Friday, September 25, 2015

Acorn Fairies

Earlier this week an article popped up in my Facebook feed highlighting that in the UK they have removed unused words from the Junior Oxford Dictionary to replace them with more well used words. As I read the list of words removed I was so sad to think that we now live in a world where words like Acorn, Dandelion and Otter are deemed not necessary for 4-11 year olds and instead these words have been replaced by 'MP3 player', 'chat room' and 'cut and paste'.

I sat there for a minute dumbfounded at what I'd read. I googled a bit just to make sure it wasn't a hoax but after a little collaboration I came to the sad realization that it was true. I grabbed the kids, took them out in the woods and we searched for Acorns. I wanted to be quite certain that my kids would know what an Acorn was long before they knew what a chatroom was.

Luckily for me I was pleasantly surprised. My four year old already knew what an Acorn was and better than that informed us all he knew the best place in the woods to find Acorns. He was absolutely right. We had a fabulous morning foraging around. We also came across a big toad, watched a Hawk land in a tree and collected a million leaves that are currently going dried and crispy in my car. It was all worth it. But what to do with all the Acorns?


These colorful little creations were a collaboration between myself and my daughters who are fairy crazy. As they get older I keep thinking there will come a time when they don't love fairies quite as much, but in this instance I'm not sure the apples fell far from the tree. I mean who doesn't love the idea of fairies, and the magical gardens they bring with them. Plus after our morning in the woods we were ready to embrace the natural magic of fairies.



You will need:

Acorns (Make sure you don't collect any with holes, Weevils like to make their homes in the acorns. To make sure we had no bugs we dried ours in the oven at 170F for about 40min).
Wooden skewer
Paint
Fabric flower petals (We pulled apart some fake flowers and leis but you could also buy the klutz fairy making kit)
Flower arranging twine or thin wire
Embroidery thread
Glue
Sharpies


Step 1

Push the acorn onto the sharp end of the skewer. Be careful this step requires adult help. Paint the acorn  to become the fairies face. Leave to one side to dry we found standing the skewers in a cup of rice was the perfect way to keep them in place whilst they dried.



Step 2

Once the paint is dry, take one of the flower petals and push it onto the skewer. 


Underneath loop around a length of the flower arranging twine. This will become the arms of the fairy.


Use a small spot of glue to hold the petal down over the wire. This will help to keep it all in place.


Next, push on one or two more petals to become the skirt. In the same way take a piece of flower wire and twist around under the skirt; this will become the legs. Hold in place with a little glue.



Step 3

Wrap embroidery thread around the ends of the wire to become hands and feet. Draw on a face with Sharpie.



And there you have it, a beautiful Acorn Fairy. 



You can trim the skewer or leave it long to stick in your garden and have fairies floating around your yard.


These were so addictive, my girls quickly made lots of fairies to give to all of their friends. Now what to do with the rest of the Acorns?!





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