Vermont State Parks

Learn to make bark ornaments, pine cone elves, and twig snowflakes.  Want to enjoy the magic of the winter wonderland and the warmth of a wood stove? Bring the magic of the outdoors into your cozy winter abode! Stoke the fire, grab a cup of cocoa, and check out our round-up of nature-inspired crafts to celebrate the season. Remember: For crafts involving natural materials, only use materials that are no longer living. Bark Ornaments Supplies: bark, glue, sugar sprinkles or other natural materials to glue down, twine, scissors, power drill 1. Collect bark from a woodpile or the forest floor and dry it first. Break it up into smaller pieces. The flatter the pieces of bark are, the easier they will be to work with.  2. Create a shape in glue (like a circle to make a wreath or a triangle for a Christmas tree). Make sure not to go too heavy on the glue as it runs. 3. Add your sprinkles or other natural materials to the glue. Set aside to dry. For younger crafters, lar...

A spider builds its web. Legs of eight, slowly creeping. Watching, waiting. Crawling, sneaking. Waiting, feeling. SNATCHING. Weaving. Wrapping. Then r e c e d i n g … Spiders hang on the cobwebs of our mind. So many limbs and eyes cautiously waiting in the shadows for their next meal until they suddenly run forward to catch it. Spiders have captured human interest from the earliest histories, from the Greek tale of a boastful weaver named Arachne being turned into a spider by the gods to the West African trickster spider god Anansi . In Vermont, we have over 100 species of spiders including orb weavers, fishing spiders, garden spiders and jumping spiders.   Although we encounter spiders in our day to day life, these masters of stealth star in many nightmares. What makes them so terrifying and otherworldly? Strange bodies . Spiders belong to the arachnid class which includes other creepy critters like scorpions, mites, and ticks. Arachnids have four pai...