Today, we're making the props for the Magical Flower Garden.
First, the rings.
We made them beading wire and miscellaneous beads from our stash.
We used this wire
and started with a (approximately) 12" length. This makes a ring that fits a child's finger, so size it up or down accordingly for different-sized wearers.
Wrap the wire at its midpoint around the jaws of long-nosed pliers (or any pointy stick)
and twist twice around,
then remove and repeat
to create a pattern of loops and twists.
When you have a long enough segment to wrap around the wearer's finger (ours required about 6 loops), thread the free ends through the first loop
wrap around a form (we found that a typical child's marker was perfect) and twist firmly to secure.
Separate the two free ends into two arms
and slide some small beads onto one.
Curl that bit of beaded wire into a circle and twist to secure. This forms the "collar" of the bead arrangement.
Thread a large bead, followed by a small bead onto the other arm,
loop over the small bead, back into the hole of the large bead and through the collar that we made earlier.
Pull and adjust to tighten the whole arrangement, then twist to secure in place, snipping off and tucking the loose ends away from skin contact.
The completed rings.
Perform fine adjustments for fit by manipulating the loops with the long-nosed pliers. For a tighter fit, open the jaws of the pliers to narrow their width of the loops. For a looser fit, clamp the jaws of the pliers around the outside of the loop to flatten them and increase their width.
Here are the rings modeled by Kate
As props in the quest, we inserted little scrolls of paper, on which clues were printed, through the ring
and installed them in the center of paper flowers.
These paper flowers came from a kit we had conveniently lying around the house.
However, you can make your own with any tissue paper flower tutorial on the internet. Here's one from our own archives.
The foam dirt in which the flowers are stuck is an old toy from this post. There is no tutorial for the stand-alone-dirt version, but I included a sketch of how to make it with pool noodles and a cardboard box, which I didn't actually make myself until two years later here.
Next: Enchanted cookies!