Waste not - Want not...or what to do with seedy things!

I have a little tree in my front yard that produces the most wonderful seed pods...

Actually the pods must be rather tasty or something - because this was a volunteer...dropped here by a birdie or squirrel or some such creature.

Looking at the tree one day I had a light bulb moment...couldn't I make something out of those pods!?

They look quite pretty just sitting in a bowl...

and they look nice all strung together...but they needed a little something more...

Have you ever made this stuff?  You take some old crayons and make some shavings...put them onto a piece of wax paper and cover them with another piece of wax paper.  Now you are going to iron them...first put some paper towels over the whole shebang and while you're at it put them under it too  ( so that you don't mess up your iron or your ironing board..believe me - I know from experience you don't want this mess all over the place! ) and just iron gently until the crayons shavings melt between the two layers of wax paper.   Ta Da you have some gorgeous art work!

I used some of my fall cookie cutters to trace shapes onto the crayon art and then cut them out.  (Do you see that little pumpkin one?  My Honey - grandfather - made that one!)

I used some raffia....

punched some holes....

and tied everything together to make a garland.

It turned out sorta cute!

I imagine that there are lots of different seedy type things that would work for this...and kids get a big kick out of the crayon part of the project.

 A side note...I picked a few of these when they were green thinking they would turn brown, but they dried a beautiful green colour!  If you are wondering this is a silk tree - or Albizia jullibrissin

So, go and find some seeds and get your old crayons and make something.  Let me know what exciting seeds you used!

xoxo       Elizabeth