Tree decorations!

 

Tree mobiles

 

hang your own woodland stories in your home
 ~ a quiet activity for a winter evening

 

 

you will need:

·      a piece of card - we worked on a piece of A5 (about 15 x 21cm)*

·      a pencil

·      coloured pencils or pens

·      some glue (PVA or glue stick glue)

·      scissors

·      a needle or small hole punch

·      some thread or thin string

 

(* you don't need art card: you could do this with a cereal packet or draw on paper and then stick onto cereal packet card when you are ready to cut out) 

This is a blog first published on the site of Toadfriends and colleagues Stone and Water, reblogging here so that it can reach a different set of visitors!

It is associated with the SnW Celebrating Woodlands project

 

Think about: a tree you know (or would like to know!) Maybe consider the tree's life cycle of bud, leaf, fruit and animals...or treehouses and swings… or hanging by your toes in your very own circus tree....

 

In our pictures here we've used pen to make lines show up: if you did this in pencil you could rub the guidelines out afterwards!

 

1. Draw 2 upside down 'T' shapes. these need to be about the same size. A smaller 'T" could fit in between them. These will help keep drawings 1 and 2 about the same size

Step 1, guidelines

Step 2, drawing trees

Step3, colouring trees!

 

2. Draw 3 stages of your tree:1 and 2 need to be about the same size while 3 is OK to be smaller (you have more card? make 3 the same size as the others!)

 

3. Colour in!

 

4. Cut out: don't cut right up to your lines, give yourself some room around your drawings. Then fold drawings 1 and 2 in half along the long line of that first T

 

5. Glue 1 and 2 together on one half of the back of your drawing so they make a Y shape. Then glue 3 into the blank side of this shape. Carefully trim away extra card to show up the shape of your drawing

Step 5: trim

 

6. If you have drawn circles like we did, use these (if they have matched up! they often don't) as a guide to punch a hole. or just make a hole toward the top of your tree! Thread a string through. Add some finishing touches? Glitter? some sequin snowflakes? 

Fold and glue

 

Hang up your tree and enjoy!

There are more woodland events coming from Stone and Water and Creeping Toad in between January and March 2026: keep an eye on this page and on the Toad social media for more details!

Creeping Toad:

Facebook: Creeping Toad

Instagram: Creepingtoad

the Folk Union

Spring wildlife

 A Book of Spring Wildlife
make your own concertina book

In the first of a series of events Celebrating Woodlands working with Stone and Water and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, we invite you make your own Book of Spring Woodlands. We made boos like this on a very damp day in Corbar Woods on Tuesday 27th May. But if you would lie to make your own book, why not rummage around at home, find some bits and pieces and have a go...

 

You will need:

·      1 piece of thin cardboard (about 15cm x 10.5cm) - cereal packet card is a good weight

·      scissors

·      glue or a gluestick

·      paper for the bookblock (see below)

·      pencils, wax crayons, coloured pencils, scrap paper…

·      if you want some line drawings to get you started, you could print off the pdf sheet here

 

Make your bookblock: this is the set of pages that make the body of the book. You might use a long strip of paper (A2 (flipchart sized) cut into quarters lengthwise works well and makes 4 books – or one very long one) or take a sheet of A4 (standard printer size) and cut or tear it in half lengthways. Overlap the ends by about 1cm and stick them together (see below)

 

Write a poem for a page?

Falling sky splinters
Into scabious and cornflower blue,
While tormentil nestles in the grass,
Droplets of sunshine on the green

 

that first set of folds

Concertina: fold your strip of paper in half and then in half again. Unfold it: this should give you 8 sections of about the same size. Use those folds as guides to now fold the paper into a zig-zag pattern

 

folded to give a concertina

 

Try an acrostic perhaps? 

M - many harvest mice hiding

I  - in the long grass, swaying,

C - curl up in careful nests

E - every night in safety. 

 

Now you are ready to make your book! It is easier to work on the book before you fit it into the cover. Work on one side of your paper. On your pages you might:

• write
• draw
• add a patch of scrap paper and draw on that
• make a pocket
• do a rubbing
• print
• add a map
• make a pop-up
• think of something else…. 

Beetle stamps....

add a pocket

how about a map?

 

When it is done decide if you are having 

a) a book that unfolds completely – stick one end page into the cover. You could now work on the back side of your pages (Beetle stamps picture above: stick one end of the finished block into the cover)”

Or 

b) a book that is fixed at both ends. If you are going for this, you might need to refold your concertina so it looks like the picture below(Both ends ready to glue in)

 

Cover: fold the card in half. Decorate the cover. Glue in the book block….Title? Author?

 

would a feather fit into your book?

 

Please, send us a picture of your finished book! creepingtoad@btinternet.com

 

Thanks to the Buxton Civic Association for letting us be inspired by Corbar Woods

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Community Fund for being able to offer this event to y'all

 

NEXT EVENT: summer in Lightwood Nature Reserve on 6th July

 

 

 

old cards and new scenes: an activity for rainy January days

 

 Old cards and new scenes
a festive activity for a rainy winter season

Having a bit of a fidget?

Nothing to do?

Bored?

And it’s raining again?

I first posted this activity last year but thought it would merit repeating. It's that weekend. Holidays are sort of over, decorations piled up in corners waiting for boxes, January uncertainty is rising. And then there is that pile of greeting cards. Here in Buxton in Derbyshire (UK), it is raining (again). Not really a weekend for wandering in our woods or being intimidated by the ducks who are over-confident about plundering snacks from visitors pockets in the Pavilion Gardens. So, pause. Find some cards and make your own wintry scenes for some January decoration and bring the winter woodland and some wild scenes home for January

Why not dig out some old greetings cards from the bundle at the bottom of the cupboard, or stealthily purloin one of last year’s Christmas cards, or the birthday cards you don’t quite want to throw out, or use a cereal packet (good card for making and folding, just maybe not as exciting in images as cards)

Make a little winter a scene to hang on a tree, a branch, a hook on the wall, to stand on a shelf, or make a box to put that extra special present  (or maybe just the key that makes it go) in

We call these storyboxes as they almost always seem to end up encouraging little stories…

• of Santa’s Present Dog who runs away with gifts and tries to eat them,
• of the owl who had hiccups
• of the hare who could run faster than even the wind and ended up running across the sky and was lost in the stars

Instead of reading the guide below, you might prefer to watch a short film....

You will need: 

a card or two

sharp scissors

a ruler, pencils or pens

glue (PVA is good here) and glue spreader

stapler or paper clips

bradawl (or something for making holes – a pair of compasses would work) 

a small lump of modelling clay

thin string

1. Cut the card in half along the fold – keep the “plain” half, you will need it later

2. Using the picture half of the card, on the reverse, draw a margin maybe 2 cm from each edge of the card

3. Where the lines cross at the corners, carefully cut along one of those lines to the point where the lines meet (we cut the scribbled lines)

Before you fold the box into shape, 

• you could make two holes in the top side of the box for some string (easier when everything is still flat). Sit the spot where you want to make a hole on the modelling clay and pierce with the bradawl or compasses point
• If you might want a branch reaching across the top part of the box (or maybe a flying reindeer) use a craft knife to make a careful slit where you would like a branch to go

 

4. This card usually folds quite sharply, so now (use the ruler for a straight edge if you want to) fold up along each of those lines and where you have cut in, fold the short bit to make a corner

5. Before glueing it all together, decide: if you are making a scene, keep the picture on the inside of the box. If you are making a box: you might want the picture inside or on the outside (you could always line the inside with some spare wrapping paper, or make a bigger box to become a lid.). Reverse the folding if you want to change the position of the picture

6. Making sure the sides of your box are sharply upright, glue the corner tabs onto the next side. A staple will hold it all in place. If the outside is too plain, you could colour it in or add some coloured tape. Or sprinkle it with glitter!

Glitter: plastic glitter is one of the ongoing irritations and challenges of an environmentally responsible life. There is however biodegradable glitter available (and other glitters are sold as edible) ...go hunting for some

7. While the glue dries, prepare the scene to go in the box. Using the other piece of card (from stage 1 above), you could make a little tab to fix a figure to (we used some “embellishments” bought cheaply in a local craft shop), or you could draw your own character. Fix by glueing the tabs into the main scene. Again a staple might help. You might want to colour the tab so it fits into the background of the scenes. Some extra glitter might help again.

A branch can be pushed into place through the slit you made in #3 above and a tab glued into place on the outside of the box

Think about what is going into your scene: could the pieces and the picture become a story?

8. Thread a piece of glittery string or ribbon through the holes, knot it and hang your scene.

Experiment with papers, colours, tapes, sequins. 

Try different places to hang them: from your ears? on your fingers (and create a fabulous dance around them)? a snowman’s nose?

Send us a picture and

we’ll post a gallery of scenes!