Kitty has big plans for a room re-decoration. She wants to ‘cowboy’ it up… she’s into horses and cowboy boots. What a fun theme for an 11-year old’s room, don’t you think?
So, we are thinking of cool little additions to go with cowboys and horses… and still be girly and fun.
A dream catcher, of course!
We made a gorgeous lacy dream catcher with wooden beads, ribbons and white feathers.
Materials :
a crocheted lace doily (from a craft store)
a wooden embroidery hoop, 12 inches in diameter (from a craft store)
white goose feathers (from a craft store)
wood beads (from a craft store)
ribbon and cotton string (from a craft store)
a hot glue gun
We used our hot glue gun to attach the lace doily to the embroidery hoop, sticking the fabric all around the inside of the hoop.
We tied long strands of ribbon and cotton string to the bottom third of the hoop.
We used our hot glue gun to stick the quill of the feathers to the cotton string strands.
We threaded the wooden beads onto the remaining ribbons and cotton strands, letting them hang at varying, random lengths.
Voila… didn’t we make a wonderfully magical dream catcher?
And then we looked up the significance of dream catchers. They are a lovely tradition from Native American dream lore. They are intended to protect a sleeping person from negative dreams, while letting positive dreams slip through the holes of the dream catcher and glide down the feathers to the sleeping person below. The negative dreams get caught up in the web and expire when the first rays of the sun strike them. Isn’t that lovely!
We also made a colorful rainbow dream catcher for Teddy’s room a few years ago. You can follow our DIY tutorial here. It is a little different.
Today I’ll show you how to make these sweet walnut shell boats. It’s such a fun craft, especially in the autumn when we can find all kinds of gorgeous fallen leaves to use as the masts.
You will need :
– a walnut shell
– a stick mast and a blob of beeswax
– a pretty Autumn leaf
First, you will need to warm the beeswax so that it is easy to work with. You can work with it in your hands until it is soft and flexible or you can use a fairy trick to make it pliable. The fairies put the beeswax against their skin, in the little nook under their arms, so that the beeswax is touching their warm skin… the warmth of their body warms up the wax and it is soft when they are ready to work with it. You can try this too.
While the wax is warming against your skin, let’s make the mast for our boat. Go out into the great outdoors and collect the most beautiful autumn leaf you can find. With the point of a stick, make two little holes in the leaf. You will thread the mast stick thorough these holes for the mast.
The wax is going to help us stick the mast to the hull of our boat. Roll the wax in your hands to make a round ball and press the mast stick deep into the ball.
Now, press the base of the wax ball onto the hull of your walnut shell boat so that it sticks fast.
Now your boats are ready for sailing. Sometimes, you might need to readjust the position of the mast to balance your boat so it will float.
If there has been a bad storm and the mast breaks off your boat, you can repair it easily by removing the beeswax and drying it. Warm it, roll it into a ball again, insert the mast and stick it to the hull of your boat again.
Have fun sailing your fairy boats in the warm autumn afternoons.
NOTE : I have this craft available for purchase as a kit in The Magic Onions Shop. The package includes all the materials you’ll need to make TWO boats (and hours of fun).
It was 90 degrees F (33 degrees C) here in Southern California at 9am this morning. It reached into the 100’s on Friday, Sat and Sun… and is expected to do the same today, tomorrow and the next day. Wow… we are melting!!
We don’t have air-conditioning in the Sunny House… my Good Man thinks it’s cheating (funny man!)
It’s hard to do anything in heat like this so I’m sitting at the dining room table and fanning myself with my copy of LILIOPH Magazine.
But, for those of you who are in more temperate climates and want to do some fun autumn crafting with your kids, here are 6 lovely, nature-inspired Fall crafts that kids love…
A few years ago, we made Granny a wreath for her door.
It’s still one of my favorite wreaths of all time and Kitty and I think we’ll make one for our own door this year.
Here’s our tutorial on how to make it.
Materials :
* wool roving in rich fall colors (found on Etsy.com)
* a foam wreath form (found at craft stores)
* a needle felting needle (found on Etsy.com)
* soap detergent and warm water
* green felt (for a leaf)
* sewing need and green thread
* real acorn cap (picked up in nature or found on Etsy.com)
* glue
Method :
Arrange your felt roving in long strips in the order you’d like them to appear on your wreath.
Wrap each strip around the foam form, making sure the colors overlap a little on each side. It’s important to attach (through the process of felting) the color strips into each other so that they remain in their place when you come to wet felt the wreath later.
Using your needle felting needle, gently poke the wool all around. Poking the needle into the foam is fine.
Pay particular attention to the ends where the colors overlap and needle felt the overlapping wool firmly into the underlying wool.
When the entire wreath is covered with wool roving, take it to the sink to begin the wet felting process. Start with a small section. Wet the wool SLIGHTLY with warm water… you don’t want to use too much water at this early stage as the wool will loosen and come off the wreath.
Put a dime-sized amount of dish-washing soap onto the wool and begin to massage it gently. Pat it, rub it, kneed it… gently at first and then more vigorously as you feel the wool tighten around the wreath form. Add more water. Add more detergent. Your intuition will tell you when to wet the wool more and when to add more detergent. Slowly, slowly… we can’t rush.
Continue this wet felting method all around the wreath.
Once you feel that the wool has tightened around the wreath sufficiently, you can start felting it more vigorously. I find that using a ‘Chinese bangle’ (as my daughter, Kitty, calls it) works really well.
When you feel that the wool has felted firmly around the wreath, rinse it thoroughly, making sure to get all of the soap suds out of the felted wool.
Set it in the sun to dry completely.
Now let’s make the adornments.
Cut out the shape of an autumn leaf on a piece of paper.
Pin it to the green felt and cut around the edges to make your leaf.
Thread the sewing needle with green thread and finish the felt leaf off nicely by sewing a pretty border about a quarter of an inch inside the outside edge of the leaf.
For the felted acorns, make small felt balls in fun acorn colors. If you need a tutorial to make felted balls, follow this tutorial that shows you how to make small eggs… making the tops of the acorns is exactly the same.
With a little glue, stick the felt balls in to the acorn caps.
If you prefer, you can skip this stage and purchase the acorns (or the felted balls) in the colors you desire in The Magic Onions Shop.
With your needle and thread, sew the leaf and acorns in place on your dry wool wreath.
Voila! The prettiest felted fall wreath for you door.
There seriously is something magical about the felling and texture of wool felt… it glows with such a natural spirit and fills your room with a rich, organic, essence.
If you are in love with needle felting, as I am, I have many DIY needle felting kits available in The Magic Onions Shop… try your hand at making felted hearts or pumpkins or a myriad of other creations.
We often don’t have the time to find the goodies we need to make cute things with our children.
Well, now you can rely on The Magic Craft Box!
Everything you’ll need to make these beautiful handmade treasures with your children will be mailed straight to your doorstep, ready and waiting for when you have a little free time to make magic with your children.
Autumn Magic Craft Box
Magical, nature-inspired crafts, designed specifically for Autumn crafting.
Hours of fun for you and your little ones to enjoy together.
Feedback from a happy customer – “The Magic Craft Box was beautifully done, both in quality and the enclosed instructions. Both of my children have each completed all of the crafts and enjoyed the process so much. I would recommend these craft boxes to anyone! There are so many possibilities within the crafts. The shipping was wonderful and there was SO much attention to detail. Thanks so much!” – Vanessa
What’s in the 2014 Autumn Magic Craft Box?
A delightful collection of natural crafts with a wonderfully fresh fall theme. Enjoy easy happy autumn crafting.
I have concentrated on natural textures for this year’s autumn crafting. Tactile materials to keep your kids enthralled for many hours.
The 4 crafts include :
1. The cutest pine cone fairy with frizzy hair, burlap wings and an acorn hat.
2. A Nature inspired photo frame made from moss and sticks and other nature bits.
3. TWO adorable shell babies with paper rose hats and magic pearls.
4. Two felt gnomes made from felt I have hand-dyed using natural dyes.
Pine Cone Fairy
She is very beautiful and made entirely with natural materials. You’ll be able to hang her in a special place in your house and see your child beam whenever s/he sees this sweet pine cone fairy.
Nature Photo Frame
I bet your child has a special photo that her your favorite. In this kit, she’ll make the perfect photo frame for it using moss and sticks, a feather butterfly and a felted acorn. Her photo will look magical in her gorgeous frame.
Shell Babies
Shell babies are born in clam shells. Each baby is born with a magical pearl that you can wish upon. If you are lucky enough to have a shell baby, you can make your wish by touching her pearl, closing your eyes and… wishing. Don’t tell anyone what you have wished for as this wish is just for you. Make no mistake, your wish will come true… it may take a day or month or a year but one day, something wonderful will happen and you’ll realize that it is your shell baby’s wish that has just come true.
Your kit will include all the materials and instructions to make TWO shell babies.
They are just adorable.
Felt Gnomes
Sewing is like making your own kind of magic. You start with a few bits and pieces that seem unrelated. And you work with patience and determination to follow the pattern. Sometimes, it may seem too difficult and you may want to quit. But don’t. Take a rest and come back to it a little later. It doesn’t matter how long you take… you may feel comfortable doing only a few stitches at a time… that’s fine. Work on through the hard parts and you’ll feel so wonderfully proud when you are done. You’ll feel more than amazing to hold your unique creations in the very hands that made them. Now, THAT’s magic!
Making these felt gnomes if a wonderful beginner sewing project for boys and girls alike. With a little help from mom, children as young as 4 will be able to complete this sewing project with ease.
Your kit will include everything you’ll need to make TWO felt gnomes.
Ready to buy your Magic Craft Box?
4 Seasons :
Many families have subscribed to the Magic Craft Box ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION and I urge you to do the same – no stress crafting!
At the beginning of each season, a magic craft box is delivered to your doorstep for hours of fun seasonal crafting.
What a GREAT gift for grandparents to give their far-away grand kids.
Click here to see the crafts from the previous years :
“The Magic Craft Box is pure delight! Straight from the fairies! My daughter is loving them and the magic packed in. I love them too, having everything ready in one easy package. Thank you so much!” – Lindsey
“My goodness, this is such a brilliant concept. I can’t tell which craft my children enjoyed the most! Opening their Magic Craft Boxes was such an experience for them… it made even my 11 year old start to believe in fairies again! My 3 year old loved being part of making the crafts too. All around, this was a wonderful experience for my whole family. I have already purchased our One Year Subscription – keep the magic coming!” – Denise
“The Magic Craft Box was beautifully done, both in quality and the enclosed instructions. Both of my children have each completed all of the crafts and enjoyed the process so much. I would recommend these craft boxes to anyone! There are so many possibilities within the crafts. The shipping was wonderful and there was SO much attention to detail. Thanks so much!” – Vanessa
This is how magically each craft kit is packaged
If you would prefer not to use Etsy, please CONTACT ME and I will gladly set up another payment method for you.
If you have any questions or problems, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
