Welcome to two of my favourite Nature crafts for kids
My daughter and I love nature, we love learning about it, exploring it and making things with or for it !
Within this lens I will tell you about two of the best nature crafts you and your kids can do.
The first is Fairy houses which is on this page and the second is pressing flowers which you will find in the next tab at the top of this page !
I have included links for some really great websites to give you even more ideas and some fun videos and pictures of what others have done.
I hope you will find this lens useful and have loads of fun trying out these ideas x
FAIRY HOUSES !!
So on with the Fairy houses
The beginning
I have wanted to make one of these for so long now but I just never got round to it, then I came across another lens about them so I just had to get out and do it and my daughter was more than happy about this.I think I must still be a kid at heart because I just love these so much!!
I cant believe we had not actually made one before.
Now I home school my daughter and we are always backwards and forwards to the beach or woods collecting and exploring different things at the moment we are doing a rather big topic on nature, so luckily we had a fair old stash of drift wood, old branches, leaves, shells and all sorts of things to make a hopefully pretty cool fairy house.
Last week we had a lovely sunny day so we gathered up a selection of things from our project and took them to the garden.
First of all we had to search for the right place to put it, we don't have a huge garden but there is a patio and then the grass, flowerbed and bushes. We thought about putting it on the patio as it would have been nice to look out the kitchen and keep watch for the fairies, but we didn't want to use nails or anything and we had no way of keeping it in the ground so the patio was out!
So whereabouts do we put it in the garden?
We decided on a little area underneath the honey suckle as not much was growing there and it has always looked pretty dull so what could be better than a fairy house to bring it to life!
We cleared away the dead leaves and tidied the plants up a bit and then got to work.
Our fairy house!
We started by making a little frame for the house, we didn't use any thing to hold it all together it is just basically woven into the main standing sticks, we added lots of extra sticks to make it stronger and more enclosed (fairies need there privacy too you know) then we added some dead bark lots of pine needles, leaves and moss to the roof so they can keep dry!It started getting chilly by this time so we had to leave it at that, Then today we had another day of nice weather so we got back to work ..
So now it was just a case of making it pretty. We added some bigger bits of drift wood to make the outside fence then decorated there garden area with pebbles,shells pine cones and flowers.
I had some dried roses which I have kept for ages and thought the fairies would like them so we added those around the house too .
The last thing we did was plant some sweet peas on both sides so the fairies will have lots of petals to make new clothes and maybe even some bedding for there nice house and we sowed some seeds in front of the house so in a few months time they will have a lot of pretty little flowers to dance around .
Although we have finished it for now it will look great when the flowers start growing and I shall update you with new pictures when they Bloom.
Our very first fairy house
The things you need to remember
A few guide lines when creating your Fairy house:1, The Most important thing when collecting materials for your house is only take things that have already fallen or died and be sure that there are no creatures living on what you are taking because even though what you will be making is wonderful for the fairies you need to think about what may be using it all ready so when you collect your materials just have a quick look to see nothing else is using it :)
2, Make your fairy house as big or small as you like but think about where you are going to put it first. Are you going to make it into a feature in your garden? If yes you could make it with extra levels or give it a little garden of its own. Or are you going to have it tucked away somewhere where only the fairies will find it because we all know they are very shy!! Or maybe you don't want it outside at all and would like it in your room or lounge, if this is the case then you will need to be a little bit more fussy about what materials you use as rotting things might start to smell and that wont be very nice.
3,So you have your materials, you know where you want to put it so what are you waiting for Its time for the real fun to begin !!
Make sure when you are putting it together to experiment a bit maybe think about how you can make it more stable and if you can improve on the design but another thing you need to check is that if things if creature can get inside it, can they get back out again with no problems?
Below I have included some links to sites with way more information on how to build them.
I hope you have fun making these and I would love to hear back from you on how you got on x
Your thoughts on fairy houses !!
Please feel free to tell us about the fairy houses you or your kids have made I really would love to hear about them x
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VickiSims
Mar 25, 2011 @ 1:17 pm | delete
- Fun idea! I used to make things like this when I was growing up. I'm so glad kids still enjoy doing activities like this.
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cinstress
Mar 23, 2011 @ 3:25 pm | delete
- that's fun to do
thanks for sharing yours
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sheilamarie Mar 14, 2011 @ 7:01 pm | delete
- We used to make little houses in the woods with pine needles and sticks when my boys were little. We didn't call them "fairy houses," but we used to imagine what creatures came to live in them, especially when we came back in a couple of days and saw changes. Then my youngest son's first grade teacher had them make leprechaun traps on St. Patrick's Day. Hey! I think I'll go make a lens about that and then come back and lensroll this one to it!
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Pastiche
Mar 14, 2011 @ 3:57 pm | delete
- I love nature crafts and have been making them since childhood. So many kids today are nature-deficient! I made fairy houses even as a teenager, then would shoot photos of them for fun. Rolling to several related lenses ... fairies, nature and flowers.
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noushki
Mar 14, 2011 @ 5:19 pm | delete
- Thank you both and thanks for rolling them pastiche Im glad everyone is enjoying this lens, its funny as my intention with this lens was for kids to do but i love the way its bringing back peoples memories too !
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BubblesRFun
Mar 14, 2011 @ 6:01 am | delete
- I think they're awesome. I love creative people who come up with these fantastic ideas. Thanks for sharing!
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Tipi
Mar 11, 2011 @ 12:19 pm | delete
- You caught my imagination with this sweetness!
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noushki
Mar 11, 2011 @ 4:19 pm | delete
- I am pleased, Thank you x
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bethd821
Mar 9, 2011 @ 8:13 pm | delete
- What a lovely idea of building a fairy house with your children. Great job.
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noushki
Mar 10, 2011 @ 1:33 pm | delete
- Thank you and it really is a great fun, we have just bought some solar butterfly lights that we have put up around it now and it looks even better x
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LInks for making your fairy house
- How to build fairy houses
- A lovely guide for making you fairy house
- Wiki how
- A slightly different way to make them !
- Family fun
- A selection of things to do but most importantly fairy houses
- Haute nature
- I think this is for the super special faries
Exploring Fairy houses
Fairies!!
Just a little bit of fun x
Other lenses on fairy houses
Flower Pressing
Don't forget there is the flower pressing tab at the top of this page, be sure to go there now for all my info on flower pressing!
Onto the flower pressing
FLOWER PRESSING !!
And now for the Flower pressing !
So now its time for another great idea for nature crafts !!!
I remember when I was a child, pressing flowers with my mum and grandma it was lovely, my mum still has the flowers 25 years on, funny thing is we didn't actually have a proper flower press so we put them between a few sheets of tissue paper and placed them inside a big old Bible and that is where they still are now !
I have also followed on with the flower pressing with my daughter, I think it became a bit of an obsession as we now have about 6 different flower presses all filled accept one !
A little bit of history !
“Flower pressing is such an easy craft to do and personally I think its really relaxing.”
Pressed flowers !
Now on to actually doing it, it really is very simple But there are two rules that you need to take note of if you want your pressed flowers to be beautiful and that is:
1. make sure they have no moisture on them!
The best time I think to collect the flowers is around midday on a nice sunny day, that way the morning dew should have gone !
The reason for this is that when you press the flowers and they start to dry the moisture will make them slightly mouldy and spoil the flower some what !
2, After your flowers have been in the press for just over a week you will need to tighten the screws again as the flowers will be flatter by now and for them to continue to press well you need it tight!
So really they are the two things you need to always make sure of all the rest is up to you !
You may not have a proper flower press in which case you can do as we did all those years back and just place them in tissue in between a big old book or you may want one of the many lovely ones you can buy and I have selected a few below which I think a rather good Or if you are feeling slightly more adventurous and have the supplies why not make your own I have included a link on how to do that also !
I think this is such a wonderful craft to do with your kids and its just one of those things that stays with you and then when your kids have all grown up and you are tidying the book shelf and the flower you pressed with them all those years ago drops out ... Its a lovely memory !
So that's the pressing side covered well what to do with them after ??
Do you want to leave them and then find them again one day or do you want your kids to make pictures with them or even make a paper weight , there really are so many possibilities I have selected a few that I think are particularly nice below !
Some great guides
- All free crafts
- A really great and easy step by step guide on how to make your own flower press !
- Best gardening
- A great guide for kids on pressing flowers and some ideas on what you can do with them when they are ready !
- Artists helping children
- A HUGE List of all the different things for kids to make with there lovely pressed flowers !
- Mom in Madison
- Another of the great things to do with your pressed flowers !
Our Pressed flower picture
Unfortunately we havnt taken many picture of the things we have made with the flowers as they mostly get sent of as presents to people but this is one we did a few weeks ago !
Flower presses on Amazon
Flower pressing in the past !
As I said earlier I loved pressing flowers with my family as a child and equally love doing it with my daughter now but how about you? Do you know what happened to the flowers you pressed or have you come across them recently bringing back fond memories !! How old where you when you pressed your first flower?
I would love to hear all your flower pressing stories !
Did you enjoy pressing flowers as a child?
Yes very much !
noushki says:
oh wow I bet There are some amazing flowers in there !!
fanfreluche says:
I did. I inherited of my Grand father pressed flower collection. He did that when he was a kid! That collection is over 75 years old.
knit1tat2 says:
stationary and notecards, bookmarks, as well as just for pretty, I've dried and pressed flowers and leaves--fun, cheap, and pretty, can't beat it!
I-sparkle says:
I did leave for a school project. Yes, it was a lot of fun.
Not really my thing!
Even if its just to say hi.
For anything else you would like to share in relation to this page x
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GiftsBonanza
Mar 7, 2011 @ 4:18 am | delete
- Those fairy houses are just adorable!
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Janiece Mar 5, 2011 @ 8:11 am | delete
- Ah, the fairy houses are VERY cute! Love the pressed flowers too!
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knit1tat2
Mar 3, 2011 @ 12:50 pm | delete
- bark projects, twig collecting for decorating frames, etc. and pinecones! Lots of info there of things to do!
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I-sparkle
Mar 3, 2011 @ 10:09 am | delete
- Very lovely and unique lens. Good job.
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noushki
Mar 3, 2011 @ 10:11 am | delete
- Thank you very much xxx Oh and about your leaf pressing Do you still have it?
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Nature is Fun !!!
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noushki
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