Nature Crafts and Critters-Nanaimo, BC

All materials are subject to the laws of nature. One of those laws is that the behavior of organic material changes depending on the moisture levels in the material and the environment it is in. Moisture levels in the air vary by geographic location, by season, by day and even if the cone is indoors or outdoors. In general, wet materials like wood tend to swell up as they absorb water. When they dry out, they shrink as they lose water. They may also warp. A cone is made of woody material and so is subject to these laws.  The Bottom Line: A cone that is subject to moist or wet conditions absorbs water and closes up over time. A cone that is in a warmer drier environment dries out and opens up. We all know this. One thing we don't all consider is that the moisture level in the air also varies depending on if the craft is made in one environment (indoors or outdoors) and displayed or stored in a different one or sent to a different climate.  How Does this Affect Crafting? When you m

Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer was a big part of my Christmas growing up. This reindeer is one craft I will be making more of, maybe a team of 8 of them? I love the buck's exaggerated antlers and I thought I was being creative to use the spruce for the buck's chest mane! LOL! Materials:   glue gun and glue sticks sharp scissors one small and one larger redwood cone per deer 4 acorn caps a collection of sticks (for legs and fawn neck) one 2 inch soft spruce cone 3 large pine cone scales (for ears and tail) handful of hemlock cones plastic lid (yogurt or margarine container) red ribbon to make bows or reins for the deer (assuming you want to make a team of them) How to: Start at the head and work your way down the animal, adding the smaller bits at the end. This makes it easier for you to handle the body without breaking off pieces. Step 1 Place two pine cone scales in the cracks so they look like ears. You may need to test a couple of cracks to find the best location. Glue scales

When working with cones, bark and other parts of nature, we are bound to get sap on our hands or clothes. While some people enjoy the scent, most of us don't enjoy the sticky mess that follows until we get the sap off our hands.  Removing Sap from Skin An easy way to get sap off skin and clothing is to apply a greasy product. Anything from Vaseline (petroleum jelly, mineral oil), water-based hand lotion, vegetable oil, butter, mayonnaise, peanut butter, coconut oil etc. can be applied and rubbed on your hands or skin where the sap is. Next, wash your hands with soap. Good old-fashioned bar soap works just fine. Liquid soap does too. If there is still some lingering sap left on your hands, repeat.  Using hot water from the tap also helps to melt the sap so it flows more easily off your skin. You may still have some of the pine sap scent left but it will soon wear off.  Removing Sap from Clothing For clothing or other materials, freeze the material first for about 2 hours until sap i

I found a great solution! Glitter glue!  I remember when I was a kid and I loved using glitter in my craft projects! But I hated the mess, so did the rest of the family. Glitter got everywhere! Even if we made things at school, the glitter inevitably made it's way home. Well many years have gone by and I chose not to have glitter in my house. But someone had a innovation to solve that!  I love innovations! They put glitter into a transparent glue! Brilliant! Now we can dab or paint the glitter where we want it and not have to worry about getting it all over the house. Make sure to give the glue enough time to dry before displaying or using your creation. I found if you apply the glitter glue thickly it takes several hours to dry. Applied thinly, it dries more quickly. If you apply it over paint that is not completely dry, it gives a washed effect which dulls both the underlying color and the glitter. It depends on what effect you want for a project how you apply the glue. Gold, sil

 Catkins? What are catkins you ask? They are the male part of the tree that sheds pollen. In most trees and shrubs, the catkin falls apart soon after it releases the pollen. The type of catkin we will use comes off an evergreen tree and while somewhat delicate, it holds it's shape for quite awhile and we can prevent it from losing the bits by spraying it with a coat of hairspray. My interest in it is that it has a really neat texture with curling ends we can use in crafting all sorts of things. Since it is the holiday season, a tree sprang to mind! :) My tabletop Christmas tree turned out well and I thought of several ways to adapt it to your liking. Below is how to make the basic tree and some ideas of how to dress it up, if you choose. I really like it in it's natural form. It could also be used in a model railway train set up. Materials: glue gun glue sticks 20cm x 28 cm (8" x 11") light cardboard (What color is up to you and may depend on how you decide to dress u