Our granny loves birds nests. She has a collection of discarded nests that she has picked up on her walks. They are so pretty to look at and a wonder to see how intricately the husband birds have woven them together.
Her love of nests in mind, the kids and I have made her this nest for Christmas.
We made the shell of the nest from paper mache. Teddy enjoyed ripping an old newspaper into long strips.
We use an all natural flour and water recipe to make our paper mache.
* 1 part flour to 5 parts water.
* Mix the flour with about 1 TBS of hot water until if forms a smooth paste. Add boiling water.
* Boil for a few minutes
* Allow to cool
We used balloons as our molds. We blew up the balloons (had a little play with them) and then covered them in strips of the newspaper dipped in the flour paste.
Add layer after layer until the newspaper is thickly packed.
I love this flour paste as I can let my kids get wonderfully messy without fearing that they are also getting covered in nasty chemicals.
Set paper mache balloons in the sun to dry. When dry, use a box cutter to cut an oval opening into them… and, yay, pop the balloons.
We decided to cover our nest in a fragrant mixture of dried chamomile and lavender.
Cover the ‘nests’ in glue and roll them in the dried herbs.
Leave in the sun to dry.
Line the inside with dried moss… we use two different kinds.
Add a few wooden speckled eggs.
We think Granny will LOVE her Christmas gift! (but I must admit that it’s sooooo sweet we can hardly give it away)
Merry Blessings and magic,
Donni
Donni
12 Responses
I seriously LOVE your blog. What great ideas.
Lindo, que idéia legal adorei.Beijos de sol para te iluminar
that’s beautiful! definitely a project that we’ll have to do one day… thank you!
Great idea, I have enjoyed looking at all your lovely creations this year, love and light Marie
I haven’t blogged in a while, but I’ve been reading and love your posts. The little flower fairy in your header reminds me of some photos I did in the fall. check them out on my blog if you like, from Dec 6th.
What a perfect gift. It is the cosiest and most fragrant looking nest I have seen in a very long time. I bet the recipient will be overjoyed!
They are lovely ideas and children would love the different look from the stereo typical.Also it could be an interesting activity in the holiday season for the kids.
I just love birds! These nests are great ;) As usual, you have provided me with another addition my “things to make with the kids” file. Thanks for posting.
Beautiful and brilliant!!!
Merry Christmas!
Wow–what a fun idea! I can’t wait to try it with my kids!
Totally awesome tutorial! Thank you!
hi and i’m anandhi{14 yrs} from India .my aunt told me about ur blog….
well i wanted to thank you for this idea.i did this for a craft exhibition and i may stand a chance of winning 1st.plzzz show me send you the photos…..thank Q…