Wednesday 21 September 2011

Nature Faeries

The Autumn Equinox falls on the 23rd of September this year and is the second of the three pagan harvest festivals otherwise called Mabon. We have been on several nature walks but have only collected a few Autumn things for our display so far, therefore the nature faerie craft will be using these natural things like pine cones and acorns.


First select a pine cone for the body and an acorn for the head for each faerie you want to make, we pulled the pointed end off the pine cones to allow a good place for the head to sit.


When it comes to gluing this sort of stuff I have found using a hot glue gun to be the most efficient way, it dries fast and holds well, this means helping the little ones so no one get hot glue on their fingers, but much better than waiting hours for the glue to dry.


This is what they look like with their heads attached, acorns were used with the cups removed for now. Then we added hair, my daughter was very insistent that they should have pink or multi coloured hair and helped to choose the wool. We stuck the hair on the top of the head with a spot of glue and then added the acorn cup as a hat with another spot of glue.


Starting to look a little more faerie like now, next step is to add facial features, we have used googly eyes and sparkly lips, of course.


Nearly done now, sycamore seed pods were used to create wings as that is what we had close to hand but you could use beautiful autumn red maple leaves or the round moon like honesty seed pods.


There you go, Autumn nature faeries, perfect to play with or they can be hung up on display or secretly hidden in the garden for the little ones to find and be surprised by. My husband also helped me with another idea to add little feet so that the faeries could stand, he cut off a couple of one of the larger pine cones scales and glued them to the bottom. I think it makes him look like he is wearing clogs.


If you prefer a more natural look to the faeries, they look just as good without the rainbow hair and googly eyes as you can see below.


This one was made in the same way as the others but without all the added cuteness from the children. I have added cotton to the back and hung it on a plant...hmm...gives me an idea about Christmas or Yule decorations, think I will make some more and spray them in silver or some other festive colour to hang on the tree...Enjoy the Equinox.



15 comments:

  1. What cuties! They put a HUGE smile on my face!!!

    Thank you for joining in at Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

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  2. thank-you for reading, they have been making my daughter smile all day :)

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  3. adorable! I especially like the all natural one I think my daughter would go banana's if she suddenly found one hanging in our tree so I'll have to go have a rummage in the park this arvo! Thanks for posting x

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  4. thank-you both for reading :)

    @Willow thank-you, the children love making magical things :)

    @max I love the natural one, we may have to make a fairy house for these in the spring :)

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  5. Oh they are SO CUTE! I love the wings!
    Will be definitely making some as well :)

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  6. Oh my! These are too freakin' cute! What a wonderfully clever idea. I can't wait to make Mabon faeries with my niece! Thank you for sharing this. BB, Summer

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  7. thank-you for reading and for your lovely comments, enjoy the festival :)

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  8. thank-you for reading, they are on the window ledge at the moment so my daughter can keep an eye on them ;)

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  9. What a great idea!! So cute! My Daughter would love these! I don't see many pine cones around here these days. I shall have to go on a search!

    Thank you for linking up :)

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  10. thank-you for reading, we haven't found quite as many as we normally do, I was wondering if more people were collecting them ready for Christmas decorations :D

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  11. Oh cute! I love the multicoloured yarn hair!

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  12. Oh how sweet! My little girl would love to help make these! I featured them at my All Year Round Blog Carnival: Autumn post! http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-all-year-round-blog-carnival-autumn.html

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