Nature Art – Page 8 – Phlox Architect

09Jan 2023 by catbird 2 Comments

An After Holiday Tree for our Animal Friends

I always feel a little down in early January after all of the excitement of teh December holidays. One thing that I have always kind of dreaded is taking the tree down. Over the last few years as we have started to celebrate the Twelfth Night however, it's become its own little celebration, which has completely changed how I feel about this time. It's become something to look forward to, rather than something to be sad about. In fact I have begun to enjoy taking the ornaments down and packing them away- when we put them up there are frantic little hands grabbing for them and bickering about who gets to hang the most. When I take them down I can reminisce about each of them. We make a family…

06Jan 2023 by catbird 1 Comment

Wassailing the Trees and 2 types of Toasts

Garden, Learning, Nature Art, Play, Recipes, Twelfth Night

For years we have wassailed our fruit trees on the Twelfth Night to ensure a bountiful fruit harvest, because who doesn't want a bountiful fruit harvest, right? My kids were little and I never really went into too much depth though... until this year when I went down a rabbit hole and became obsessed with wassail toast. More on that later. For years we stuck a cinnamon stick in a cup of apple juice and sang songs about wassailing or fruit and it was a good time. Actually only my 7 year old ever remembers the words to "Here we come a Wassailing" so he's generally in charge lol. They also sometimes make up songs about specific fruit trees in our yard. It's fun and you should try it! As…

02Jan 2023 by catbird 1 Comment

New Year Nature Crowns!!

Craft Project, Nature Art, Nature Collection, New Year's Eve, Play

One of the activities that we do every New Year's Eve is to make some sort of crown or party hat. In teh past we have mostly just colored in something free and printable and not gotten particularly fancy with it, but this year we decided that we needed to step up our crown game. The kids requested nature crowns, but we couldn't think of a way to make them "New Year's Eveish." I considered make stick crowns and spraying them gold because gold seems to be my default on NYE, but then I had an epiphany! Half of the crown would be bare sticks (like winter and the old year...) and the other half would be greenery (spring and the new year!) we ended up adding some sticks with…

29Dec 2022 by catbird 2 Comments

What is a Hibernation Celebration?

Craft Project, Hibernation Celebration, Learning, Nature Art, Nature Collection, Play, Winter

Every winter we have a "Hibernation Celebration" both at school and at home. What is a Hibernation Celebration pray tell? It's a super fun way celebrate the winter holidays in a non-denominational nature focused way. It can be a full lesson block with academic content the way we do at school or it can just be a fun party. We usually celebrate at the end of December right before winter break (otherwise known as the perfect time to hibernate...) but this is a great topic for January or February-- or any snowy cold month really. If you want to skip to party ideas click here. For all of my Hibernation content click here. When we celebrate hibernation at school it isn't just a straightforward scientific discussion of bears in caves.…

28Dec 2022 by catbird No Comments

Hibernating Seed Bears

Craft Project, Garden, Hibernation Celebration, Nature Art, Play, Winter

Many animals hibernate this time of year, and while plants don't hibernate exactly, many of them do go dormant which is similar. We observe a "Hibernation Celebration" each year in December as school winds down and we prepare for our quiet period of sorts. This year we made these sweet little seed bears with seeds tucked inside sleeping away the winter and waiting for spring. We chose seeds that are food for or have value to small mammals so that they wouldn't just look like sleeping animals, but actually help animals! I couldn't find a sleeping bear mold so we made these by hand which is time consuming, but feels right for this sleepy season. You could also try using bee friendly plants with a bee mold or swampy loving…

28Dec 2022 by catbird No Comments

Winter Solstice Nature Activities for Kids

Craft Project, Nature Art, Nature Collection, Nature Journaling, Winter, Winter Solstice

Twelve ways to celebrate the Winter Solstice with kids!! Pin for later! Click the pictures below for more info.

19Dec 2022 by catbird 5 Comments

Winter Solstice Star Lantern

Craft Project, Nature Art, Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice is the longest, darkest night of the year. Every day after this night the day gets a little bit longer until the Summer Solstice. Light is an important theme across winter holidays in most cultures, many of whom tried to coax the sun back with fires, lights and lanterns. We always make ice lanterns for our Solstice Spiral, but wanted lantern that we could carry this year. This Star Lantern was inspired by the “parol” a type of Christmas lantern traditional in the Philippines, it’s made with bamboo and rice paper and is meant to represent the star of Bethlehem, but has become an art form of its own. We swapped the bamboo for sticks to make our lantern more rustic looking and I am delighted with how…

12Dec 2022 by catbird No Comments

Festive Mushroom Ornaments

Craft Project, Nature Art, Play, Winter, Winter Solstice

I don't think its any secret that I love mushrooms, foraging and eating them, making art with them and generally just finding and observing them. They seem to me having a moment right now too. At the same time I am slowly becoming one of those crazy old ladies who has a tree in every room of her house with a different theme. I’m at three now. (Is there a threshold for when it becomes crazy? Like cats?) The family tree is in the living room and has all of our special ornaments, there is a sunny solstice tree and last is this tree. I live in an old Victorian house with a tower… so it clearly needed a tree. And obviously that tree needed to be a mushroom tree.…

11Dec 2022 by catbird 1 Comment

Golden Solstice Tree Topper

Craft Project, Nature Art, Winter Solstice

Once I started making these simple tree toppers I never looked back-- they are easy and cheap to make, rustic yet elegant and speak to the importance of the sun at the Winter Solstice. I have three- one for each of my various trees and I have made smaller versions as ornaments too. It could be a fun way to use special sticks (yes we have those too...) the last one I made used sticks that had mushrooms growing on them, lichen can be beautiful too! Golden Solstice Tree Topper Materials: Sticks Scrap cardboard Hot Glue Strip of felt for the hanger Method: Decide how big you want your topper to be and cut all of the sticks to approximately the same length. I like to make sure that cuts…

09Dec 2022 by catbird 3 Comments

Solstice Tree & Handmade Sun Ornaments

Craft Project, Nature Art, Play, Winter Solstice

I have been meaning for years to make a dedicated Winter Solstice tree. Our family tree has solstice-y vibes but really focuses more on ornaments that we design together to commemorate each year. It's already packed full of ornaments and we add a few more each year. So last year I got another tree for another room and dubbed it the solstice tree. That December got away from me as the often do and I only managed to buy one blown glass ornament. This year, not wanting to buy a million expensive ornaments, I decided to make the bulk of them and I am beyond thrilled with how them came out. All of the crafts are super kid friendly, but can just as easily be done by adults. My Solstice…

Category: Nature Art