Monday Make A- Witchlet Crafts Puppets & Bird Feeders

Earth Puppets: Litha/Midsummer Craft for Witchlings
by WindSeeker; Cauldron & Broomsticks

Summer Solstice, Litha, Midsummer, Gathering Day, Feill-Sheathain: longest day of the year, and the shortest night; when the sun reaches his apex in the sky, and the days will now grow shorter as the light begins to wane. To celebrate the Summer Solstice with your young ones, try making Earth Puppets.

Materials:

• Use natural items found in the yard
• tape
• glue

The easiest kind of puppets can be made from a twig. Select a twig that forks. You now have 2 arms and a handle to hold the puppet with. Find a fallen flower, and tape the stem to the handle for the head. You can also tape the stem of a fallen leaf to the handle for the head. For clothing, wrap a leaf around the handle, and your puppet has natural summer wear. Another puppet can be made with a pine cone. Glue the pine cone to the forked twig, for the head. Dried and fresh grass make loads of hair styles, beards, and mustaches. Use seeds or small rocks for eyes, nose, and mouth. Make clothing out of leaves and bonnets out of flower petals or acorn caps. Use a large box or table for the stage, and enjoy the show.

 

Fairies' Feathered Friend Feeder: Litha Craft for Witchlings
by WindSeeker; Cauldron & Broomsticks

Making this craft is a good way to tell child how fairies, brownies, and sprites ride on the backs of birds to get from one place to another if it is too far to walk.

Materials:

• An empty milk carton
• nontoxic paint
• glitter
• white glue
• Popsicle sticks
• 10" wooden dowel w/ 1/4" diameter
• wire hanger (cut bottom of hanger for inserting into milk carton)
• birdseed.

Rinse out milk carton thoroughly. Do not completely open top, rather glue open spout back together. Cut 3" wide by 4" long arched openings on "spout" side and opposite side of carton, with base of opening approx. 3" from bottom of carton. Let the child paint the outside of the carton in Litha colors of red, yellow, orange, white, green. Before the paint dries let child sprinkle colored glitter all over the carton, (birds are attracted to shiny objects). Let carton dry. Glue painted or non-painted Popsicle stick shingles onto the top of the carton as a roof. For the perches, poke holes in the carton just below the openings, and slip the wooden dowel through the holes. Poke two holes in the top of the carton just under the roof, insert one end of the cut hanger into each hole. Fill the bottom of the carton with wild birdseed. Hang in a spot that is easy to view, but far enough away from fences or other objects to thwart predators.

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader's personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from `this blog.

Monday Make A – Chicks In Nests

Chicks in Nests

You will need:

• Brown Yarn (cotton works the best),
• Three 1" Yellow Pom Poms,
• Orange Craft Foam,
• Six Wiggly Eyes,
• One Small Round Balloon,
• Liquid Starch,
• Tacky Glue,
• Scissors,
• Bowl,
• Newspapers

Blow up balloon to about 4". Tie off. Use a piece of yarn to hang it over your work area. (Working on the kitchen counter and hang the balloon from an upper cabinet knob works well.)  Place newspaper under balloon to catch drips. Pour a cup of Liquid Starch into an old bowl. Cut several 4' pieces of yarn and place them into the starch. Make sure each strand is coated evenly with starch. Wrap starched yarn pieces around balloon in all directions until balloon is covered to look like filigree. Cut and dip as many pieces of yarn as you need. There will be empty spots where the balloon shows through. Let dry overnight. Cut down your yarn covered balloon. Pop the balloon and pull it out. Cut the yarn ball in half. You may want to set one half of the nest inside of the other for a fuller looking nest or use each half to make one nest. Cut six small triangles for beaks. Glue two on to each pom pom to make it look like the chick's mouth is open. Glue on eyes. Glue chicks in nest.

I found this at PaganSpace The social network for the occult community on the Pagan Crafts Discussion page. If you haven’t yet discovered Pagan Space, go check it out – It’s essentially My Space or Facebook, but specifically for pagans. You will find a link over in the Good Stuffs! Places to visit list on my sidebar. The poster indicated they found it at Making Friends.

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions / recipes on this list. It is the reader's personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog

Wednesday Whatever (for now…) – Misc. Bird Omens

Since spring is nigh – really, it is! Just ‘cuz we have a foot of snow doesn’t mean it isn’t coming! – I figured this would be fairly appropriate, since the birds will soon be returning to the now colder climes :)

Some Misc. Bird Omens
From various sources, all unknown

* When you hear a cuckoo for the first time in the year, quote aloud:

"Cuckoo, Cuckoo, answer me true
This question that I'm asking you;
I beg that truly you'll tell me
In how many years I'll be married."

The number of times which the cuckoo replies is declared to represents the number of years that will elapse before you marry.

*A bird that flies into a house, foretells an important message. The white bird foretells death, and a Blue Jay spends Fridays with the Devil, telling on us.

* A bird call from the north means tragedy; from the south is good for crops; from the west is good luck; from the east, good love.

* Storks deliver babies. Storks were sacred to Venus in Roman mythology. If a stork builds a nest on your roof, you have received a blessing and a promise of never ending love from Venus. Aristotle made killing a stork a crime, and Romans passed a stork law, saying that children must care for their elderly parents.

* A wish made on the first robin of spring will be granted.

* A peacock feather has an evil eye at the end. Argus, the Greek legend, says a hundred eyed monster was turned into a peacock with all it's eyes in it's tail.

* It is regarded as lucky if a bird flying overhead makes a mess on you. (The big blue bird of happiness shitting all over you..? LOL)

* Hearing a cuckoo calling after the end of July is a bad omen.

* Killing a robin or a sea gull is also very unlucky.

* If rooks build a nest near your house, it is thought to bring luck. Likewise, to have a swallow's nest under your eaves is very lucky.

* If the Robin sings in the bush,
The weather will be coarse.
If the Robin sings on the barn,
The weather will be warm.

* If a swallow doth build upon your thatch,
Then the hand of good is upon the latch!
Plenty he will bring to house and field,
Of the fruits of the garden an uncommon yield.

* When the swallow's nest is high, summer is dry;
When the swallow's nest is low, you can safely reap and sow.

* If a sparrow doth perch beneath your thrall (eaves),
Then presage of woe, woe to all:
Trouble he will bring to field and store,
Death and destruction will enter your door.

* To hear the cackle of a goose,
Betokens gifts of price and use.

* When a peacock's distant voice you hear
Are you in need of rain?Rejoice, 'tis here!

* Crow on a fence,
Rain will go hence.
Crow on the ground,
Rain will come down.

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions / recipes on this list. It is the reader's personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.