A Day of Whimsical Happenings

A Day of Whimsical Happenings was a day of a limited number of mini creative sessions.  Each session had props and a setting that catered to each child and what they liked.    

​STEAMPUNK WITH A WOODSY TWIST

Tui has an artistic soul and her colouring really suits the autumn, colours of nature.  I chose to do a Steampunk theme based on one of my favourite books as a child, The Faraway Tree, by Enid Blyton.  

The Faraway tree was located in The Enchanted Wood as was full of fantastical creatures.  Through the Enchanted Wood ran a train that went all the way to Toyland.  I think trains and Steampunk go well together, so that became the base of my idea.  A Steampunk creature waiting at a train depot in the Enchanted Wood.  A little Steampunk Fairy.

I made a no sew tutu made from coloured cheesecloth and lacy fabric.  I had a leather top to go underneath.  The wings shape was based from a pattern OxEyeDaisy.  To make them more steampunk I added a tie up corset/harness.  These were made  from a vinyl from Bunnings Warehouse with nuts and bolts.  The embellishments were from A Dozen Ideas.

On the day my husband asks,
"Why are you taking our clock down?"
"Because I'm going to nail it to a tree.  Where's the hammer?"
"Why are you nailing it to a tree?"
"Because that's where the train stops".....
Husband's face is comical with his 'shouldn't have asked look'.

THE BUTTERFLY SISTERS

These 2 sisters like pink and purple, tutus and butterflies.
I made heaps of butterflies from scrapbooking papers, and put them on wires, buntings and bluetack.  I made no sew tutus and I had coloured cheesecloth as tops / underdress.  The headpieces were from Cotton On.

THE SECRET GARDEN

Ngawai is friends with the Butterfly Sisters, so she wanted to do something similar to them.  Next to the location of the butterfly tree was this pretty flowering nook.  It reminded me of the story "The Secret Garden" which was my inspiration for her.  To top it off a little NZ native bird, a Fantail, kept chatting and flying around us for the photo session.  It was very sweet and magical.

As the flowers were purple, I put her in the purple cheesecloth and tutu.

The fantail is in the top left corner.

THE PIRATE BOY

For the 3 year old boy who loves pirates, my son and I had great fun making things for his shoot.  A raft made out of pool noodles and little cork boats on string.  My son had to try out everything to make sure they worked.  There were a few fails.  We found out paper boats look great in the sand but flop very quickly in the water.  We also found out that pool noodle rafts will barely hold up a big 12 year old lad in the water.  It may have held our 3 year old pirate, but to be safe we kept it on the sand.  We gave the pirate boy choices in pirate hats and patches, and the ones he is wearing is what he chose.  Also had to throw in some pirate balloons and chocolate gold coins.

I enjoyed this day so much.  I do want to do it again.

To see where I get help in photo prop creating, go check out my Pinterest board :  Calico Jo's Photo Prop creating board

xox
​Calico Jo