Old Christmas Angel

We all have memories of Christmas past, for me opening the Christmas tree decorations every year holds so many memories of times past that I really need to pause to take it all in. There are the decorations for each of my children's first christmas, the one to symbolise our wedding, the beautiful vintage French ones my husband bought me, all the ones we have hand made over the last few years.... I could go on but first I would like to introduce you to a dear old friend of mine, this is her 22nd Christmas, she looks a little worse for wear but she has been greatly loved by lots of little children.

She is the sole survivor from a pack of three, still smiling and bringing cheer from behind her tired, faded blue eyes and tattered wings. This year I decided to try to make her some new friends, the idea came to me when I made the nature faeries for the Autumn solstice and I was quite excited when I found exactly the right type of small pine cone the other day.

To start with I cut the pine cone off the twig leaving a little stump, to insert into the bead for the head, this makes it a little stronger and a better fix for the bead using a hot glue gun.

Then traced round the old angel's wings onto the new wing material, I have used thin foam self adhesive sheeting, the other side is covered in silver glitter. I cut two wing shapes out for each angel and stuck them back to back to make both sides glittery but card would work just as well here.

Then we spray painted the new angels in silver, I really love the little acorn cup hats so decided to add these to our angels. These were also spray painted silver and had glitter sprinkled on top, my husband drilled the little holes so that we could add the string to the top to hang them from the Christmas tree.

Then you just need to assemble all the parts, we threaded silver thread through the hat and also added a little hair before we glued the hat to the head and the wings in place.

Three finished angels, I'm not sure whether to add faces or not so I have left them blank at the moment while I think about it.

Here they are together hanging on the tree, they look quite similar and I would love to think mine could last 22 years. I may keep a look out for something more angelic to use for the wings but in the meantime my youngest daughter loves them and has already given them a few kisses to welcome to the family.

This is one of the nature faeries that I made for the Autumn solstice, I sprayed him silver too so that he would kind of match the others.

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.

Flower Crown

Tomorrow is Beltane or May day, so to mark the day we have made a faerie flower crown or circlet. We have made it very simply with as little fuss as possible as we have been so busy lately with the allotment.

First, we have taken a piece of ivy and tied it into a head sized circle, this was a piece pruned back from our garden, any pliable twig would do here or if you haven't done any pruning, wire could also be used.

Then the circlet or crown was decorated, now this part is personal choice and can be as simple or ornate as you choose. We have tied on some ribbons and small flowers from our garden, if real flowers are not available to you, simple ones made with tissue paper and would also look nice.

Then just add the very simple faerie crown to the little ones head, and we now have one very happy little girl, who has spent the morning playing in the garden wearing it and feeling rather special too.

Please note that because this is made with real flowers it will not last forever, if you need one that lasts longer, the crown could be made with covered wire and synthetic flowers.