Can you feel it in the air? Michaelmas is coming!

This craft project is one that I created for the Autumn Equinox and Michaelmas Festival E-Book published by Little Acorn Learning. I’m posting it here courtesy of Little Acorn Learning. Please take a moment to look at all the fun projects and crafts and celebration ideas offered in our e-book. It provides so many wonderful, Waldorf-inspired ideas for enjoying this early fall season.

Michael’s Sword Napkin Holders

This simple craft project is one that the kids can do mostly on their own, with a little supervision. The napkin holders are a perfect special touch for your holiday table and a special Michaelmas meal.

Materials

• toilet paper rolls (each makes two napkin holders)
• masking tape
• wide popsicle sticks
• narrow half-size popsicle sticks
• heavy-duty scissors
• sandpaper
• blue acrylic paint (or your preferred color)
• yellow watercolor paint
• paintbrushes
• mod podge
• gold glitter (optional)
• low temperature glue gun and glue stick

Tutorial

Cut your toilet paper holders into halves. Try not to squish them too much. Wrap each ring with masking tape. It can be smooth or bumpy.

With your blue acrylic paint, paint the tape covered rings thoroughly and let them dry.

With heavy-duty scissors, cut one end of a wide popsicle stick to a point. If your stick splits, discard it and try another.

With sandpaper, sand the pointed end so that it’s smooth and without splinters. This is the sword blade.

Paint all of the sword blades and the same number of short popsicle sticks with a wash of golden watercolor paint. Let the pieces dry. When the blue rings are completely dry, coat them with a coat of mod podge. Paint it on just like paint. Let them dry again.

With a little mod podge, you can add just a little gold glitter to your blue rings. Less is more for this step, or simply skip this part, if you prefer. Let the rings dry completely.

Meanwhile, arrange your sword blades and cross pieces. Be sure all the wood pieces are completely dry before attempting to glue them. Apply a small dot of hot glue to the sword blade, add the cross piece, and press firmly. Repeat this for all the swords. (Supervise the kiddos during this stage. The little swords may be VERY exciting!)

Add a little wavy line of hot glue to your dry blue ring.

Quickly add a sword and press it down firmly.

Let them set. Store the napkin rings someplace safe until the Michaelmas festival arrives.

For your special Michaelmas meal, ask the children to pull a pretty napkin through each Michael sword napkin ring and set the table.

Check out the other ideas for a special Michaelmas meal in the Autumn Equinox and Michaelmas Festival E-Book published by Little Acorn Learning. Here is a teaser of all the sweet projects you’ll find in the e-book. Click on the link or the mosaic picture. Eileen Straiton and I would be honored if you would share. xo

133 PAGES of verses, fingerplays, poems, song, crafts, meditations, book recommendations, circle times, recipes, and much more to guide you in celebrating the Autumn Equinox and Michaelmas

In this post I’m going to share with you a few links to some beautiful Valentine ideas and craft tutorials. I figure that late January is the time to start thinking about making Valentines if you have class sets to make. If you’ve got more than one child in school, and about 30 classmate for each child, well, that’s a heck of a lot of love that you have to create before Valentine’s Day!

I’ll start with a few of our own projects.

Here is an easy way to use up any fabric scraps you might have lying about your sewing basket: Valentine Stones. I made these for my family but they could be for classmates, too. Each stone has a fabric heart on one side, with a message of friendship on the other.

These Spin Art Valentines were created using a Spin Art painting toy. These are a little labor-intensive if your child is young. But the results are quite beautiful and each one is unique. I didn’t write out a full tutorial for these, but I think you get the idea from the photo. Spin the paint. When paintings are dry, cut out hearts or butterflies. Glue them to cards.

I’ll spare you the Crayon Heart Valentines. They’re all over the internetz. They are fun to make, though.

These Rainbow Valentines are painted coffee filters. They are easy even for the smallest children to make. Simply paint three or four colors of Stockmar watercolor paints onto painting paper or coffee filters. Allow the paintings to dry on a flat surface. When they are dry, cut paintings into smaller pieces, if necessary, and then fold each one in half and cut a heart shape. Add the child’s name to the back or a simple message, such as “You warm my heart.” Older children can embellish the fronts of their rainbow hearts with some glitter glue, or sew them onto colored cardstock with a needle and embroidery floss to make lovely Valentines.

Make a Valentine Tree and decorate it with beeswax hearts! Use pink, red, and white modeling beeswax to make pretty heart ornaments. Warm the beeswax in your hands or place in a pot of warm water for a few minutes to soften it up. Give each child a chunk of softened beeswax and ask them to make a heart. It can be solid, or just an outline, one color or several. Thin “snakes” of beeswax can be braided together and then formed into a heart shape. As the wax cools, it will stiffen and keep the shape you make. Poke a hole in any solid hearts. Add a ribbon or yarn loop for a hanger and then hang all the pretty hearts on a bare tree branch in a vase.

I made these little Valentine Pillow Sachets for my kids one year. They are wool felt and stuffed with wool batting, lavender flowers and some essential oil. My boys keep these little pillows in their beds. And although they do get lost among the bedclothes, when they are found again my kids always take a long sniff. Even after several years, they still smell great. An older child can practice handwork skills by making one of these for a best friend, perhaps.

Here is a great tutorial for shaved crayon hearts (suncatchers?) by my friend Marcy at A Simple Life. I’m very tempted to do these this year. I think these look great in the window.

Eileen at Little Acorn Learning shares a sweet Little Heart Baby tutorial here. This little doll would be a perfect gift for a child or a teacher, and would make a charming addition to a classroom or home nature table.