Helping The Birds Make Beautiful Nests

We have really enjoyed watching the birds building their nests this year. We have a family of crows who live in the tree in our back yard. Apart from the terrible squarking they make in the early mornings, we love them. They are particularly fun to watch when they are building their nests as they choose big sticks to build with, sometimes even longer than themselves. And, they are funny because they bicker and fight and often make each other drop their sticks and then try to find them again. We have had many a laugh watching them this spring.

With our garden birds in mind, we have a tradition of helping them make their nests as comfy as possible. In years past, we have decorated branches with wool roving for the birds to use as nesting material. But this year, we decided to do something different and made them a yarn ball instead. We fashioned a bit of wire into a ball to hold the yarn. The birds have been helping themselves all week and we are delighting in the visions of their eggs, nestled comfortably in their colorful yarn nests.

To make our yarn balls, we needed nice bendable wire, wire cutters, a ball and bits of yarn.

We cut a long length of wire and wrapped it around the ball to get a round shape, twisting it around itself at the join.

Then we extracted the ball and used the dimensions we already had to make our yarn holder. 

When we were finished it looked like a wire pumpkin! We added a little hook for hanging.

Then we cut our yarn into different lengths for the birds.

Stuffed the yarn into our handmade yarn holder.

And hung it in the tree for the birds.

Oh, what pretty nests they'll have.

Be sure not to miss out on our Fairy Garden Series and Contest.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Tutorial :: Neelde Felted Robin's Nest

I am so excited to share this Spring robin's nest needle felting tutorial with you. With Spring coming up, there is so much to inspire our creativity. For me, there's nothing quite as indicative of my favorite season as a robin's nest filled with sweet little blue eggs... just like this nest I've made. Even if you've never needle felted before, you'll be amazed at how quickly and easily you can make this little treasure too.

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Needle felting equipment - Needle felting requires three tools; wool roving, a felting needle and a protective foam board.

Wool roving looks like cotton candy. When the sheep is sheered, the fleece is washed and dried and then it is 'carded' - brushed so that all the knots and clumps are brushed out and the fibers of the wool all run the same way. It is then dyed... any wonderful color under the sun :-) This roving can then be spun into yarn (for knitting) or it can be felted.

The protective foam board is not absolutely necessary but it is definitely recommended when you are learning to needle felt. The needle is very sharp and if you don't have a board upon which to steady your work, you will find yourself painfully stabbed more than once.

The felting needle is about 3 inches long. As I said before, it is very sharp. The tip of the needle has a number of small barbs and it is these barbs that felt the wool. It works because the outer surface of each fiber of wool has tiny, microscopic scales on it. When the fiber is agitated, the scales hook into one another, forming a tighter and tighter mass. The needle works because the barbs of the needle 'grab' the fibers as you stab it into the wool, depositing the fibers deeper into the wool. The little scales on the fibers lock together, ensuring that the fibers stay in their new place. By stabbing the wool hundreds of times with your needle, you have control over the form of your wool and can shape it as you wish. You can see the barbs if you look closely at the tip of your needle. 

This tutorial will show how to make this sweet robins nest... a simple and fast project for beginner needle felting.

These are the things you'll need:
(I have a kit including everything you'll need to make this nest available in my shop Fairyfolk)

* a vine nest (found at craft stores)
* blue and mossy green wool roving
* a needle felting needle
* a needle felting board
* natural twine

Start by breaking the blue wool into three strips of roughly the same size... as you can see from the photo, the lengths should be about double the width of your hand.

Roll each strip between your hands as you would if you were rolling a ball of playdough into a snake.

With your forefinger and thumb, roll the wool 'snake' into a tight spiral. The tighter you can get it, the easier it will be to felt.

Tip: I find that rolling is key in many of my felting projects... if I can roll the wool tightly to begin with, I can greatly reduce the time my form takes to felt.

 When the  blue wool has been rolled into a tight spiral, I set it down on the felting board and stab it with the needle many times around the outside of the spiral. Be slow and deliberate with your stabbing in the beginning, and concentrate, please... it hurts when you stab yourself... it's definitely not the end of the world, but it is better avoided :-)

You will soon see that this stabbing holds the wool in place and the spiral will not unravel if you let it go.

To round the ends so that your creation starts to look like an egg, gently loosen the the outside layer of wool  around the spiral by pulling it with your thumb and forefinger. Fold this pulled layer over the spiral edge and needle felt it gently. Needle felt the edges until your shape becomes a smooth round ball.

 Roll your ball in your hands as if you were rolling a marble in your hands... this will help shape your ball. Then needle felt it again into the egg shape you want.  Continue with the other strips of blue wool, following the same technique for each egg.

 Now that your eggs are ready, they need a mossy nest to nestle comfortably in. First, we need to tie our twine onto the edge of the nest so that it will hang nicely. Thread the twine through a strand of vine and fasten it with a knot. Do the same for the other side, making sure that your nest hangs straight before making the second knot.



Now we need to line the nest with moss. Take about a handful of mossy green wool and gently pull it so that it makes a rough circle. Gently flatten it between your hands.

Place this green wool over the nest and push it into the hollow of the nest.

 Needle felt the wool gently into the nest. Remember to keep your nest on the protective foam board as your needle will sometimes go all the way through the nest and you don't want the nest to be sitting on your lap when the needle pokes through the bottom! Ouch!

 You will see that as you gently needle felt the wool into the strands of the nest, the nest indent will become more and more pronounced, making a lovely hollow for the sweet little eggs to nestle in.

In go the three little robins eggs and Voila! What a sweet Spring nest you have made. Just perfect for hanging from your chandelier, twig tree on your nature table or anywhere else in your home that is ready to welcome in the Spring.

Just a reminder that I have this kit available for purchase in my shop Fairyfolk, including everything you'll need to make a robins nest just like this one.

I have other needle felting kits available in my shop too if you wish to try something else... felted pebbles for lovely home decor, felted pumpkins, felted hearts, felted wreaths, felted balls as well as kits of lovely colored wool for you to make whatever your heart desires. Please visit my shop Fairyfolk to see them all and look under the 'Needle Felting Kits' section.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any felting questions.

Happy Spring crafting, 

Blessings and magic, 

Donni

Morning Glory Nests.

I have a wise old friend who warned me against planting Morning Glory.
'But it's so pretty!' I argued... 'And, it grows so wonderfully fast!' I pleaded. I was wanting to plant a vine that would grow over our fence and make our yard look like a jungle of green. As is usually the case with me, I wanted this curtain of green immediately!
'Donni,' he sighed, 'You will work hard for your impatience.'

And, yes I have! I planted Morning Glory, of course, and soon had a wonderful jungle for a back yard. It is so very pretty... deep green leaves, wonderful purple trumpet flowers that seem to change color every time I look at them and enchanting new tendrils that curl and spiral. But, alas, it is like the fabled vine that grew around Sleeping Beauties castle. It grows thicker and thicker, sends down roots and starts new vines all on it's own. It invades everywhere and covers everything. The one vine I planted has now become countless many. It has choked my roses to death, almost destroyed my passion fruit and is having a good attempt at strangling the banana trees. Every couple of months, we have to be ruthless with it as we free our other plants.

Today was Morning Glory Control Day. Morning Glory Control Day has become synonymous with Nest Making Day as we collect the morning glory clippings to make nests. So, although it's a day of hard work for me, my children whoop enthusiastically as nest making is on of their very favorite Spring activities.

We collect a big bunch of Morning Glory vine and 'de-leaf' each tendril.

To form the base of the nest, we take a few strands of vine and twist them around each other.

And then, we make our nest bigger and bigger by threading pieces of vine through it... around and around, filling in holes as we see them.

It's just like sewing, Kitty exclaimed!









Voila! Our Morning Glory nests are made.

We leave them in an airy place to dry out and play with them for many, many months. We make big ones and small ones, we add a few little robins eggs, some guinea fowl feathers, moss, wool... whatever we have on hand to make them as enchanting as possible.

Here is a link to last years Morning Glory Control Day where we rediscovered our dear printers tray.

Happy Spring,
Blessings and magic to you,
Donni

WIP - Fairyfolk

Here are a few of the little goodies I've been working on for Easter...

Easter Bunnies

Easter Nest

Easter Chick

If you want to see some more little needle felted Easter cuties, visit my shop, Fairyfolk.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Let's make an Easter Basket.

We are at the grocery store.
Kitty : Mom, we really have to get these Cadbury's Chocolate Eggs!
Me: I don't think so, Kitty, it's not Easter yet.
Kitty: But Mom! (I can see her little brain working furiously) Mom, I want make an Easter Basket and we can keep them in my basket until Easter.
Me: Oh, what kind of basket do you want to make?
Kitty: I want to, um, sew one.
Me: Great!
Kitty: I'll need your help.
Me: OK.
Kitty: So, can we get the Easter Eggs?
Me: OK... but only for your basket.

(I'm a pushover, I know, but the little girl said she wanted to SEW a BASKET!)

And, sew a basket we did!

When we got home, we collected an old felted sweater, a needle, some thread and some yarn.
Here is a tutorial on how to felt a sweater if you've never tried it before and here's a previous post with a super tip for making learning to sew VERY child friendly.


We began by cutting a circle from the felted sweater. This circle is going to be the base of the basket so it can be any size you want your basket to be.


Then, as we talked about the dimensions of a circle, we discovered that if we wanted to measure the circumference, we could use a piece of yarn! If we laid the piece of yarn all the way around the outside of the circle, the circumference, we could determine how long the material for the sides of our basket had to be.


Indeed, this was a very exciting discovery!


We cut the yarn the right length and then laid it on the felted sweater and cut a length of felted sweater exactly the same length as the piece of yarn... just long enough to fit all around the circumference of our circle.


Despite all the excitement in the working out of our formula, we were amazed that the length we had just cut did, indeed, fit all the way around our circle base! 'It worked!!' Kitty exploded.

She put the 'sides length' on a flat surface and the placed the circle on top of it...


And then she started to sew the two together.

With great concentration, she sewed the 'sides piece' all the way around the circle.


Until the two ends joined.


Then, she sewed the join together.


We turned the basket inside out (which is actually the right side up) and were again amazed at how sweet it looked, all of the stitches now hidden inside the basket... especially when we flipped over the top to make a pretty rim... Kitty is quite the designer!


We cut a length of felted sweater for the handle.

Sewed it on to our basket.



Voila!!! Kitty, can you believe it, actually DID sew an Easter basket! Of course, the chocolate Easter eggs went straight into the soft and fluffy basket.


I adore this photo as it shows just how incredulous she was at the fact that she really had sewn an Easter basket!


Of course an egg did get eaten... an then another. And then 'Little Brother' got into them and had a whole handful... which luckily entitled Kitty to have a whole handful too, and so on, until Mother tried them and then they were gone, leaving the sweet little basket empty. Not to worry, Kitty demised... we'll just get more the next time we are at the grocery store!


Happy sewing with your child,
Blessing and magic,
Donni

Handmade Christmas Gifts - Paper Mache Nest.

Our granny loves birds nests. She has a collection of discarded nests that she has picked up on her walks. They are so pretty to look at and a wonder to see how intricately the husband birds have woven them together.

Her love of nests in mind, the kids and I have made her this nest for Christmas.

We made the shell of the nest from paper mache. Teddy enjoyed ripping an old newspaper into long strips.

We use an all natural flour and water recipe to make our paper mache.

* 1 part flour to 5 parts water.
* Mix the flour with about 1 TBS of hot water until if forms a smooth paste. Add boiling water.
* Boil for a few minutes
* Allow to cool

We used balloons as our molds. We blew up the balloons (had a little play with them) and then covered them in strips of the newspaper dipped in the flour paste.

Add layer after layer until the newspaper is thickly packed.

I love this flour paste as I can let my kids get wonderfully messy without fearing that they are also getting covered in nasty chemicals.

Set paper mache balloons in the sun to dry. When dry, use a box cutter to cut an oval opening into them... and, yay, pop the balloons.

We decided to cover our nest in a fragrant mixture of dried chamomile and lavender.

Cover the 'nests' in glue and roll them in the dried herbs.

Leave in the sun to dry.

Line the inside with dried moss... we use two different kinds.

Add a few wooden speckled eggs.

We think Granny will LOVE her Christmas gift! (but I must admit that it's sooooo sweet we can hardly give it away)

Merry Blessings and magic,
Donni