Kids Crafts: Traditional Walnut Babies

Hello! Today we share out little Walnut Babies (aka Walnuss Wiegenkinder or Walnussbaby), yet another classic German/ Austrian childhood craft. We love Walnut DIYs. This is also very special edition of “Kids Get Crafty”, as it is part of the Kids Craft Group “Advent Calendar Activities”. A number of blogger friends have got together to create an activity a day for you to have fun during the advent period. Today I am sharing our little Walnut Babies – so dig in to those seasonal nuts and get crafty!

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Walnut Babies

Note: Red Ted is almost 4yrs old and I found that he “loved the process”, but did need help. I think replacing our fabric with felt would have made it easier for him.

Materials: Walnut, wooden bead, pipecleaner, glue, ribbon, fabric pieces (or felt)

If you don’t have a wooden bead to hand (which wouldn’t surprise me!!) you can adapt this craft by making the head as per the angel craft from an old pair of stockings. Just tie the pipe cleaner “into the head” as you make it.

1. First you need to split the walnut carefully and try and get two intact pieces. The best way of doing this, is to get a kitchen knife or a screw driver and insert it into any weak spot you can find on the nut. Then on a chopping board, give it repeat taps until it hopefully comes apart. Mine all came apart easily, but needless to say: take care… and if in doubt move onto the next walnut!

2. Cut a ribbon and glue into the walnut

3. Glue the bead onto the pipecleaner. Wrap the pipe cleaner round your finger. This will give the baby a “body” and prop the bead up (i.e. this is the clever bit I got from Zeit Online).

4. Cut out a pillow and glue it down – it doesn’t really matter which end. In some ways “felt is better” for small hands, as it doesn’t fray. I used fabric from one of Pip Squeak’s babygrowns and had to “tuck it in” for Red Ted…

5. Glue in the baby and the glue on the blanked (again, felt is easier for small hands, as I had to “tuck” part of the fabric in for Red Ted)

6. Draw on eyes and mouth. Now out felt tip did run a little, so you may want to paint these on or varnish your bead first. Red Ted did an AMAZINg “1st face” – just perfect… and went a little vampire like on the 2nd two. But look at his little face, he was SO excited to be doing it. And at bedtime, when his father asked what we did that day, that was all he would talk about!