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We had so much fun yesterday making our 'Blossoms for Birds' tree and really started to think about nests... how they are made and how eggs are laid. K longs for a bird to make a nest where she can watch him. She is so hoping a bird will make a nest in the jasmine that grows over her bunny hutch as she would like to talk to the babies while she feeds her bunnies.
When I suggested we make a robin's nest, she agreed immediately.
We needed:
* a nest (make one from grape vine or find one at a craft store)
* blue wool roving
* dish detergent
* a glue gun
* ribbon
To make the sweet little robin's-blue eggs, pull off a 'palm-size' piece of the blue roving (I have small hands). Not too much wool or your eggs will be too large.
K set out the three tufts of wool for the three eggs. You can see how much wool we used for each egg in comparison to the nest.
Get a bowl of warm water. Fluff our the wool so that it is a rough round shape. Squirt a teaspoon of dish detergent into the palm of your hand. Very gently, roll the ball of wool roving in the detergent, trying to coat it evenly (this is not an exact science so 'just about' is 'good enough'!).
Keep rolling the wool gently in your hands. It will soon become a soggy mass... this is good!
Scoop a tiny amount of warm water onto the soggy mass and continue rolling gently.
Keep rolling the wool gently in your hands. It will soon become a soggy mass... this is good!
Scoop a tiny amount of warm water onto the soggy mass and continue rolling gently.
After a while you will feel the soggy mass becoming firmer, taking the shape of a ball.
Now you can roll with more vigor and exert more pressure on the ball in your hands.
Your ball will harden into a perfect little egg.
Now you can roll with more vigor and exert more pressure on the ball in your hands.
Your ball will harden into a perfect little egg.
Some kids love wet felting... the warm water, the bubbly detergent. It isn't K's favorite! She dislikes the beginning part when the wool is a soggy mass. So, I started the balls off for her and when they started to harden into shape, I handed them over to her to finish off.
When we had wet felted our three eggs, K rinsed them off and we put them in the sun to dry.
While they were drying, I tied the ribbon onto the nest so that it would hang.
When we had wet felted our three eggs, K rinsed them off and we put them in the sun to dry.
While they were drying, I tied the ribbon onto the nest so that it would hang.
When the eggs were dry, we used our glue gun to glue them into the nest.
K decided to hang her sweet little robin's nest outside to show the other birds that this is a very nice place to build a nest.
I do hope it works!!
I do hope it works!!As I know so many of you and your kids will be excited to make a robin's nest too, I thought I would make it easy for you by listing for purchase a few kits for making your own in my shop. Enjoy!
Blessings and magic.
23 comments:
What a darling idea--it turned out so well, too! The colors give my heart hope that Spring might actually be here soon :)
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Donni, you are amazing. The ideas you come up with and the sweetness of them and their focus on nature and magic; I can't help thinking that you have some of the luckiest children around.
I haven't thought about making a nest out of grape vine before... I just happen to have some extra laying around (in the compost) that I chopped off the plant the other day. I was hoping I would think of something to do with it. Does reading your ideas count as me coming up with something? I am going with "yes!"
Thanks for sharing! (again)
Amanda
what a sweet idea! K is such a sweet girl! I can just see her talking away to the baby birds while she feeds her bunny!
very pretty. i love the color of that ribbon.
Great idea, nice and simple for a child to make. cheers Marie
Lovely spring idea. I hope you have baby birds in your garden - looks like we will we getting some blackbirds. the American robin is a different bird from the European one.
You're making me want to go on a search for my wool roving! I know it's around here somewhere. :) The bird nest with the eggs is so sweet.
That is so cute! Makes me crave warm weather. If it'd just get sunny and spring-like around here!
always such a treat to visit your blog and find another inspiring idea xxx
Thank you for the details of making these. My son is a sensory seeker and LOVES, LOVES the way the entire process feels, but we have never been able to make anything more than blobs. We'll try it again using your directions. It's a beautiful project.
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This is so, so pretty! What a wonderful activity. Thanks so much for this, I'll be linking.
I love that so cute and pretty ^_^
Just so pretty- I need to get into wool roving...
Great tutorial! So pretty. I will have to try this one.
Very pretty! Where do I find the wool?
What perfect eggs! I love your ideas and photos! Thanks for sharing!
Just stopping by from Today's Creative! Signed up to follow you! Stop by my blog when you get a chance, I'm always looking for a few more crafty followers! http://juliechats.blogspot.com
so cute! i love how you made the eggs!
Oh I love this and am saddened that the kits are already sold out in your shop!
Yours are beautiful! I used clover brand wool and followed your directions to a T! But where did I go wrong? I have grooved wet wool that wants to go flat and not roll into a fluffy ball. Was I supposed to card the wool first? Is there something more to the rolling technique? I'm just not a crafty mama I guess, poor DD! If someone can help, please do post!
Oh Kirstin, sometimes it does go wrong. I'm interested in the wool you used... was it yarn or roving? if it's yarn, try to fluff it out as much as you can. Then, try the felting technique really slowly with not too much water. With damp hands and detergent, gently roll the wool around in your hands, very very gently. Around and around. At first it is very 'fluffy' and you need to let it form a kind of skin around the outside. After a little while it will firm up and you'll feel that you can roll it a little harder. I admit that I did have to practice a few times before I got it right... Kitty, on the other hand, just makes it perfect without even trying... go figure. I hope you get it right :)
Love Donni
Donni, you are so sweet to help me out, thank you!! You just inspired me to give it another go tomorrow, but I'm going to take it slow and well, if we use up all the roving practicing, I'm sure we'll learn a lot and eventually we'll get it! (btw, the wool I used is roving by the sewing company Clover that I got at JoAnn's. I also have some Ashland Bay roving. For this project courser is better than smooth roving right? or is it the other way around?) Thanks again for your help and your outstanding blog! xoxo!
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