L learning to needle felt

I usually do all of my needle felting at night when L is in bed but I finished up the gnome home for the giveaway in the afternoon.  L saw me needle felting and of course wanted to try.  I was really reluctant at first and explained to her that the needle is super sharp but she still wanted to try.

I set her up with my foam on her knees.  She chose a cookie cutter and then filled it with some of my wool scraps.  I told her to keep her other hand on the couch or holding on to the foam.  She forgot early on, held on to the cookie cutter and poked her finger.  There were a few tears but it didn't deter her and she carried on.  I'm really glad it happened so she is aware now of how sharp the needle really is and is more careful.

 First she did this butterfly and felted on the string to fly it around.  It kind of blends into the flowers here but I love the colors and how it turned out.

 She was so excited about her creation that she wanted to make another one.  She chose this bunny cookie cutter.  I helped her to start with joining on the tail and the eye because you have to hold the wool while you poke but she did 99% of it herself.

I LOVE how these turned out and the fact that L made them by herself (under constant supervision). They now have pride of place on our nature table.  L is going to make some more to give to her teachers for a thank you at the end of the year.

If you like what you see don't forget to enter the giveaway for the gnome home!

Gnome Village and Giveaway

L and I were walking in the Fairy Woods the other day when we came upon this tiny gnome village!

These little gnome homes were actually what I made for the recent Waldorf Nature Table swap organised by One Hook Wonder.  I was inspired after seeing these guys at the Felted Fern

I love seeing them all together and imagining all of the little creatures who live in them.  They've now been sent off and will be soon arriving at their new homes.

Giveaway now closed.

I enjoyed making them so much that I decided to make a larger one for a giveaway! If you find these little gnome homes enchanting and would like to enter to win this larger one just leave a comment below.

You will get extra entries if you let me know you follow my blog or if you blog about this giveaway!

I will randomly pick the winner on Monday May 30th and will send the little home anywhere around the world.

Good Luck!

Gnome Board Game

L loves to read but is not that keen on reading books.  I came up with the idea of making a little playscape for her gnome children but make it in the format of a board game. 

How it works is each player picks a gnome and then takes turns picking a card and reading it.

The cards have directions for the gnomes such as "Take a nap in the cave" or "Get the fishing rod.  Catch a fish".

The winner is the first gnome to collect a fish, stone and flower although winning is not really the point of the game.  The little fish are needle felted with a small piece of paper clip needle felted inside that way the gnomes can  actually catch the fish with the tiny fishing rod which has a magnet glued to the end of the string.

They especially like to catch the fish while standing on the bridge.

All of the flowers except two are glued down along with the bridge and river but the other things are stored in a little draw string bag when not in use.  That way she can change up the board however she likes.

This game has been brilliant and we all love playing it.  At first I'd planned to keep the cards in order as we picked them but now that L knows what they say she just rifles through until she finds the one she wants her gnome to do.

As L's reading vocabulary expands I'll change the cards to keep her challenged.

Gnome Home

As most of you who read this blog may have noticed although I love Montessori I also love a lot of things about Waldorf.  Especially the beautiful crafts.  There are so many wonderful blogs out there for inspiration.

I've been wanting to make a Gnome tree house for L for so long and was finally able to get my husband on board.

Once he gets into something he goes all out.

Here is the finished product!

My husband did the woodwork and I made the gnomes and accessories.

L made the upstairs fire pit and painted the pots while my mom made the rag rug (or as L calls it the activity mat).  It was truly a family affair.

L can play for ages with the little families and it's wonderful to sit back quietly and listen to the goings on in the house.  The other day all the seats were around the rug and they were getting ready to watch a puppet show!  The rabbit also loves to play soccer with the children.

If you have any questions about anything we made just leave them in the comments section.  We got tons of inspiration and tutorials from here, here and here.