuit cutters or Clay moulds
The Basics
You can, of course, make the lanterns any size, but most of the ones you'll see featured in this blog are made from dividing A3 and A4 sheets into thirds. The strips were then folded by thirds, with card cut away from the middle section for kite paper.
The next step is to take a piece of kite paper and stick it onto the back of the middle section of your card, where you have cut some away.
The simplest card lanterns we made, and the ones most suitable for younger children, were the ones we dotted with little stars.
After the basic steps there is nothing left to do but stick little cut out kite paper stars all over the big piece of kite paper, in whatever colours, not worrying about how many there are or if they overlap - it will all look lovely! Even if your little one is too young for the cutting out stages they can still enjoy these finishing touches.
Metal moulds or a craft punch will come in handy for little shapes
A simple but effective design, though a little trickier for the cutting out, is the one where the light comes through the star shapes.
This is where a biscuit cutter comes in handy!
Getting a bit more complicated - aka keeping things challenging for older children/providing inspiration for younger ones as they see you craft - we started to explore some ideas around the nativity. A warm glow against a backdrop of dark blue feels just right for Advent, thinking of the Star of Bethlehem above the stable.
To prevent a layer of green appearing where the yellow and blue kite paper overlapped we used a layer of white kite paper to separate them, which also added some extra glow around the yellow.
We also decided to create some scenes with the kite paper, or what is often referred to as 'transparencies'. I have to confess, a craft knife did come in handy at a few moments, though you'd be surprised at what you can achieve with a small pair of scissors.
Finally, something to use the brown kite paper for!
Conscious Craft have recently started stocking a book on Transparent Window Scenes and I'm keen to get my hands on it to get some tips on how to do things better next time, as well as ideas for other pictures. It will also give me an excuse to try out the lovely new Japanese Silk Paper.
So now for turning our lanterns into cards!
1. On the side pieces of your lanterns, half way down the outer edges, punch a hole on either side.
2. Write your message on the inside of the side pieces. We included well-wishes on one side and instructions on how to turn your card into a lantern on the other.
3. Attach your ribbon or string to the hole in the top flap of your card.
4. Package up your card with a tealight, and send to someone that you would like to give a warm glowing feeling to!
]]>You will need: Pipe cleaners, Carded wool, Merino wool
1. Take four pipe cleaners and form a cross with two of them. Wrap one of them around the other, by bending one side up and the other one down.
2. Going at a diagonal, repeat this process with your other two pipe cleaners.
3. Once all your pipe cleaners are attached, you can gently separate them to form two sides.
Don't worry about them all being the same length, it makes the spiders look like they're walking if the legs are a bit different!
4. Take a small piece of carded wool and wrap it around the knot in the middle of your pipe cleaners.
5. Pull off a small tuft of merino wool and hold one end in place on top of your carded wool. You can then begin to wrap it around one of your spider legs.
Tip: Keeping your merino as flat as possible will mean that you can cover more as you go, as well as giving you a smoother finish.
6. Once you get to the bottom of the leg you can hold the wool in place by folding up the end of the pipe cleaner, creating a sort of foot for the spider.
7. When all of your legs are done, you may wish to wrap a bit more merino around the body of the spider, covering any bits of carded wool that are sticking out.
8. Now your spider is about to get spooky! Bend each of the legs so that they're at about a 90 degree angle...
... and then it will be able to stand all by itself!
The bendy legs on these spiders mean they're great for attaching to things - door knobs, button holes, hair accessories, as well as the spider's web we made for our display.
To make one yourselves you just need some sticks and a bit of yarn.
Bind the sticks together by wrapping the yarn around the middle, and then follow the instructions for the weaving that can be found in this fabulous Conker Fun Craft Idea.
The spiders are, of course, a terrific way of tormenting your siblings, and I've been surprised by how many people the kids have managed to genuinely scare with them this week!
You may also enjoy this Craft Idea for Sparkling Pumpkins & Squashes.
Wishing you a Happy & Wholesome Halloween, full of treats!
]]>You will need: Das Modelling Clay and a selection of Autumnal Treasures. Optional: Rolling pin and Greaseproof paper.
The first thing we did was to have a play around with all our treasures on a board, to see what arrangements we could make and get some ideas before setting them into clay.
Once you're ready to get started, take a lump of clay and flatten it out to about 1cm thick. (Depending on the surface you are using, you may wish to use greaseproof paper to prevent your clay from sticking).
And now you're ready to start your collage! We made all sorts of discoveries about the effects we could create with the different treasures as we went, and I'll share some with you here.
We had saved this heart shaped leaf from our nature table last year, so my daughter was thrilled to be able to use it to make this imprint of a balloon, and still have it to keep!
The rest was done with twigs and acorn caps, some left in the clay and some just for their imprints.
Different sized cones were great for putting animal body shapes together, with catkins for antlers! And snapping the beech nut cap segments off their base allowed her to create lovely butterflies.
Upturned, the golden insides of the beech nut caps make perfect flowers, with the imprints of grass seedheads looking like trees in the distance.
My son was so enchanted by the image left by the alder cones that he decided to make his whole picture just with imprints.
The rest of it was done with twigs and catkins, with helicopter seeds forming the initial shape of the owl, and the back of a walnut shell for the moon.
After that he wanted to make some woodland creatures, and, of course, a gnome!
This was such a simple crafting activity and didn't take long at all, but my kids loved it so much and came away from it so happy. They said it was one of the favourite crafts they've done!
The Das clay dries very quickly. I left our collages in a sunny spot and they were hard enough to transfer to a rack after one day, and completely dry the day after. Upon lifting them upright a few of the twigs fell out but I just glued them back on!
We have a couple of birthdays coming up so went to town with some framing, filling in the gaps between the clay and the frame with carded wool.
Our other creations are sitting very happily on our nature table, with us fondly looking on. Enjoy your crafting this Autumn!
]]>You will need: Scrap paper, (we used 8-10 pieces per batch), Bowl of water, Blender or Food processor, Sieve, Greaseproof paper, Rolling pin, Tea towels or Kitchen roll, Food colouring, Essential oils, Glitter.
There are many different versions of how to do this out there but we decided to go as simple as possible for this blog, using only things that we had at home. If you would like to take your paper making to the next level you can get this Recycled Paper Kit from Conscious Craft, which includes more advanced equipment as well as some other lovely stuff.
1. Rip your scrap paper up into little pieces and put them into a bowl of water. Aided by a bit of warm water and hands to squish and rip them up further, your paper should be soft enough for the blender in no time.
2. Pick up handfuls of your paper and pop them into the blender. You can give the handfuls a little squeeze before they go in but not too much - the moisture helps with the blending.
3. If you would like to add any food colouring, essential oils or glitter to your mixture, this is the moment. (The quantities will be to your personal preference, but I always find that I need more colouring and less oils than I thought!)
Please be aware when crafting with little ones that some essential oils can cause inflammation in direct contact with skin, and they should be kept away from mouths and eyes.
4. Run your blender until your mixture is as smooth as possible and then strain it through a sieve if necessary. (If using a food processor you may need less water, and therefore be able to skip this step).
5. Put a sheet of greaseproof paper down onto a flat surface and dollop your mixture onto it.
6. Put another sheet of greasproof paper on top and use your rolling pin to flatten your paper mixture between them.
7. Remove the top layer of greaseproof paper and lay a tea towel or some kitchen roll over your mixture, pressing down with your hands to draw out some of the moisture.
With a couple of our batches we tried adding more food colouring after the rolling out process, which created a sort of tie-dye effect.
8. Leave your mixture in a warm place to dry, for at least a day. As it stiffens you can transfer it to a wire rack, or even to the oven for a short burst on the lowest temperature. If at any point you come back to your paper and it has curled up or gone wibbly in places you can give it a light spray of water and flatten it again under some heavy books.
We discovered that making the paper this way means that it will always be quite thick and textured, because when you have to squeeze out the water it lumps it together into little balls. It's such a pleasure to make, but not so good for writing on - for that you would need the framed mesh that come in the Recycled Paper Kit.
We have cut out some beautiful shapes from what we made.
Because they are scented we are going to thread some of them and give them to people to hang in their wardrobes, and use the others to embellish cards.
My children really didn't want to waste all the water that came out of their mixture when strained, so we used it to make some coloured, scented and glittery salt dough! More sensory play and and even more creativity.
For instructions on how to make salt dough see our previous craft idea on how to make a Salt Dough Advent Spiral.
We hope you have hours of fun with these ideas, and that it all feels really good!
]]>You will need Felt Bumble Bee: Black or Dark Brown Carded wool, Yellow and White Merino wool, Needle Felting needle, Sponge, Sewing thread, Sewing Needle, Scissors. In addition, for the Cone Bumble Bee: Alder cone, Yellow Embroidery thread, White tissue paper. (You can find Alder cones under Alder trees all year round).
A word on Needle Felting with children
When I first discovered needle felting somebody told me that it wasn't appropriate for young children to even witness adults doing this craft, due to the way that they imitate the gestures of adults around them. Looking at my son, who at the time was of an age where I was constantly having to discourage him from hitting, jabbing and poking things, I decided that this was good advice for my family! Now, at 7, I felt that he would be fine with it, and he managed the craft well, with no adverse effects! Either way, please be aware that needle felting needles are very sharp. If you are crafting with a younger child, or feel that they are not quite ready for needle felting, you can make the Felt Bee using the wet felting technique in our Wet Felted Acorns blog.
The Felt Bee
1. Leaning on your sponge, needle felt your carded will into a rounded oval shape. (Squeeze your wool as much as you can into the shape you want and then push the needle in and out of it. Every time the needle goes in it will bind the wool together and make the shape tighter).
We used brown carded wool for the main body shape and then layered some black merino on top. Felting a solid shape entirely from merino will take a long time, as the wool is so fine.
2. Pull a small piece of yellow merino wool off, twist it to bring the strands together, and wrap it around your body shape.
The yellow wool should stick to the body shape by itself, but if not you can help it with the needle.
3. Pull off a small piece of white merino wool and this time keep it spread out and fluffy. Fold the edges into the middle to create two wings, and attach them to your bee using the needle.
4. Thread your sewing needle and stitch into the bee just under where the wings are attached.
Knot your thread over the middle of the wings.
The Alder Cone Bee
1. Cut a length of yellow embroidery thread, (or take another small piece of yellow merino wool), and wrap it around your Alder cone. It should stick quite easily by itself but can be wedged into the cone if not.
2. Cut a length of sewing thread and tie it around your cone. The thread will fit easily into the gaps of the cone so that it is not visible going round.
3. Rip off a small rectangular piece of white tissue paper and twist it in the middle. Place it on top of your cone, where the thread is coming up, and knot your thread over it.
Time for your bees to start buzzing!
We took our bees for a bumble around the garden, and look who came to say hello!
If you would like to learn more about these amazing creatures you may enjoy the Summer 2021 edition of A Year and a Day magazine.
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Ever a lover of rules and instructions, I grilled my kids for what their teachers had said and also bought a book, Easy Wood Carving for Children, to boost my confidence. These are the rules:
And my own piece of advice would be: start easy! It turns out that when my kids said they were 'whittling' at kindergarten they were actually using whittling peelers, though they did graduate to knives during their bushcraft lessons at school. Being completely new to whittling myself I was amazed to discover how good it feels to sit there and simply peel the bark off a stick!
Some of the children I was with created wands in this way and pranced around the forest casting spells. Another easy thing to do is create a point at one end and stick it into an apple or marshmallow, so that you can roast them over a campfire.
It's exciting to see what you can find on the forest floor and turn it into something else, but if you want particularly straight sticks, or something more supple to work with, you can saw off a piece off Hazel. We are lucky that it grows abundantly where we live.
After sharpening the ends into points we suddenly had a tribe of spear throwers darting around the forest, which was quickly diverted into a javelin competition by one of our responsible adults!
Our main project, taken from the book, was making picture frames out of sticks. We're always on the look out for craft projects that can be used as presents and there are a couple of people in our lives that love working with wood, whom we thought would appreciate these.
You will need: 4 Sticks, Whittling Peeler, Rasp, Hand drill, Screws, Screwdriver, Paper, Paints, Drawing pins. Optional: Saw, Whittling Knife
1. Peel about a fifth of the back of your sticks away, so that they are flat on one side. (This is so that you have an even, flat surface when it comes to attaching whatever you would like to put in the frame).
2. At the points where the four corners of your frame will be meeting each other, create notches so that they can sit together. For two of the sticks the notches will be on the bark side, for the other two they will be on the peeled side.
In the book it recommends using a chisel but we didn't feel comfortable doing this with the age group of children we had. We ended up using a combination of sawing, whittling and rasping. The whole thing can be done with a rasp if this feels more appropriate, it just takes longer.
3. Once you have got your notches lined up lay your frame so that it is face down. Use the hand drill to make the holes for the screws. (The drill can come out the other side of both sticks much quicker than you think so make sure you're not on a surface that can't be damaged!).
4. Attach all your sticks together using screws.
And now you can think about what you want to put in your frame!
We did paintings and attached them with drawing pins, and made them hanging frames with some Jute Cord.
I'm really glad I got that book as it's opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibility. We already loved playing in the forest but now I see crafting materials everywhere! One of the most inspiring things in the book for us was the page on Dolphins - now we are always looking at the bends in the sticks we pick up to see if they can be used to add to our pod.
There is also another beautiful book available, Forest Craft, and I can't wait to see what other ideas are in there.
Conscious Craft have an amazing selection of Tools for Children, which includes Cut Protective Gloves if you would like to take extra precautions. In their Forest School section you will find a handy First Pocket Knife, and when you are ready to take your whittling projects to the next level they have a beautiful Wood Carving Set.
We hope you are feeling as inspired as us, crafting with the most natural of materials!
Disclaimer: Whilst whittling and woodwork are carried out safely by many children on a regular basis, there is of course more risk of injury than when you are crafting with other materials and tools. Please adhere to the safety rules at the top of this Craft Idea whenever you are whittling or woodworking. Conscious Craft and the author of this blog post accept no liability for damages and injury of any kind.
]]>With one knot and two twists you can turn a piece of wool into an ethereal flying bird.
You will need: Merino wool roving, Sewing thread, Needle
1. Separate two pieces of wool from your Merino roving, ideally making one a bit shorter than the other. It can be hard to be exact when pulling off bits of Merino but you can always take off extra tufts after.
Tip: If you hold the wool at the point you want it to separate it won't budge, but if you hold it at the end of the roving it will come apart easily. An extra bit of magic that kids will love!
2. Tie a loose knot in the middle of the longer piece of Merino.
3. Place your other piece of Merino across it, lying just underneath the knot.
4. Fold your knotted piece of Merino in half, over the piece you have just placed across it.
5. Separate some of the fibres from the bottom of one side of the Merino which you placed crossways. (These may now be identifiable as your wings!). Wrap these fibres tightly around the folded piece of Merino, for the body of your bird to start to take shape.
Tip: The strands of the fibre usually stick to each other but if they come loose you can tuck them under themselves.
6. Separate some more fibres from the top of one of your wings and wrap them tightly around the body again, just under the knot this time.
(You can do step 6 before step 5 if it feels easier, either is fine).
7. Adjust your bird as necessary, tightening in places and shaping the ends of your wool.
8. Cut a piece of thread which is twice as long as you would like your bird to hang and thread your needle. Take your needle through the top of your bird a bit below the knot, out the other side and then back up again.
Tip: The birds are often top heavy with the knot so you may need to adjust the positioning of your thread, depending on the angle at which you would like your bird to fly.
And... dare I say it... I think this might be the moment where some magic has happened... and so quick and easy! In the blink of an eye a flock may have descended on your lives.
These beautiful birds lend themselves perfectly to making a mobile. We pulled some old Ivy from a tree trunk and wound it round to make a hoop, but a Weaving Loom is a great ready-made option.
Baby's eye view:
Whitsun Inspiration
Made in White, these birds are perfect as Whitsun Doves for the Nature Table.
After the giddy celebrations of the beginning of May, blazing with colour, warmth and high spirits, Whitsuntide allows us an opportunity to slow down, settle and see things more clearly - as the dove of peace descends.
As our collection of things for the Whitsun Nature Table has grown, with the beautiful crafted items my children have made with their kindergarten teachers each year, our attachment to this festival has grown also.
So calm and soothing, I anticipate that the Whitsun nature table will recur in our home for many years to come. I hope that in time it will graduate from an aesthetic experience for my children to a consciousness of the flames burning bright within each of us, and reflection upon how we can keep spirits alive whilst working together for peace.
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