Crafty Tutorial: Felt Woodland Elves

~ by Kendal

First of all, let me apologise for the lack of post on Monday. I have been so crazily busy over the last few days, making unexpected MamaMake orders and working on our new line (so many bubble dresses, tutus and elf hats!) not to mention trying to finish gifts for Ava and family and friends, that I have barely had time to eat, let alone make something scrumptious to share with you.

But these little guys, oh my. They have really won my heart. They are whimsical and simple and a little strange, and best of all? So easy and quick to make! Plus, if you know me at all, you’ll know I have a bit of a thing for pointy hats. Is there anything cuter?

All you need is felt and embroidery thread and some kind of stuffing. Wool roving works best, but annoyingly I didn’t have the time or skills to find it locally, so I used ordinary cotton stuffing which also worked well.

How to:

1. You need to make a circle quarter. I did this by tracing a large dinner plate onto felt and then dividing into quarters. The radius was roughly 4 inches

2. You want to squish the quarter in half and then cut a semi-circle out where the face will be about 1 ½ inches down.

3. Thread your needle (I used all 6 strands of floss) and starting at the point which is the top of the hat, begin using a simple whip stitch down the hat. (I started on the inside to hide the knot)

4. Once you reach the face, bring the needle through one side only so it’s on the inside of the hat and tie a knot. The hat is done!

5. Start below the face in exactly the same way as before, and continue a whip stitch down the body. When you get to the bottom tie a knot in the inside again.

6. Next take your wool or stuffing and roll it up around your pointer finger. Place it inside the gnome and position it so the face is nice and smooth.

7. Once you’re happy with the stuffing, thread your needle again and use a simple running stitch to define the neck. Leave a 2 inch tail at either side and tie it. Then pull on the ends until the neck is gathered in. Make a bow and cut the tails.

And that’s it! If you want to, use the bottom of the elf to cut a circle in some matching felt, big enough to close up the bottom, and use a blanket stitch to make a base. They stand up well without a base too, but if your Littles want to play with them, I recommend a base!

They take about 5 minutes each to make, look great on Seasons tables and are just…adorable. We will be making some version of them for our Seasonal lines at MamaMake – they are the perfect amount of whimsy and otherwordly. With just a touch of nostalgia. Great for brightening up your Winter nature scenes!

Crafty Tutorial: Wintery Cloud Dough

 ~ by Emi

Today, in the midst of a VERY busy festive period, happily making away for MamaPixie orders, friends and family, I am going to share with you a little something that kept both my children amused for an hour. An Hour, I tell you! A whole glorious hour in which I cleaned my kitchen, filled my washing machine and made bread. With the whole 'no tv' thing still very much in play, an hour to clean was a sending from the skies!

What is this magical activity?

Wintery Cloud Dough.

Oh yes, baby.

And it's made from items you probably already have in your house!

Plain flour and baby oil.

That's it.

Oh, and some glitter.


Literally, we're going to mix 8 parts flour to one part oil. Throw in a whole bunch of glitter so it sparkles like Glinda the Good Witch's dress and mix.

It forms this wonderful substance that smells divine and has a very odd consistency. Whilst looking like sand, you can compress it to form more solid structures.

I'm finding it a particular challenge right now to find activities that both 3 1/2 year old Ru and 15 months old Pixie can BOTH do, without one or more of them getting frustrated with themselves or their sibling. This worked a treat.

Not only is a brilliant sensory activity, but again, like so many Crafty by Nurture activities, can be adapted for different themes. Pink and red glitter and you've got Valentine's Cloud Dough! Bury chocolate coins in there with some rainbow sequins and you've got St Patrick's Day Cloud Dough!

I do warn you though, this is likely to get all over your floor but the baby oil makes it smell luscious, so it's not too much of a problem! I wouldn't do this on carpet, so if you don't have laminate flooring, BIG sheets of plastic will be needed or wrap up and head outside to play!

And now, if you don't mind, I have an absolute ton of work to do, as well as a baby whose bottom I suspect, if the smell is anything to go by, needs changing!

"When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow,

we hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago,

and etched on vacant places

are half-forgotten faces

of friends we used to cherish,

and loves we used to know."

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Crafty Tutorial: Winter Waldorf Stars

~by Kendal

Good Wednesday to you! Today, I am off on a hen do to London and back and may, by the time you're reading this, already be there. It's going to be a very long, but very exciting day (although this will be the longest time I've been away from my Little Miss, so I'm a tad nervous too - 18 hours apart!)

So I bring you a very simple and easy tutorial - how to make Winter Waldorf stars. I made my first Waldorf star in summer, but didn't quite get it right (I didn't realise this until Emi pointed out my obvious mistake) Since then, I've made a lot more, and I just love them.

My good friend Anna mentioned how, at her Steiner school, they'd make white ones at winter and I thought, 'What a good idea - I must try this come December..' (Anna will kindly be writing a post about her experiences of Steiner education in the weeks following Ezra's birth)

So, here it is!

Materials:

Tissue paper
Glue

(You can use tougher material, like kite paper, or even card, but I usually use tissue paper and it works well)

How to:

1. First cut your tissue paper up into squares. 8 to be exact.

2. Take your first square, and fold it in half.

Then fold it in half again. When you open it up, your square will be divided into four little squares

3. Fold each corner into the center until you have a smaller square.

Then, fold two of the sides into the middle, like so, making a kite shape.

4. Repeat this 8 times until you have 8 kite shapes.

5. Using some craft glue or pritt stick, put a little on one half of the shorter side, as shown below:

6. Stick 2 of the kites together.

Then, repeat with all remaining kites, until you get a beautiful big star shape. (Note, on the last kite, you will stick it on to the previous kite, and then stick the first kite onto it, thereby completing the round)

7. And...there you have it! A Waldorf star!

Now, stick them onto your windows (or if you're so inclined, your walls...)

And see how pretty they look as the light shines through. The perfect simple Yule decoration!

'For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.'

Vincent Van Gogh

Crafty Tutorial: Waldorf Winter Window Transparencies

 ~ By Emi



I am lucky, blessed, to have a great many talented friends. But my favourite recently, the one I am most jealous of... is Melissa.

Melissa does the most beautiful papercuts over at Holmes-made. Stephen and I are lucky enough to own a bespoke piece of work from her, that was commissioned as a wedding anniversary gift for us.

She has been so inspiring for me recently that when I was faced with a decidedly boring and blank living room window to decorate, I decided to mix a traditional Waldorf transparencies with Melissa's beautiful papercutting techniques.

Today, I'm going to show you how I made...

THESE!

I've used a mixture of techniques here, so that you can pick and choose which ones your children will be able to attempt (or yourself!).

So, first off, we're going to need black card, a scalpel/craft knife, tissue paper, contact paper, Sharpies/felt tips/crayons, glitter and glue. I used mount board which has the benefit of being thick and sturdy... and the disadvantage of being thick and a pain in the ass to cut through. You could just as easily use cardboard or even paper. Cut it to the size you want. I made the Tomten A4-ish and the others A3.


Let's do the stag first...

Next, we're going to draw on the BACK of our mount board (or whatever you're using). We'll need a wavy line marking the 'frame' of the drawing and then a design. You're going to draw whatever design you like, as simple or as complex as your heart desires, but do remember that the more intricate it is, the more difficult it's going to be to cut out.

I chose a stag, pausing daintily in a winter landscape. Perhaps, for the more cynical among you, he is pausing, hiding from a hunter. For me, however... well... I like to think he's admiring a particularly pretty snowflake.

Up next, Cutting Out. This is the tough part. You WILL need to do this on a cutting mat, so that you don't damage your work surface. They are easy enough to find in your local craft shop, along with the craft knives, one of which you will need for this step.

I'm sure I don't need to remind you that these blades are SHARP! This is not something young children can do, although older ones with adequate supervision may enjoy it. Whether your children are dextrous and mature enough to manage this task, that's a judgement call only you can make. As Ru is only three, I figured it was probably best to supply him with a particularly large stack of toast and hope that that held his attention long enough for me to finish this!

The next few photographs will show you the process of me cutting out my handsome deer. Use your craft knife carefully (CAREFULLY!) and just take your time.

I did the outline of the frame first, then cut away large sections that weren't needed. I then moved on to doing the small details, such as his antlers and tail. The final picture shows the finished cut-out.

It was at this point that the toast ceased to capture Ru's attention. He wandered over to me and announced "Why is Bambi on your paper, Mama?!" That's right, I can't help but feel a bit proud of myself when I draw something and my Small Boy recognises it. It doesn't work the opposite way though - cue me asking him "Wow! That's a lovely painting of a... a... well, it's a... Well, why don't you tell me about your painting?"

We now move on to the tissue paper part (this is where the Waldorf transparencies inspiration comes in!).

This is where you can let your creativity run away with you!

I simply layered white and varying shades of blue tissue paper on the BACK of the mount board, sticking down each layer around the edge of the frame with pva glue.

From here, it's simply a matter of letting it dry, and then fixing it to a window, allowing Mr Sunlight to do his job, or popping some candles behind it to illuminate it. And because I'm a sparkle-kinda girl at heart, I sprayed the front of mine with hairspray and liberally twinkled it with silver glitter. Just gives it a little somethin' somethin'. (You can't actually SEE the glitter in the dark, but at least it'll shimmer in the daytime!)

I might have also been a little overenthusiastic with my glitter because when Steven saw the floor, he sighed, said "You do know you've got glitter all over the... Never mind. Just... clean it up." in the brow-beaten tone of a man who knows he's going to be finding glitter on his clothes for the next four days.

There.

Doesn't he look handsome?






Next up is the quiet Winter landscape. This one is MUCH more toddler-friendly! Simply cut out a frame, cover one side with contact paper and then get your Little to add glitter and torn up tissue paper.

Once this step was completed, I drew a few details onto the back with black Sharpie, then covered the back with more contact paper.

And finally, the happy little Tomten. Again, cut out your frame and glue on a layer of tissue paper. Then, draw whatever design you like on it. I used wax crayons, but pencils and felt tips would be just as effective. I drew mine on my light box so that I could see exactly how it was going to look in our window, but that's not essential. You could also trace an image and let your child colour it in. (Side note: I found my Tomten picture to use as inspiration from this artist on DeviantArt)

As with most of my Crafty Tutorials, these are easily adaptable to other seasons or subjects. These would also be AMAZING as A1 size backgrounds for Seasons Tables (guess what one of the new products I'm going to be stocking at MamaPixie is going to be?)

I have plans for a few more, a couple will be scenes from The Story Of The Snow Children by Sybille Von Olfers, (including one for Kendal and Ava) and then one will be a large background for our Winter table, both of which I shall be adding pictures of to this post as I complete them!

So, get on with it! Don't forget to post photos of your completed window transparencies over on our Crafty by Nurture Facebook page, and check out more of Melissa's beautiful papercuts here.