Amazingly after the best part of 20 years Guiding in Middlesex South West, this was my first time at Willow Tree – what a super place it is! We’ll definitely be back with our girls.
We had joined the event as a Trefoil day out for our group – MSW Internet Trefoil Guild and it was wonderful to meet up with friends from our old county and meet new ones from our new one.
The day started, as usual with a cup of tea and a quick catch up with the other participants. Then it was time to start crafting.
The first activity was “Initial Tote Bags”.
We were each given a bag to decorate with our Initial and block printing. Our initials had all been helpfully printed off for us so we just had to cut them out and tape them to our bags. Then just the task of which colour(s) to use and which printing block(s) – there were lots of lovely ones to choose from. A great success, fun to do and a proper, useful thing to take home and use! Win Win!
Next up it was “Clay Flower Stem Holders”.
We were each given a ball of air drying clay to roll out and cut into shape including making holes for flower stems. Then we chose a napkin design to modge podge onto the clay; this makes lovely pattern. I went a bit rogue on this one and made Christmas decorations – a star and a tree, using the same technique. Everyone had fun with this one, whatever they’d produced!
Time for picnic lunch, more chat and tea.
After the break we had a “Here’s one I made earlier” session. This was a chance for people to bring in crafts they’d done before with adults or girls. A variety of things were brought in – making keyrings from old badges, jewel art, little stuffed owls, Christmas decorations….. A very useful part of the day for ideas for unit meetings.
The third craft was “cupcake flowers”.
We each chose a selection of paper cupcake cases and then with a few snips, a bit of glue and a zhuzh of the “petals” a flower emerged. We then glued them to sticks covered in green florist’s tape. We also made some “roses” using a paper napkin and an elastic band, making equally successful flowers. All together they made a wonderful bouquet.
Time for another cup of tea, then on to the last craft of the day – this was “wax candle painting”.
We were each given a couple of candles, then we had to choose some coloured tealights to use as our “paint”. After burning the tealights for a few minutes we could use the melted wax to decorate our white candles. A bit tricky at first but on the whole another fun activity. Less is definitely more in this case and some lovely candles were created.
Then time for clear up, thank yous and goodbyes. Special thanks to Marian and Barbara for running the day and explaining what we had to do for each craft activities and thanks too to all the other helpers making a great day for us all. This was a lovely excuse for relaxing day of adult crafting with friends old and new and a lovely new bag of goodies to take home.
Bridgette Brown
Unit Leader, 8th Acton (St Peter’s) Guides
Wise Owl, 8th Acton (St Peter’s) Brownies