Solstice Sun Shirt

All you need to make this festive sunny attire is a sun-colored shirt (perhaps one you’ve tie-dyed in light sunny colors), contact paper, scissors, an iron, a piece of cardboard the width of your shirt, and fabric crayons.

Prewash the t-shirt and iron out any wrinkles, if necessary. Insert the cardboard inside the shirt to give you a hard surface to work on. See my tutorial for making tissue paper sun faces, and use that method to cut out a design with the contact paper, keeping the design simple.

Next comes the tricky part– peel off the back of the contact paper and lay your resulting sticky stencil on the front of the shirt. Use your fabric crayons to color in the features of the sun face and other details, and along the edges, fading as you go out from your design. For best results, use colors that contrast the colors of your shirt, so the design will show up. When finished coloring, peel off the stencil. Follow the directions that came with your fabric crayons for setting your design permanently into the fabric.

For more Summer Solstice fun, see Kids’ Activities for Midsummer / Summer Solstice.

easy drawstring bags

I’ve been making some drawstring bags for the kids of my grove to use for the Midsummer sun coin hunt. These sturdy little bags made from sunny bandanas are so simple to make. To make one, all you need is: a bandana, matching thread, sewing needle (or sewing machine), scissors, iron, a ruler, pins, a safety pin, and a 30 inch cord or ribbon.

STEP 1: Iron creases out of your bandana and turn to the faded side. Bring the corners in to meet in the center, or as close as they will get, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Iron the edges to make a crease.

STEP 2: Flip the bandana over and bring corners to the center again. Iron edges to crease.

STEP 3: Measure about and inch in, all around the outer edges. This is your sewing line. Mark with pins.

STEP 4: Sew all the way around, through all layers, by hand or with a sewing machine. Don’t sew the corners closed- this will be a casing.

STEP 5: Attach a safety pin to the end of your cord to thread it through the casing.

STEP 6: Thread it all the way around to the beginning and tie it to the other end of the cord.

STEP 7: Pull cord to gather the top of the bag closed. You can pull some of the cord out at the opposite opening to create two handles for your bag. Attach trinkets (beads, buttons, bells) to the ends of the cord, if desired.

Notice the inside of your bag has eight little side pockets! The layers created in folding helps this bag stand up on it’s own.

For more Summer Solstice fun, see Kids’ Activities for Midsummer / Summer Solstice.

Midsummer Flower Boat

Making a Midsummer flower boat is a fun and memorable way to commemorate the Summer Solstice, that kids especially love. For your paper boat, you can use any kind of paper. Why not use something you were going to throw into the recycle bin anyway? Newspaper or what we call “good on one side paper” is fine. A rectangular shape works best.

1. Fold paper in half with the fold at the top.

2. Fold the top two corners down to meet in the center.

3. Fold one layer of the bottom strip of paper up.

4. Flip over and fold the back bottom strip of paper up to be even with the front. (Right now you have a hat!)

5. Open it up, turn it on it’s side, and press down flat.

6. Fold bottom point up to meet the top point.

7. Turn over and do the same to the back.

8. Open, turn on it’s side, and flatten again.

9. Open up into a boat!

Decorate the boat and dip the top of the sail and side ends in oil. Fill it with flowers (and prayer slips, if you like). Set it in a stream and light it on fire at the top and sides. Watch it sail it off, blazing like the summer sun, to carry your prayers and wishes to the realm of gods and spirits.

Green is Gold.
Fire is Wet.
Future’s Told.
Dragon’s Met.

For more Summer Solstice fun, see Kids’ Activities for Midsummer / Summer Solstice.

salt dough sun plaque

With the Summer Solstice coming up this month, I thought I’d share this fun little sun plaque craft.

I used strong salt dough, because I had a batch on hand, but you can use regular salt dough as well. After mixing and kneading the dough, I rolled it out thick and cut it into a five inch circle using a lid for a template and cutting around it with a pizza cutter. I made a circle indention in the middle with a small jelly jar, for the face. The nose is just a small coil shape placed in the middle of the circle face and smoothed down with dampened fingers at the top. (Remember to dampen the surface of the salt dough before adding pieces.) I used my fingertip to make indentions for the eye areas. The lips are made from three tiny balls of dough pinched up on the ends. I attached two flattened dough balls for cheeks. I found two little amber-colored beads to press in for eyes. Then when it came time for the sun rays, I looked around my kitchen for something triangular or sun-ray shaped and spotted the ends of my fine mesh metal sifter- perfect! If you decide to make a sun plaque with your little ones, remember to press a hole in the back for hanging when you flip it over to air dry the back. If you have leftover salt dough, make some little sun medallions!

For more Summer Solstice fun, see Kids’ Activities for Midsummer / Summer Solstice.

Sigrdrifa’s Prayer One Page Book

Last year, I posted an article about making little mini books out of a single sheet of paper. Since then, I’ve figured out how to make them digitally! Below you will find a simple version of Sigrdrifa’s prayer, the only direct invocation of the Norse gods preserved from ancient times. It is a classic and beautiful prayer that can be said anytime, but is especially appropriate at the start of one’s day, observing the sun rise, and at the Solstices.

Copy and paste image into a word processing program (set up with narrow margins) to make sure the image takes up most of a full sheet of paper, expanding as necessary.
After printing, trim away the margins on the outside of the thick black lines. Let your child color the pictures, then follow directions given in my article magic one-sheet-of-paper mini book to complete the book.

For more Summer Solstice fun, see Kids’ Activities for Midsummer / Summer Solstice.

Countdown to Midsummer – Holiday Planner

May 23rd – 29th

• Decorate home for the holiday / make crafts to decorate home.

• Take seasonal (outdoor) pictures with family/friends.

• Line up Summer Solstice activities for the kids.

• Make a Midsummer playlist.

June 1st – 8th

• Firm up ritual plans, if you haven’t already. Will you be attending a festival, local event, a family event, or doing something on your own? If you are planning the ritual, decide on location and script/liturgy.

• Make sun medallions (if using), as well as any other salt dough or papier-mâché projects (such as a sun-shaped piñata) so they will have time to dry.

June 9th – 15th

• Make menu plans and grocery list.

• Find a place to pick/obtain herbs for making an herb (or herb & flower) chaplet for your Midsummer ritual. (See this School of the Seasons newsletter on magical Midsummer herbs and their uses.)

• Make a sun wheel to bun in Midsummer fire. (Like the giant sun weaving on the summer crafts page at Twig and Toadstool, but perhaps on a smaller scale.)

June 16th – the Solstice

• Shop for menu items.

• Prepare feast.

• Obtain herbs to use in ritual and make herb chaplets, etc.

• Have ritual, make merry, and feast.

tissue paper sun faces

One fun thing to do to welcome back the Solstice sun is to make tissue paper sun faces and tape to a sunny window! Red, orange, and yellow are fun sun colors to use. For the best effect, make them in varying sizes and fill up a whole window panel. There’s no end to the designs you can come up with!

materials:
sun-colored tissue paper, cut in squares
scissors
pencil

1. Fold a sun colored square of tissue paper in half, then in half again, then in half again.

2. Cut the unfolded end into a pointed shape.Cut some designs into the edges as you would for making paper snowflakes, but concentrate your cut-outs on the outer edge and leave the inside uncut for making a sun-face.

3. To make the face, unfold paper until it’s just folded once, vertically. Cut a little triangle in the center for a nose.  Below this, cut a little curved triangle for a mouth.

4. For the eyes, (with paper still folded in half) fold the top edge over at an angle to where you want the eyes to be (that 2nd fold I’m pointing to in the picture is a good place)

5. Cut a little notch out of this fold.

Or you can try this more elaborate design in which a curved line forms the nose and eyebrows, with a semicircle coming out of the eyebrow for the eye. Trace out your design with a pencil and cut out.

Sun Medallions

With Summer Solstice coming up in a couple of weeks, now is the perfect time to make sun medallions for a treasure hunt! I first came across this idea well over a decade ago in the book “Wiccacraft for Families” by Margie McArthur. My older kids and I had so much fun making them. Once we painted sun symbols on wooden disks, but then found it was much more fun to use salt dough. I even found sun-print fabric and made little drawstring bags for them to put their sun treasures.

Its been a while, but I’m making some again! I rolled out a batch on my own today, but will probably make more with my teenagers later- they’ll have fun hiding them on Solstice for their little brother!

I used regular strength salt dough for this:

1 cup salt
2 cups flour
¾ cup water
yellow food coloring
gold glitter

First, I mixed together the salt and flour. Then I tinted the water with food coloring and worked it into the flour, kneading in more food coloring to get the color I wanted. Then I kneaded in a bunch of gold glitter. (The medallions we made when my older kids were little were made with just plain salt dough, then painted when they were dry. Doing it this way saves that step.)

I rolled out the dough (not too thin) and cut out medallion shapes with a small biscuit cutter. I used a cookie spatula to move the disks to a pizza box lid.

I used some of the samples of sun symbols from Margie’s book, but also, just dug around in the kitchen for things to use as imprinting tools. I used a gluestick cap to make medium circles, a skewer to make dots, a butter knife to make lines, and a jumbo bendy straw to make some of the sunrays. I also had some sun stamps, but they didn’t leave a very deep impression. (I may have to sponge some darker paint into the depressions when they are dry.)

Now is a great time to make these, because they’ll have plenty of time to dry before the Solstice.

*For more ideas on celebrating the Summer Solstice with kids, see my article Kids Activities for Midsummer.

A MIDSUMMER RITE

(A part of my “little ritual” series.  Materials from, and adapted from ADF, the Carmia Gadelica, and other sources.)  In preperation for this ritual, gather some midsummer herbs and flowers and fashion into a circlet to wear on your head, in addition to usual “little ritual” supplies.

*(Edited to note: I wrote this ritual when I was a Celtic Reconstructionist and scheduled it for this later date. For info on how to convert this ritual to an ADF format, see the “little rituals” article highlighted above.)

Circumambulation (Circle ritual area three times.)

Purpose
“I am here to keep the old ways
and honor the Kindred at the time of Midsummer.”

Three Realms Blessing
“As it was, as it is, as it evermore shall be —
I stand at the Center of Earth, Sky and Sea.”

Fire Lighting
“I kindle the sacred fire in wisdom, love, and power.”
(light fire)  “Sacred fire, burn within me.”

Hail to the Spirits
“Hail, Earth Mother, whole and holy, honor unto thee!” 
(touch the earth, give offering)
“I offer now as the ancients did to the Kindreds Three!”
“To the Fair Folk, I give offering and welcome.”  (place offering in bowl or fire)
“To the Ancestors, I give offering and welcome.”  (place offering in bowl or fire)
“To my Deities, I give offering and welcome.”  (place offering in bowl or fire)

Greeting to the Summer Solstice
(from the Celtic Devotional by Caitlin Matthews- page 71)

Walk or dance around fire, singing, praying.  Leap over the fire for luck.
Lift the herb and flower circlet from your head and hold up to the sun while reciting the following:

Prayer to the Sun
“The sun is high above all- shining down upon the land and sea,
making things grow and bloom.
Great and powerful sun, I honor you this day
and thank you for your gifts.
Aine, Belenus, goddesses and gods of light and life,
you are known by many names.
You are the light over the crops,
the heat that warms the earth,
the hope that springs eternal, the bringer of life.
I welcome you, and honor you this day, celebrating your light,
as we begin our journey once more into the darkness.”

Burn herb circlet as offering to the sun.  Watch it burn completely before ending ritual.

Parting Blessing
“I offer my thanks to the Mother of All. 
I offer my thanks to the Deities, Ancestors and Fair-Folk.
May the Three Sacred Kins bring joy to all beings,
and renew the ancient wisdom.
As it was, as it is, as it evermore shall be.”

Kids’ Activities for Midsummer / Summer Solstice

EXPLANATION OF THE HOLIDAY
These books give a scientific explanations of the Summer Solstice, and a bit of history about how it’s been celebrated.

•   “The Summer Solstice” by Ellen Jackson (for ages 9-12), or

•   “The Longest Day” by Wendy Pfeffer (for ages 4-8)

STORIES
Look for these sun and summer themed books at your library.

• William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” retold by Bruce Coville (for ages 9-12)

•   “When the Sun Rose” by Barbara Berger (for ages 4-8)

•   “Summer’s Vacation” by Lynn Plourde (for ages 4-8)

•   “Midsummer magic : a garland of stories, charms, and recipes” by Ellin Greene

CRAFTS

• Make sun-colored God’s Eyes. Most adults know how to make this classic camp craft. Some ancient cultures thought of the sun as a sky god’s eye.

• Make herb crowns. Midsummer is traditionally a time for gathering herbs. See my Bealtaine article on making daisy chains. The same method can be used to make herb (or herb & flower) crowns.

• Make a sun crown.

• Make a solstice sun shirt with tie dye, a homemade stencil, and fabric crayons.

• Make burnable sun symbols. How many ways can you think of to make a burnable sun symbol? Fold or weave plant materials into a circle, or draw, color and cut out a sun from paper or cardboard. You could also use my method of making tissue paper sun faces (kind of like paper snowflakes), or simple accordion-folded sunbursts. Sacrifice your masterpiece to the midsummer bonfire.

• Make a salt dough sun plaque.

• Look for he June 2008 issue of Family Fun magazine at your library. It has some great Midsummer crafts: Swinging Comet Tails (attaching a glow in the dark tennis ball to a string and spinning it around in the dark- it makes glowing circles!), Fireless Tiki Torches (adapting a flashlight to look like a torch), Cricket Chirper (make a wooden instrument to call the crickets).

• While you’re at the library, check out “EcoArt: Earth-Friendly Art & Craft Experiences for 3- to 9-year-olds” by Laurie Carlson. Some crafts from that book that I think are “Solsticey” are: Solar Art (p.94), Rose Petal Beads (p.96), and an Herb Pillow (p.100).

GAMES / ACTIVITIES

• Have the Sun Coin Treasure Hunt from “WiccaCraft for Famalies” by Margie McArthur. This is one of the best ideas I have seen for celebrating the Summer Solstice. The basic idea is that you make little disks of clay or wood or what-have-you and draw/paint/or etch sun symbols onto them. The book gives many examples of designs you can use. Hide them and have a treasure hunt! (Although making them is more than half the fun!) You can even get all complicated and make a treasure map and such- details in the book. (Use easy-to-make sun-colored bandana drawstring bags to carry your sun coins.)

• Make the sun piñata from “Circle Round” by Starhawk, Diane Baker & Anne Hill. Coat a big balloon in papier-mache, let dry. Pop balloon, seal opening with more mache. Attach newspaper cones for sun-rays and add more layers of papier-mache. Let dry. Paint. Cut a door to insert prizes and candy. More elaborate instructions can be found in the book. You could even make individual ones for each child (see my article on making Papier-Mâché Ēostre Eggs.) How many different kinds of sun-themed goodies can you think of to fill the piñata?