Only made from wood; a daily advent of festive winter crafts part 2

Last year I set myself a creative challenge over on my facebook page. Every day in December so far I added a new winter festive craft made from things from the woods to a folder full of photographs. Well, now the nights are drawing in again I thought I'd collect some more ideas up for you.

 As the leaves fall off the tree the berries are exposed and the red of the rosehips sing out of the hedgerows even more. I collected a few handfuls to see if there is enough to make rosehip syrup. The frost had got to most of them but there were enough to make these sweet wreaths for the doors. I used a bodkin (a blunt needle) threaded with some paper coated florists wire which helped it hold it's shape.

A really simple one this; cutting slices from logs then sanding them smooth is something I have done lots of times with groups of children. We have used them for medals or name tags or tokens. Here I used a pyrography tool to make a little robin decoration.

This is such a great idea and uses another small wood slice.  I picked up this idea from Magaret. It's really quick and simple to make, but there are lots of ways you could decorate the base or the tree. The fir twig has just been trimmed a little to make it more 'tree' shaped.

As this time of year is the time for freezing weather it inspires lots of ice sculpture posts across the pages I folllow. I really love the combination of ice and fire. Putting one pot inside another as they freeze makes these beautiful candle holders that would be perfect for an outdoor winter party.

These reindeer are lovely to make, with drilled logs and bits of twig to connect them together they can be in lots of different sizes. This little fella even has a red rosehip nose. 

This idea was shared with me by Kelly from Alcester nursery, what a fantastic idea! I'm always surprised by how many green leaves are still on the trees in winter, they have been threaded onto a skewer with an elder bead trunk. 

I was in the woods when I noticed the honeysuckle plants winding around themselves. I have really come to love this plant for its pliable stems. I added a few stars snipped out from leaves, which is an idea I developed when I got home using different shades of birch bark.

Part 1 of this round up of crafts is here. I'd love to see what you are making. 

Only made from wood; a daily advent of festive winter crafts part 1

I have set myself a creative challenge over on my facebook page. Every day in December so far I have added a new winter festive craft made from things from the woods to a folder full of photographs. 

Here's a round up of my daily ideas so far. 

 I got this lovely idea for a tree made from threaded sticks from 'Michelle made me'  this is now hanging in my office and looks great! 

I learnt to make stars from bendy willow withies a few years back, I saw Alan from Birch Forest School make some of these stars from bramble which works really well and helps clear some of the bramble from the woods. I love making baskets out of bramble and it weaves really well as these stars show. 

I saw this idea for a Christmas tree on Handmade Living Frugally and I really wanted to try it this year. It looks really effective and doesn't fill my living room! I also love that it acts like little shelves for some of my favourite things like the little wooden horse and some of the keys I got in a recent freecycle triumph. 

I've been making little versions of these gnomes with different colours, These festive ones have just gone to live in a school where I was working last week. I found it was much easier for children to carve if you leave the stick longer and cut it to length after the whittling is done. Inspiration for these came from GardenMama.

When I made the two trees above I was left with lots of the really fine birch twigs. When they are fresh they are so bendy and I we playing with a pile of them. They are twiddled together to hold this decoration in place. The random weaving is strong enough that I could poke fairy lights through from the back. 

Here is one of the decorations from my tree, this is made out of woven birch bark. There are some great tutorials out there, they are quite fiddly to make but so worth it. Look out for fallen birch trees to take the bark from. 

I managed to get other people involved in my advent challenge. Hannah was one of the participants on my most recent Level 3 Forest School training course. She was exploring the potential of the woods for creativity and found that dead bracken makes an excellent base for wreaths. 

This is another skill I teach on the Forest School course, lashing and knot tying. For smaller children I sometimes give them elastic bands to hold sticks together with instead of tying knots. These stars do look great with a bit of extra festive foliage.

There was a thread about festive ideas on the FEI facebook page recently where I read the phrase 'elder candles' I found some red bramble leaves which inspired me to have a go at trying to work out what an elder candle would look like. The leaves stuck into the soft pith of the elder and with some of the bark peeled away they look quite effective. You could press the leaves to make them last longer.

I hope some of these ideas have inspired you to have a go at making something this winter. Look out for the next few advent crafts coming up.