Ever made a resource you are proud of? Wasn’t sure how or if you could make it?
I saw some AMAZING wood buddies from the UK and WOW each month they had new ones and they were INSPIRING! I really liked the unpainted and ‘natural ones’ and could see so many possibilities for them. If I could have bought the painted ones I would have! But being in New Zealand I couldn’t. So, I got out my saw and belt sander! (You could make them without a belt sander it would juts take a lot more time!)
I cut a stick I found at a local park into 5 to 7 cm lengths. Then I did a bit sanding and grinding to get the bark off the top of the sticks and smooth the ends. It was easy and therapeutic. This step took hardly any time at all. I had 20 made in less than 10 minutes. What got me going back to the sander were the wood buddies eyes! No mater what I tried: paint, pen and permanent pen they kept running.
I had to search the net and saw a variety of different ways to get them not to run and tried them. In the end mod podge and an acrylic paint pen did the trick. The wood buddy needed the mod podge before the acrylic paint pen and afterwards!
I put the wood buddies out with a Kmart tray and leaves for play and they were well loved!
I went to my Instagram followers and asked for story centred ideas and got some great ones. 10 in the bed, 5 monkeys jumping on the bed, Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks and the three bears, Stick Man, owl babies and where the wild things are. I was excited and created story baskets for them.
Owl babies is still a favourite and so many liked it when I posted on intsagram and facebook BUT the children adored them.
One child wanted to make a nest for the owl and he drew on but screwed it up. I asked why and he said the owl could not sit in “THAT nest” and I could see his frustration. I asked what else could you use. He explained he wanted his nest to be paper. He looked at his screwed up paper and said ‘I have an idea” he went to the scarp paper and pulled out some brown paper and scrunched it up. “This could work” he said to himself. He used his finger to shape a paper bowl and then put the owl in it. He grinned and I grinned. A nest he said. He ran off nest and owl in hand and looked after it all day.
I then created small worlds for them.
I don't know what I did without these wood buddies now!
The wood buddies are included in the story basket foundation box as a result. You can get the FREE e-booklet with the list of items and more ideas on how to use them. I created the foundation box to encourage more people to make story baskets and see that they can be inexpensive and contained. The ‘story basket foundation box’ provides the foundation or base for a story basket.
The story basket foundation box includes my most used (having made 200+ story baskets) and go-to items when creating a story basket and the wood buddies are BIG at the moment and I can see them lasting.
N.B. there are affliate links in the blog and if you make a purchase I may get a commission at not extra cost to you.
Until next time.
Michelle
P.S. I will be giving away a ‘story basket foundation box’ in the next 7 day challenge where you will learn to make and share a story basket in 7 days (which starts on the 3rd of July 2021.