Tutorial: How to make lavender play dough

I have found this to be the perfect afternoon activity to do with my daughter. She helped me make our first batch and I have since given it away as birthday gifts. Here is what you will need:

1 cup sea salt

2 cups flour

2 cups warm water

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp cream of tartar

Food Colouring

Lavender Essential Oil

Step 1: Put all ingredients into a large pot over low heat and stir.

Step 2: Keep stirring! While the mixture is starting to firm up, add in 10 drops of lavender essential oil. I sometimes use 8 drops of lavender 2 of rosemary. The first batch I ever made I just used 6 drops. I can smell the lavender but it wasn't quite enough for my taste. It is easy to add more so start off small and keep adding to suit your taste. I like using lavender because of its antibacterial properties.

Step 4: Once the dough starts to get too firm to mix and really starts pulling away from the sides of the pot, let it cool a few minutes until it can be handled. Then take it out of the pot and kneed it until soft and smooth. If after a bit of kneading it is sticky, add a touch more flour or place back in to the pot and warm up again. If it is too stiff, wet your hands with water and knead the dough again.

Step 5: Form the dough into balls. I make three balls for the primary colours. Create an indent in the ball and add food colouring there. Kneed again until food colouring is equally distributed. You can then colour combine. Blue and red = purple, Yellow and blue = green and so forth.

Step 6: Create! Play! Mould and Sculpt! Or... let cool to room temperature and then store in an air tight container in the fridge when not in use. I have had my batch for a couple of months now and it is still going strong. Once it starts getting funky, toss it and make more. Creations can be baked. You will have to experiment with your own oven for temperature and duration. Enjoy.

Written by Rachel from OAST

Caterpillar Craft Tutorial

After I saw the photos (above & below) from Natural Kids Team member Kelly on her blog Muddy Feet, I have been wanting to make a post on caterpillars as part of the theme I have been posting on the last few weeks.

When I was growing up my friends and I used to spend oodles of time sitting in a willow tree that had hundreds of caterpillars each year. We usually didn't get to see the butterflies that emerged, but caterpillars are fun just on their own~ and most kids find them fascinating.

Now that you can order caterpillars and build a spot to keep them until the butterflies emerge many families are doing this (some school classrooms too). How fun is that? Lots of fun!

It is also fun to make caterpillars out of various craft items... a little caterpillar tutorial is below~ easy enough for any child who can handle a needle and thread.

How to make a caterpillar out of felt balls: You will need 5-7 felt balls (whatever size you like), thread (including black), needle and scissors.

This is SO easy! If you don't have pre-made felt balls on-hand you can either needlefelt them or use pom-poms.

1. Begin by threading a strong thread through the felt balls until all the balls are on the thread.

2. Then when you reach the last ball, start rethreading them all back to the beginning).

3. Knot the thread off, now all your felt balls are connected.

4. Then make a couple of eyes with black thread. You can make little antennas too, by threading the black thread through the head, making a knot and cutting off just above the knot.

Cute little felt ball caterpillar is done and ready for play or decoration! Please remember that small parts can be dangerous for young children.

This tutorial is brought to you by Natalie of Woolhalla.

The photos of live caterpillars are by Kelly of Muddyfeet, thank you for sharing Kelly!

What's New, and, Well Natural from the Natural Kids Team on Etsy

Welcome! I continue my trek backwards through the alphabet to bring to you the most wonderful and imaginative treasures. They are all handmade with natural materials from...yes! the NaturalKids Team on Etsy! This week, we feature wonderful variety of artist from who have one thing in common - they all work with natural materials!

Darial Lvovski hails all the way from Israel. She is a wonderful needle felter using eco wool and is the mother to three girls. In her shop you will see "only a tiny part of an amazing world populated by the little beings I create. My works have become the ultimate toys for my own children and the children of my friends. " Here is her One of a kind needle felted wool collectible, Pig Soft Sculpture.

Dad's Wooden Toys from Grand Rapids, Michigan is not only a wonderful craftsman of eco-friendly wooden toys, but a wonderful poet as well. Here is how he describes how he got going on behalf of his children..."I want the best for them all/and that's how I started rolling this ball/The toys everywhere made noise and light/but I think the kids not the toys should be bright/So my wife and I were searching to find/toys that were natural and good for their mind." Here is his Great Dane Wooden toy.

Cute Little Thing, is from Farmingdale, Long Island. She took her genetic predisposition for “cute,” a bachelors of fine arts degree in interior design, an absolute love for natural materials and designing with them, to create the tools, and kits and more for “cute little thing.” Cute Little Barn Owl Needle Felting Kit DIY

Those are the featured new items for this week, from one of a kind needle felted treasures, to natural wooden toys to do-it-yourself kits, all from natural materials and from the hands of folks who love nature, children and open ended toys. This is just a small sample of the quality and variety our customers enjoy from the fine crafters and artists of the NaturalKids team.

Thanks for joining us this week and please do return again next Monday as we continue to feature all the wonderful members of the Naturakids team on Etsy! Til then, I invite you to browse all our wonderful shops.

Warmly,
Rebecca aka Nushkie
Nushkie on Facebook

A Crafty Nature Table Storage Idea

I am always looking for ways to store things that is not only functional but is also beautiful! I came up with a great idea to store my seasonal Nature Table toys and playsilks.

Here is what you will need:
4 wooden photo boxes - $10 each at your local craft store
An assortment of non-toxic paints
Stamps in a variety of seasonal themes

I decided to only paint the lids to keep the colors from not over whelming the whole Nature Table space.

I painted only one coat so as to let the wood grain show. I picked Green for Spring, Yellow for Summer, Brown for Autumn, and Blue for Winter.

Next use the stamps to decorate. Once the lids dry give then a coat of non-toxic finish or simple use a beeswax finish.

Come back tomorrow to see how we organize and store our lovely Nature Table treasures using these great boxes.

...Just a little side note from the farm, we had to take a brake from our crafting cause the kids found their first salamander! I often told them about my days growing up on the farm and looking for salamanders! They were as happy as can be!

Article by Beccijo, The Enchanted Cupboard

The Prettiest Easter Eggs Tutorial

This week's How-To is Prettiest Easter Eggs Tutorial is by Donni, from Fairyfolk from the Natural Kids Team. This is a really straight-forward way to decorate eggs and it is so beautiful! You can blow the eggs (link below) for longer lasting eggs or you could do what our family does each year, which is hard boil the eggs and hide them outside in the wee hours of the morning for an Easter Egg Breakfast Hunt (along with chocolate, of course!).

The Prettiest Easter Eggs:

We have been making beautiful heirloom eggs to decorate our home for Easter. This craft makes such pretty eggs... we used transfers to color our eggs beautifully.

All we needed was white blown egg shells (tutorial on how to safely do this is here) and transfers that we found at a craft store... both the rub-on's and the transfers that need to be dampened with a wet cloth will work.
Kitty and Teddy chose which images they wanted for their eggs and cut neatly around the edges.
We used rub-on's and they worked wonderfully, sticking nicely to the naturally porous egg shells
It was a gift to watch the delight on my children's faces as their eggs got prettier and prettier.

Happy Easter crafting!
Blessings and magic,
Donni

This tutorial is brought to you by Natalie, of Woolhalla

Please visit Donni at her blog The Magic Onions where you can see the original post, plus other great Easter tutorials and share the "magical journey of childhood with us"

Check out her Etsy shop Fairyfolk where you find beautiful needle felted items, including lots of cute animals, toadstools and acorns.

Easter Craft: Dress-up EasterBunny

Maybe you can relate to the following problem: Having too many fabric scraps around the house. When you are doll maker you end up with lots of fabric scraps that are too small to make doll clothes with; yet too precious to throw away...I have to confess, when it comes to fabric, I am a terrible hoarder. Luckily I just found another cute craft that may help shrink the pile. Remember the frienship peg dolls from my February post? It's fun to find projects that help your recycle!

So let me present to you my new cute Easter bunny craft.

A couple of years ago my sister sent me an Easter package. Besides yummy German chocolate, it held this darling bunny she made with her kids. Her bunny was made from construction paper and card stock only...

This weekend we created our own dress-up bunny. The kids and I had a blast making them!

All you need for this craft is:

1.Poster board or thick paper in white, black, brown, or bunny color
2.Fabric Scraps
3.Glue (we used Elmer's for the clothing, but had to resort to hot glue gun for the bunnies neck...)
4.Yarn
5.marker

I am not much on making templates, so I scanned in the basic shapes you need for your dress-up bunny. You can use your own free form drawings too, but don't fret to copy mine. You can make it as large or small as you feel right. Our finished bunnies measured around 7 inches from top of the ear to the feet.

Step 1: use your poster board or card stock to cut out one bunny body and one head with ears (white parts in the picture)

Step 2: cut from fabric scraps two sets of pants (making sure to flip the pattern over so they match), then cut one pocket, and one Easter Egg to go in the pocket.
Variation: For a girl bunny you can just leave out the v-shape divot and cut out a dress instead...

Step 3: glue the clothes onto the body. Pants or respective dress parts go on front and back. Then glue egg and pocket over the egg.

Step 4: Make a neck by braiding three pieces of yarn together. The little braided neck is about 1 inch long. Make a knot on each side. An adult (or authorized person) should now use a hot glue gun to glue the knots to the body and head part.

Step 5: Take a black marker or pen and add the bunnies face, then color in the ears.

Step 6: Poke a little hole in the top of the head, right above the eyes, and pull a piece of thread or strong twine through, loop around, and make knot in the back.

Done! You can hang your cute bunnies anywhere you like. They will look great hanging from an Easter bouquet or centerpiece on your table. We hung ours from the chandelier over the dining table. You could even make a cute Easter mobile with them. Or use them as an Easter card?

Happy Crafting!

Blossoms for Birds Tutorial

This week's How-To is Blossoms for Birds Tutorial by Donni, from Fairyfolk from the Natural Kids Team. Where I live the birds are just coming back, the flowers beginning to pop their heads out of the ground, so I can sure use this great post now! Hope you enjoy this installment of the Spring & Easter Themed tutorials.

Blossoms for Birds:

Here in Southern California, Spring has definitely arrived! Our nights are cool, our mornings are crisp and our days are warm and sunny... it's lovely weather, my favorite time of the year. The squirrels come out, the jasmine blooms and the birds start collecting treasures to build their nests with.

We have a spring tradition that we call 'Blossoms for Birds'. Each year as Spring approaches and we start to notice the birds building their nests, we decorate a bare tree branch with lovely soft wool for them. We find a branch.

Saw it to the right length for little people to reach even the top branches.
And then we put the bare branch in a spot in the garden, just beyond our deck, where we can watch it from our dining room. It's best to put the branch in a visible place, somewhere where you can watch it, undetected by the outside creatures.
Collect a basket of spring-colored wool scraps. I let K choose any color she wanted from my precious stash.
Decorate the bare tree with the wool, winding it around the branches and twigs.
Timone, our squirrel, came to see what we were doing.
She caused great distress by climbing down our Blossoms for Birds tree, nearly knocking it over and making K very angry... "This is for the BIRDS, Timone!" K scolded.
We were able to placate her with a few nuts while we finished decorating our wool tree.
It looks so pretty, covered in colorful tufts of wool, however, a pretty tree is not why we made our Blossoms for Birds Tree... it's for the birds to build their nests with!
All Spring long, we'll watch from our dining room table as the neighborhood birds are attracted to the colorful wool. They'll twitter about in a frenzy of excitement at the lovely soft wool they've found. They'll take a colorful bundle in their beak and fly off with it to build their nests. Just imagine what their nests will look like... pink, blue yellow... so pretty and soft for the sweet little baby birds.
I know that not many of you will have colorful wool roving scraps lying around, so I have listed for purchase a few packets of colorful wool bits in my shop. Enjoy!

Blessings and magic! Donni

This tutorial is brought to you by Natalie, of Woolhalla

Please visit Donni at her blog The Magic Onions where you can see the original post, plus other great tutorials and share the "magical journey of childhood with us"

Check out her Etsy shop Fairyfolk where you beautiful needle felted items, including some super sweet bunnies and chicks.

How to make Friendship Peg Dolls Tutorial

This week's How-To is How to Make Friendship Peg Dolls by Ulla, from GermanDolls here on the Natural Kids Team. The following post was for a class on Valentine's Day on her blog GermanDolls, but you can use it any day and it would make a great party favour for a child's birthday!

How to make Friendship Peg Dolls

I knew it! The day would come when I would be able to use all those pretty fabric scraps I have collected over the years - even down to the smallest little bitty one. Of course, my husband won’t believe me. But last week I came up with the perfect project!

I was looking for a craft to do in the classroom with Elementary school-age kids on Valentine’s Day. I realized I still had some wooden clothes pins in my supply box. Not sure why I bought them years ago. You all know how that goes. It’s on sale and you throw it in the basket…We are sure it will come in handy some day. And in this case it did!

All you need for this craft is:
-Wooden clothes pins : I used small ones called baby flat clothes pins! If you use larger ones you may have to cut the clothing for your dolls bigger!
-colorful scraps of fabric, blue jean fabric scraps
-chenille stems or pipe cleaners, cut into 2.5 inch pieces
-glue
-thin tipped marker or pen
-scraps of wool, if you are doll maker you can just use the clippings from cutting your dolls’ hair

Steps:
1.Get your husband to drill holes through the pegs where the arms will go. May be a bit of wait here…Or if you know how to work the drill best to do it yourself. LOL
2.Cut squares of fabric for the peg dolls clothing. We made either skirts or blue jeans for our dolls. For the jeans we cut two one –inch squares. For a skirt one rectangle of about 1 inch by 1.75 inches
3. Cut tops/shirts for your dolls. Cut about 1inch by 1.75 inches
4. Glue on the pants by attaching on little blue jean square per peg leg and wrapping it around the legs when you glue it. A toothpick or long pointy tool will come in handy! If you are doing skirts you’ll have a much easier time! =) To avoid frustration my child took it upon herself to make 25 pegs which had the jeans put on already…

5. Glue on the shirt/top making sure you don't cover up the holes for the arms
6. Insert chenille wire pieces through the predrilled hole and shape hands at the ends
7. Draw a face on your dolly with fine tip marker
8.Glue on hair
With the help of my daughter I made 25 kits to take into the classroom today. Looking forward to the kids faces when they finish their Valentine Friendship Dolls!

Sweet! I love this craft because it helps me teach kids to recycle and make beautifull things at the same time. Now I can work on scaling down my mountain of fabric scraps…I may be offering these kits in my shop in the near future! What do you think?

This tutorial is brought to you by Natalie, of Woolhalla

Please visit Ulla at GermanDolls where you can see her original post and read more on her dolls, needle felting, and life. She is an artist, doll-maker, wife and mother of two, originally from Germany and living in the U.S. In addition to all of this she is the Blog Leader here on the Natural Kids Blog!!

Our Best Play Dough Tutorial

This week's How-To is Our Best Play Dough by Emily from Yarn Miracle here on the Natural Kids Team. On her blog, also called Yarn Miracle, you will find free knitting patterns and a lot of other great posts. Check out the amazing colour of the play dough below and have fun making yours!


Our Best Play Dough
I’ve made a lot of play dough in my time. Enough to have memorized my favorite recipe. It makes a good size ball and stores neatly in anything with a tight lid that can hold two cups.

If you do this with little people, make sure you trust them with the stove. The stove is not on in this picture.

Our Best Play Dough
Dump the following into a sauce pan and mix well:

1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. water
1/4 c. salt (table, no need to be fancy)
1 T. oil
2 T. cream of tartar
food coloring to suit taste

Put your pan over medium heat. The goop will look nice and smooth like this…

…if you’ve used neon green food coloring.

Start stirring. Right about the time you think your arm will fall off (5-10 minutes), this will happen:

It will start to pull away from the sides of the pan and clump together.

Keep cooking and stirring until the mess has barely stopped being shiny and then pull it off of the heat. I also dump it out of the pot so it will stop cooking and not get too hard. Give it a few minutes to rest. When it’s cool enough to touch, knead the play dough until it’s smooth. I find that kneading is easier while it is still warm.

Wash your pot and repeat until you’ve run out of colors or storage boxes. Or in our case, both.

All this took us less than an hour to mix up.

In an airtight container, it keeps far longer than you’d think. We’ll be playing with this batch well into March. Unless it all gets mixed into a muddy rainbow. Then we’ll have to make more.

This tutorial is brought to you by Natalie, of Woolhalla

Visit Emily at Yarn Miracle where you can see her original post, and at her Etsy shop Yarn Miracle. She has lots of gorgeous knitting patterns and beautiful knitted animals in her Etsy shop... chickens, roosters, bunnies, bears and more!