Creative Ideas

Medley’s Creative Ideas focus on a different theme each month and outline ways to engage with music, art and nature on that theme. There are ideas for songs or pieces of music to listen to, play or sing, for art or craft activities to try, and for ways to connect with nature.

Care homes mainly use the Creative Ideas – but hopefully they could help boost anyone’s mood or wellbeing. They might also specifically engage people who have dementia, or autism, or anxiety, or depression, or a disability.

Below are some examples of my themed sets of Creative Ideas. In all I have created many more. Contact me to ask for others on:

A Century of Disney

World Book Day

World Bee Day (Flowers & Insects)

Make Music Day

Christmas

The Fourth Of July

Sky And Clouds

Travel & Transport

AUTUMN AND WINTER November 2025 onwards

To get creative, why not:

*cut out autumn shapes in colour card or paper, like these – leaves, berries, apples

*draw some birds eating berries, an important food for them during the colder months

*enjoy recreating the patterns of snowflakes or ice crystals – draw or paint, or sew, or cut out of tissue

Here are some suggestions of songs to enjoy, just search wherever you stream music:

Singin’ In The Rain
Stormy weather (Lena Horne)
Blackberry Way (The Move)
Snowbird (Anne Murray)
Sleigh Bell Rock (Three Aces and a Joker)
Jingle Bell Rock (Chubby Checker)
Blue Christmas (Elvis Presley)

THEATRE September 2025

Theatre, showbusiness, entertainment…talk about life-enhancing, enriching, good for wellbeing. So here are two creative ideas and some music suggestions of songs to enjoy on the theme:

MUSIC

Enjoy these songs from the shows on You Tube or wherever you stream music. Why not sing along?

There’s No Business Like Showbusiness (Annie Get Your Gun)
Luck Be A Lady (Guys And Dolls)
Make Believe (Show Boat)
Never Never Land (Peter Pan)
That’s Entertainment (The Band Wagon)
When You Wish Upon A Star

ART AND CRAFT

My art suggestion is to design your own poster for a favourite pantomime. You’ll see my Snow White poster, with colourful lettering and an image of Snow White herself. You could draw a show on a Cinderella poster maybe, or a lamp for Aladdin. And add little details like how to book or the names of the cast, so it looks like a real poster. My craft idea is to create a little model theatre. Fold card to form a “box” shape open on one side (at the front). Cut and sew a piece of fabric for a theatre curtain, and hang this at the front, “gathered” with thread through holes in the top of the fabric and tied with the thread to either side of the theatre. You could loop the curtain back, and add some scenery or a figure or two!

HEART August 2025

A simple art and craft idea on a heart shape theme:

The art idea is to create a floral pattern that forms a heart shape. Lightly sketch a heart outline on your paper, then within the outline draw or paint a flower you like, several times over. You will see in the attached image that I chose a tulip and drew the flowers and leaves to fit the heart shape. At the end, erase the heart outline sketch so that the flowers themselves form the shape.

The craft idea is to sew a hanging heart – popular decorative items to display in your home. Cut two heart shapes out of your choice of fabric – plain or patterned. My finished heart measured 9 cm wide by 14 cm down, and you’ll need to allow extra for hemming. If you use plain material, decorate one side with embroidery (like my pink and red mini hearts) or applique, then sew the two shapes together , leaving a gap. Add a ribbon or fabric loop to suspend from. Fill the heart with wadding or cotton wool, then sew up the final gap. Or if you prefer or don’t have time – simply enjoy cutting heart shapes out of colour or patterned paper or card, and display like the others.

APPLE DAY October 2024

Apple Day is now celebrated every year on or around 21 October, and it’s become a nice time to mark autumn and all its fruits and berries too. Here are some ideas of music to enjoy, art and craft to experiment with and ways to connect with nature, all on this theme.

MUSIC

Enjoy these song suggestions on You Tube or wherever you stream music:

Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me (The Andrews Sisters, first sung during World War Two)
Applejack (Dolly Parton)
Apples (Pink Floyd)
The Apple Tree (Nina Nesbitt)
Come you thankful people, come (a harvest song)
Maple Leaf Rag (Scott Joplin – such a lively, foot-tapping piece of music)

ART & CRAFT

In the picture here you’ll see several pictures I enjoyed creating on an autumn fruits theme. Here are some ideas on how you might use or adapt them:

Draw a pattern of colourful abstract apples– I used a different, bold colour for each part of the (cut open) apples, but you could use one colour per apple, and go through all the colours of the rainbow, or add a different pattern like polka dots to decorate the apple shapes.
Cut outline shapes of apples, berries, leaves and pumpkins out of colour card or paper and display them on colour backgrounds or on a white backdrop for a contrast – or use fabric and bondaweb for this idea
Draw a ladder leaning against a tree and a basket of apples on the ground to create an orchard scene
Make a picture about bottling and preserving fruits – draw or paint berries, apples and damsons plus a kitchen scale, recipe book, apron, bowl, jam jars – or create a collage by cutting out pictures of these items from home or garden catalogues, old cookery books or internet printouts.
Create a pattern of berries and the birds that feed on them, like blackbirds, redwings and thrushes. Either draw or paint them, or cut simple blackbird and berry and apple shapes out of black, red and green felt to make a tactile collage.

NATURE

See what you can discover about orchards – how long do the trees take to grow? What different kinds of apples grow? What blossom do the trees have in spring? What wildlife lives in an orchard – insects, birds, mammals?

And look up the origins of the names of apple varieties, like Granny Smith, which comes from Southwell in Notts, or rare varieties no longer grown everyday. What unusual names do you find?

A SUMMER OF SPORT July 2024

There’s something for every sports fan to enjoy this summer, with the Euros football, rugby internationals, Wimbledon, the Tour de France and – maybe best of all – the Olympics starting soon, that magical festival of sport. Here are some music suggestions on a sports theme, plus two art activity ideas to experiment with during a break in the action!

MUSIC

Take some time to listen to these music and song suggestions, all about movenent and sport, on You Tube or wherever you stream your music:

*Gold and Silver Waltz

*Gold (Spandau Ballet)

*Dance The Night Away

*The theme to Chariots Of Fire (Vangelis)

*Michael Row The Boat (Lonnie Donegan)

*The Push Bike Song

*Up, Up and Away (Jimmy Webb)

ART

*Draw a simple outline of a sportsperson, athlete or player, running or jumping or preparing, then work it up, adding colour to make a realistic sports drawing. In the picture here you’ll see I’ve drawn two outlines – of an athlete on the starting blocks and of a high jumper – and then worked on these sketches to turn them into fuller drawings. I used colouring pencils and colour pens to add the sports kit the athletes wear and the other details.

You might want to base your drawing on a sportsperson you support, or just anyone. Think about the little details that make a difference – like shading some parts of the kit darker than others to show folds in the cloth as the athlete bends or jumps, all creating a feeling of movement.

I found doing these drawings I needed to focus, and this helped me close out other thoughts so my creative time became some time out, for myself.

*Draw or paint a pattern on a sports theme. You could draw some footballs, a couple of tennis rackets, a darts board or two, or the famous Olympic rings symbol. Drawing each motif or image more than once creates a pattern, and it’s just a fun way to experiment with shapes and colours and to represent different sports. You could try other sports kit, like cricket bats or hockey sticks, or skateboards or swimming goggles.

Drawing or painting patterns is a very decorative activity and can be mindful and calming – using each motif two or three times, you settle in to how to draw them and this can become quite relaxing as you get in to a rhythm.

You could choose just one motif or image, say a football, and draw that several times, maybe each time in a different colour, to make another kind of pattern. Just play around and enjoy!

GARDEN WILDLIFE June 2024

Garden Wildlife Week is the first week of June each year, an opportunity to celebrate all the creatures that can thrive in gardens and parks, and to see how we can encourage them. Here are some ideas of music to listen to and an art idea on the theme.

MUSIC

Listen to these songs and pieces of music on You Tube, while sitting looking at a garden, or while trying the art idea.

*Blackbird (The Beatles)

*Tit Willow (Gilbert & Sullivan)

*Feed The Birds (from Mary Poppins)

*The Flight Of The Bumblebee

*Love Is Like A Butterfly (Dolly Parton)

*The Green, Green Grass Of Home (traditional)

ART

Paint or draw your dream wildlife garden (or if you prefer, make a paper or fabric collage). Just imagine if you could design a garden where wildlife would feel welcome and find what they need, whether that be fruit or seeds to eat or somewhere to live and nest. Draw out a plan or map of your dream garden in the middle, then decorate this by illustrating it with pictures of the plants and wildlife. I painted a pond, and the dragonfly it might attract, bug hotels, where bees and beetles could live, and a wildflower area to attract insects and seed-eating birds.

If you do this activity in a group, each person could choose one different feature to add. I’ve focused on attracting birds & insects, but you might dream of seeing badgers or dormice or other mammals.

For each creature or plant or other feature you include, you could find out more about them online – look for videos of wildlife ponds to see what creatures they attract, or look up trees and bushes like hawthorn and cotoneaster to see what they look like and what wildlife they benefit.

BEATRIX POTTER NOVEMBER 2023

This year marks 80 years since the death of Beatrix Potter, so this set of Creative Ideas celebrates her legacy and importance in storytelling down the years. There are art and craft ideas, suggestions of listening to her tales read aloud, and nature ideas – I hope you will enjoy some of them.

SOUND

For a change this time, I’m not suggesting listening to music or songs – but to Beatrix Potter’s classic tales, read aloud so they really come to life. If you search online, you’ll find them read aloud on You Tube and if you look for other sites, you might even find a ballet to watch as well. You could listen to the stories while you colour or craft.

ART AND CRAFT

*Here you’ll see my paintings of some of Beatrix Potter’s famous characters – Jemima Puddleduck, Peter Rabbit, Mr McGregor in his garden, Mrs Tittlemouse, Hunca Munca with her broom and Tom Kitten bursting out of his suit. Below you’ll see a sheet of blank outlines of the characters too, to print and colour in. If you are unable to print off this page, just email me on medleymusicartnature@outlook.com and I will send it to you as an attachment.

Try drawing and painting the characters, or use the blanks to colour in.

You could then cut out the figures and arrange them in a collage – add colour paper cuts or painting to make a setting for them, like grasses and flower shapes for a garden.

Or use the figures to make your own pretend book covers – fold white card to a book shape, stick on the cutout figures and add lettering for the book title and Beatrix Potter’s name as author.

NATURE

Nature is what Beatrix Potter’s enchanting fantasy world is all about – she loved getting to know animals, tame or wild, and then let her imagination fly! Look online, or in books, for images and video of the animals she based her characters on – such as ducks (Jemima Puddleduck), rabbits (the Flopsy Bunnies or Peter Rabbit), toads (Jeremy Fisher) or field mice and harvest mice (Mrs Tittlemouse and The Two Bad Mice). Find out where and how they live, watch them waddle or run.

Also look online or in books for views of the Lake District that Beatrix Potter so loved – the dales and fells, the lakes, and the farm she ran, now a museum.

INTERNATIONAL DOG DAY August 2023

August 26 is International Dog Day so here are some new Creative Ideas on a dog theme! Dogs enrich and cheer so many people’s lives with their fun and loyalty, and some care homes now enjoy seeing therapy dogs come in. I hope you’ll enjoy these art, music and nature ideas for International Dog Day.

MUSIC

Enjoy these songs and pieces of music on You Tube:

*Hound Dog by Elvis Presley

*Walking The Dog by George Gershwin

*Music from the film 1001 Dalmatians

*The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel (OK, this song is not about dogs, but as I’ve drawn a boxer dog it still fits!)

*Seamus by Pink Floyd

*Old King by Neil Young

*How Much Is That Doggy in The Window?

ART & CRAFT

*Here’s my drawing of a boxer dog, and below you’ll see a blank outline of the drawing for you to print and use as a colouring activity. If you are unable to print this page simply email me at medleymusicartnature@outlook.com and I will send you the blank as an attachment. I enjoyed drawing this using colour ballpoint pens, but you could use paint or any colour pens or pencils. Or try drawing another dog – maybe one with a distinctive shape, like a dachshund or a lurcher.

*Make some dog bow ties as a craft activity. Use colourful ribbon or any fabric, and either tie this into a bow tie or simply cut out three pieces of fabric and sew or glue them together to form a bow tie, gathering each of the side pieces a little as you go. You could stick the bow ties on to your dog drawings or colourings to decorate them.

NATURE

*Look for videos online of husky dogs drawing sledges through heavy snow, and of dogs performing at shows like Crufts, and of tiny dogs in handbags – just to get a feel of the immense variety of dogs’ lives!

*Take one dog breed, like the dalmatian or poodle, and find out all about it, what country it first came from, its size and main features, what it’s known for, any famous examples in stories or films.

*Look for pictures of wild dogs online, such as wild dogs seen in some southern African countries.

THE SEA, THE SEA July 2023

The sea is the theme for Medley’s latest set of Creative Ideas, to mark National Marine Week (23-30 July). Here are some suggestions of songs and music on a marine theme, art and craft ideas and ways to experience nature, even if you’re inland!

MUSIC

Enjoy listening to these songs and pieces of music on You Tube or other.

*Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay – a calm, reflective song by Otis Redding

*Albatross by Fleetwood Mac, a guitar piece

*Le Onde (The Waves) by Ludovico Einaudi, a calming piece on piano

*The Skye Boat Song

*Music from the 1952 film The Cruel Sea

*La Mer

*Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Simon & Garfunkel

*Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, a fun song that was a hit in 1961.

*The White Cliffs of Dover

ART AND CRAFT

*Decorative writing or calligraphy is fun to try and also very calming, focusing on shaping each letter carefully. Here you’ll see my word picture on a sea theme. First, take a sheet of paper and paint some or all of the paper with sea colours, as I have. Then use a black pen to write out words about the sea. If you have art pens with different sized nibs, then use these (I used a 2.5 and a 4.o size nibs) but any black pen will do. Just vary how you write the letters – some larger, some smaller, and some wider and others narrower. You could write the words I’ve written, or any others – maybe the names of sea creatures, like whale or seahorse, or song lyrics from one of the songs about the sea, or a few lines from a poem about the sea such as The Owl & The Pussy Cat Went To Sea.

*Make fabric art shapes on a sea theme – cut fish shapes, boat shapes and shell shapes out of colour fabrics, then arrange them into a collage or else make a small hole in each shape and thread them onto a ribbon or thread to make necklaces or bracelets.

NATURE

*See how many different sea creatures you can find pictures or videos of online – search in your browser, or look at websites like the RSPB for sea birds. Find out about seaside plants too, like the delicate and pretty sea lavender or seaside pansy or seaside poppy.

*Listen to sound recordings of the sea in different weathers, a stormy high tide, or waves idly lapping on a shore.

SPRINGTIME APRIL 2023

At last spring is here again, so here are some new Creative Ideas all about sunshine and springtime and flowers – suggestions of songs and music to listen to, two art & craft ideas with images, and a few nature ideas as well. Hope you will enjoy them.

MUSIC

Listen to these songs and pieces of music on You Tube:

*It Might As Well Be Spring (Ella Fitzgerald)

*Here Comes The Sun (The Beatles)

*A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square

*The Cuckoo & The Nightingale (Handel)

*Down By The Salley Gardens (traditional)

*You Are My Sunshine (Elvis Presley)

*Anywhere You Go, Always Take The Weather With You

*April Showers (Frank Sinatra)

*When You Wore A Tulip (Judy Garland)

ART & CRAFT

*Here you will see my painting (in acrylics) of 6 different types of spring flowers – daffodils, tulips, crocus, muscari, pansies and speedwell. Try drawing or painting some yourself, or use the outline blank of my picture (below) as a colouring activity. You should be able to print the pictures out but if not then email me at medleymusicartnature@outlook.com and I will send them to you as attachments. You could tie a real ribbon into a bow and stick this on to your finished picture as a 3D embellishment too.

*Use fabric or wool and yarn to make decorative squares or panels celebrating spring. Cut a square out of felt or other material, maybe 15 cm square, then use scraps of colourful fabric or wool and yarn to form flowers and also white clouds and yellow sun for the sky. You could make this an applique activity by stitching the smaller cutouts onto the background square or panel.

NATURE

*Enjoy all the many shades of colour in nature at this time of year. In a garden or park, or looking through a window, or online or in books, see how many different shades of each colour you can see – even green leaves and grass come in all different shades if you look closely!

*Look online for videos and images of creatures we only see in spring and summer – like butterflies and moths or dragonflies on the wing, or migratory birds such as the swallow or the cuckoo. Listen to recorded nightingale song online too – it is beautiful and rare to hear in the wild now.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY March 2023

These latest Creative Ideas focus on International Women’s Day – with music and song suggestions, two art and craft ideas and nature suggestions too.

MUSIC

Where to start?! So many wonderful singers and songwriters! Here are just some to enjoy on You Tube:

*I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor

*My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music

*Let The River Run by Carly Simon

*The great opera singer Maria Callas

*Jolene by Dolly Parton

*You’re The One That I Want by Olivia Newton John

*O Happy Day or A Rose Is Still A Rose by Aretha Franklin

*Bobby’s Girl by Susan Maughn

ART AND CRAFT

*I enjoy drawing clothing and costume from different eras, so here you’ll see my fashion drawings of four women from different years. Try drawing the figures yourself, or use the blank outline below as a colouring activity. Experiment with different colour combinations. Or add fabric embellishments too, like to the frills and sleeves of the 1790s dress.

*Make name pictures to celebrate famous women from history or from today. Write each woman’s name in colour pen or ink or paint, then decorate with borders or with motifs connected to the woman, like a crown for the late Queen, a book and a pen for Jane Austen or a space suit for Helen Sharman.

NATURE

Look online or in bird or animal books at female birds and animals. Compare the differences in plumage for the birds, like female chaffinches, blackbirds and ducks compared to the more colourful males. Or look at images of older female elephants which lead large herds, or female leopards raising cubs alone.

NATURE IN WINTER January 2023

Winter might be dark and depressing, particularly now that Christmas is past, but I still like enjoying the natural world wherever possible – seeing holly and ivy berries, pinecones, evergreen trees still in leaf, and now snowdrops coming into flower. So here are some Creative Ideas on the theme of winter nature – suggestions of songs to listen to, art and craft to try, and ways to experience nature at this time of year, indoors and out.

MUSIC

Search for these songs and pieces of music on You Tube and enjoy listening:

*The holly and the ivy

*Tales from the Vienna Woods (a Strauss waltz)

*Snowy Morning Blues (JP Johnson)

*Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head (Sacha Distel’s 1970 hit)

*Feed The Birds (from Mary Poppins)

*I Talk To The Trees (from Paint Your Wagon)

*You Are My Sunshine (Elvis Presley)

*The first tree in the green wood (Traditional)

ART & CRAFT

*My first art idea is the winter nature picture you will see here, together with an outline colouring blank – so you can either use this as a colouring activity, or try drawing the items yourself. (To print out the images – picture and template – right click on each and select either “save as” or “Open image in new tab”, and you should then be able to print them out. If not, then just email medleymusicartnature@outlook.com and I will email them to you). I hope the picture shows there’s still lots to see in nature in winter. Try drawing or colouring the wintering birds, like the whooper swan and the redwing, or some of the plants and berries. You could use felt tip pens, colouring pencils, or inks and paints.

*My second idea is a craft idea – making a simple arrangement of winter plants using fabric, as you will see in the small vase next to the winter nature picture in the main image. Cut plant shapes out of colour fabrics – like the holly leaves out of dark green (I used an old towel!), berries in red felt, and stems in brown and green fabrics, as well as snowdrops flowers in white. You can make the stems stronger and 3D by wrapping the fabric around wire, a pipe cleaner or cardboard rolled up. Use glue to attach the flowers to the stems and the berries to the leaves, or sew them on. Display them in a vase or tie with a ribbon.

NATURE

*Look closely at nature to notice what you might miss or overlook. For example, notice all the different shades of green. There’s the bright green of grass, the shine of laurel leaves, dark glossy ivy, shadowy matt dark green of conifer trees or the tiny light green shoots of bulbs pushing their way up through the soil, a promise of spring. Notice different typs of tree bark too – smooth or cracked, rugged, grey or brown, patchy like silver birch bark…

*Look online to find out more about the birds which spend the winter in the UK – or in whichever country you are in. You could look for videos or images of wintering swans and geese in their large flocks, or of redwing and fieldfare feeding on windfalls and berries, sometimes in snow and ice. Or look at images of Arctic wildlife like polar bears, for a feel of more extreme cold!

WORLD ANIMAL DAY 4 October 2022

With World Animal Day on 4 October, here are some music and song suggestions, art and craft ideas to try and ways to experience nature, all on this theme. I hope you might enjoy these Creative Ideas and it would be great to hear how you get on with them – you could share in Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002

MUSIC

Search for these songs and music suggestions on You Tube or other sites, and enjoy listening:

*Music from The Lion King (by Elton John and Hans Zimmer)

*Hound Dog (Elvis Presley)

*Walking The Dog (George Gershwin)

*The Hippopotamus Song (Flanders and Swann)

*Fox On The Run (a 1960s hit for Manfred Mann)

*Music from the show War Horse

*The theme from the film Black Beauty

*Carnival Of The Animals by Saint Saens

ART & CRAFT

*Animals can be very enjoyable to try drawing, painting, colouring or crafting. Here you’ll see my drawing of a gorilla and my painting of two donkeys, each with a blank outline – below – for you to use for colouring. (To print out the images – picture and template – right click on each and select either “save as” or “Open image in new tab”, and you should then be able to print them out. If not, then just email medleymusicartnature@outlook.com and I will email them to you). As you colour, shade some areas darker than others, such as the donkey ears, necks and manes, and the gorilla’s forehead and side of head – this makes them look more real and 3D. And with the gorilla, don’t colour all the fur black – I’ve added some blue and purple highlights to show the fur catching the light. The gorilla’s reddish brown eyes also add further colour to the picture.

*Or you could try making animal paper collage pictures. Draw a simple outline of any animal – or use my blanks again. Then cut out different sizes and shapes of colour paper or card and stick them on to the outline to form the animal. A tiger would be colourful and fun using strips of orange and black colour papers, or a zebra in black and white. You could make a fabric collage instead if you have fabric scraps to use.

NATURE

Other than pets/companion animals or farm animals, few of us get more than a fleeting glimpse of animals in real life. So the Internet opens up so many opportunities to see, watch and listen to animals. Just type whichever animal you want to see into your search engine or browser, and you should find all different images, facts, videos and sound records. Try looking at some animals from the UK – or whichever country you live in – and some from across the world.

*Birdsong might seem everyday and familiar, but it’s still great to listen to. Listen outdoors or through an open window, or search particular species online.

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF DANCE April 2022

April 29^th is the International Day of Dance, a “global celebration of dance” run by UNESCO. So this new set of Creative Ideas focuses on dance. There’s music to listen to, art and craft ideas and ways to experience nature, all on this theme. I hope you might enjoy them, and it would be great if you’d like to share how you get on with them on Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002

MUSIC

Lots of music is dance music, old and new, so here are some suggestions to search on You Tube and enjoy – you could clap or dance along as you listen!

*Waltzes like The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss or Night Owls Waltz by Zorra

*Liber Tango

*Rock Around The Clock

*Dancing In The Street (Tamla Motown)

*Yes Sir I Can Boogie (No 1 in 1977)

*Foot Tapper (The Shadows)

*Song and dance from musicals, such as Singin’ In The Rain and Make ‘Em Laugh, from Singin’ In The Rain

*You Tube has lots of music videos of particular dance styles, for example search “quickstep”, “ballroom”, “foxtrot” or “Charleston”

ART AND CRAFT

Try a dance picture like mine in the main colour image above. Below you’ll see a blank outline template to use for the figures of the dancers – (To print out the images – picture and template – right click on each and select either “save as” or “Open image in new tab”, and you should then be able to print them out. If not, then just email medleymusicartnature@outlook.com and I will email them to you) Once you’ve printed out the figures, paint or colour in the couple dancing and the ballerina. Then make the dress and tutu – you could use fabric scraps, net, lace, stiff paper or tissue paper. I made the long dress out of three layers of white tissue paper, which I cut to size, decorated with a red pen, and stuck on to the picture, cutting the top layer into long strips partway up to look “flouncy”. I made the tutu by first sticking on to the picture some layers of white tissue, to make it stick out, then added the tutu itself on top, cut out of colourful wrapping paper which I’d folded into concertina pleats first. You could make the costumes more glitzy with some sequins, stars or glitter! Finally, add some musical notes to the picture.
You could also use the outlines to make a dance collage – add other items such as ballet shoes, drawn or painted, or print out images of famous dancers or scenes from ballets or shows to stick on. You could use decoupage to make the tutu and dress or other costumes too. You could use colour pens to write on your collage the names of famous dancers or ballerinas or of dance steps or musical shows.

NATURE

So you might think there isn’t a lot of dancing in nature, but there’s one striking, long-legged bird which is known to dance – the crane. I think cranes look really elegant with their long legs and necks and their usually white, red and black plumage. Look online and you’ll find different videos of them dancing as they pair up. Enjoy watching their dancing – they don’t even need music!

WINTER OLYMPICS February 2022

The Winter Olympics run from 4 to 21 February 2022 – they might be lower-profile than the summer Games, but they’re an extravaganza of winter sports on snow and ice nonetheless, and exciting to watch. So they are the focus of these new Creative Ideas. There are ideas of songs and pieces of music to listen to, art and craft ideas, and ways to connect with nature, all on a winter sports and winter theme.

MUSIC

Search for these songs and pieces of music online, on You Tube, and enjoy listening to them, maybe while you watch the action at the Winter Olympics, or while you try the art and craft.

*The Skaters Waltz (Waldteufel)

*Sleigh Ride (Leroy Anderson)

*Let It Snow

*Jingle Bells

*Snowy Morning Blues (J P Johnson)

*Bolero (Ravel) – made famous by Torvill and Dean’s winning ice dance routine

*Walking In The Air (from The Snowman)

*My Favourite Things from The Sound Of Music – listen out for the lines about snowflakes and snowy winters

ART AND CRAFT

*Make a Winter Olympics scene like the main image here at the top. You’ll see a template too, below, which you can use your printer to enlarge and print out to use. You could use the figures of the speed skater and the slopestyle skier to colour in or paint on white paper. You could use the fir tree shape to cut out trees in colour paper or fabric and arrange these on the pictures, placing each tree lower than the one before it on the skiing picture so it looks as if the trees stand on a slope. Cut the snowflake and snowball shapes out of white paper. Doilies or tissue paper and arrange these on a dark background to border the skiing and skating pictures. Once the Olympics start, you could add to your scene by cutting photos of the action out of the news and stick these on as another layer.

*Make a long line of snowflake shapes out of white fabric or felt or paper, all joined to each other, stick them on to dark paper and display them along a wall or around a room.

NATURE

*Many birds and animals live in cold, snowy and icy places. Look online for images and videos of Arctic or Antarctic wildlife, creatures like polar bears, penguins (all different species, from Emperor to Adelie) and Arctic foxes. Learn how they survive in such harsh weather conditions. Some change colour to white in winter so they are camouflaged when it snows.

*Look online for images and videos of conifers, fir trees, spruces – many of these trees grow in forests in cold lands. Imagine what it would be like to walk through one of these forests, with the scent of pine needles in the air, a cold wind on your face, maybe the sound of bird ssinging or ice dripping off the trees as it melts in the sun, and the sight of vast forests, trees covered with snow. Or look for images of snowy mountain views.

BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH

The RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch takes place from 28-30 January this year, so I thought I’d focus this new set of Creative Ideas on birds and gardens. You could listen to the songs, try the art and craft ideas and use the nature ideas while you watch out for garden birds that weekend. I hope you enjoy the ideas and find them helpful.

MUSIC

Here are some songs inspired by birds and gardens to listen to

*Blackbird (The Beatles)

*Tit Willow (Gilbert and Sullivan)

*Down By The Sally Gardens

*An English Country Garden

*Feed The Birds from Mary Poppins

*The Green, Green Grass of Home

ART & CRAFT

*Try making a garden bird collage, like my collage in the main image here. Below you’ll see a template sheet to print out and enlarge if you want to. Use the bird shapes either to make paper collage birds (cut out pieces of colour paper and stick these on to the outline to form the bird), fabric birds (like my felt robin and blackbird here, simply cut out pieces of felt to fit in the different colours and stick them on) or to draw and colour in the birds, like all my others. There’s also an outline of a bird table you could add, then arrange them on and around the bird table. Or do as I’ve done and go outside, cut some fir twigs and arrange these on your collage so it looks as if you’re seeing the birds peeping out from the trees.

*You could also use the bird shapes to make a mobile – simply make a hole at the top of each completed bird, attach string, cotton or ribbon and suspend them, maybe from the rail over your window, or from an inside door handle.

*Add to any other bird picture by sticking on found materials from the garden, maybe a few conifer leaves at this time of the year, or a twig or some stems. Nature comes indoors!

NATURE

*Watching and listening to birds can be particularly positive for wellbeing. Spend time focusing on birds – as you take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch – through a window or outside, and at different times of day. See how different species behave differently – for example, look out for blackbirds tossing aside old fallen leaves as they feed, or sparrows and tits darting quickly from one bush to another. Watch birds feed on a table or at a feeder, do they squabble? See how some feed on the ground, waiting under the table for titbits to fall down.

*Listen to birds – they sing less in winter, but I still hear blackbirds (sometimes an alarm call) and starlings, and sparrows twittering in the hedge. Listen out for other sounds like rain falling or wind blowing.

*Look online for videos of other birds which come to the UK just to spend the winter – like redwings, fieldfares, bramblings, pink-footed geese or whooper swans.

*National Nestbox Week will soon be here too – mid February – maybe you could fit a nestbox this year to watch.

—————————————————-

Here again are some ideas on Space, marking World Space Week which runs from 3-10 October.

Space conjures up freedom to explore, new perspectives. It is elemental, exciting, awesome.

MUSIC

Search and listen. If you play a musical instrument, you might like to play the pieces or songs yourself, or improvise to the music. You could sing along. You might like to listen, play or sing as you look at the night sky, through the window maybe or in your garden (quietly!)

The Planets (Gustav Holst)

Moon River

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (The Beatles, later cover by Elton John)

Starry, Starry Night

Sing To The Moon (Laura Mvula)

Star Wars film scores (John Williams)

ART

*Cut star shapes out of colourful paper and display on black paper or cloth

*Try making a solar system or space mobile, with planet, star, sun and moon shapes. You could use papers in different colours or in gold and silver. Make holes in the top of each shape to tie string or ribbon through, and tie them somewhere where they will turn in a draft and catch the light.

*Cut star shapes out of felt or other material and embroider them or paint or draw patterns on them with fabric paint or marker pens.

*Experiment by painting the night sky in different media – acrylics for a bold, striking painting, or watercolours for misty atmosphere.

*Try a detailed pen or pencil drawing of the solar system, labelling the planets.

*Make a word picture on a space theme. With colour pens or pencils, write down words which come to mind when you think of outer space, like planet, meteorite or astronaut.

*Try photographing the night sky.

NATURE

Spend time looking at the night sky. Compare the impenetrable darkness of an overcast night with the bright clarity of moonlight.

Look at the shadows and reflections cast by moonlight.

See how moonlight filters through a tree’s leaves or bare branches.

Look at the moon on a misty night, when hazy clouds half-obscure it or pattern the sky.

Over a month, follow the moon’s cycle – we should see the next new moon on the 13th.

Don’t forget satellites. These can actually be seen more easily with the naked eye than with a telescope: look out when dusk falls.

HARVEST 28 September-12 October 2021

Autumn is here and I thought I’d focus this new set of Creative Ideas on Harvest, traditional highlight of the farming year and still so important to us all. There are songs and pieces of music to listen to, art and craft ideas and even ways to connect with nature, all on a Harvest theme. It would be great if you’d like to share how you get on with any of the Ideas on Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you! I hope you enjoy them.

MUSIC

Search for these songs on You Tube or other sites, and enjoy listening. You could sing along, or listen while you try one of the art and craft ideas.

*Maggie’s Farm (Bob Dylan)

*Cherry Ripe

*The harvest hymn Come ye thankful people come

*Oh What A Beautiful Morning from the musical Oklahoma

*To Be A Farmer’s Boy

*Rolling Home or Barleycorn from the play War Horse

ART & CRAFT

*Make a collage basket of harvest produce. I made my collage using cut paper and card. First I cut pieces of cardboard to make the basket and arranged these in a lattice pattern across each other, then added two strips for the handle. Then I cut fruit and vegetable shapes out of colour papers – grapes, blueberries, cherries, an apple, a pear out of patterned paper for a change, broccoli, tomato. I arranged them to look as if they’re spilling out of the basket or resting in it. I stuck them all on to the background paper using a glue stick, then added the “basket” on top. You could use modelling clay instead to make 3D produce.

*Draw or paint a harvest mouse, or use the outline blank above for colouring. I drew mine using colour felt pens, colour ballpoints and watercolour pencils.

*Try drawing or painting a newly harvested field with hay bales or stacks, or a barn full of hay ales for winter. Online find Impressionist painter Claude Monet’s famous series paintings of haystacks at different times of day.

NATURE

*Think about the actual experience of harvesting for farmers and for wildlife on the farm. For farmers: maybe long hours in the combine harvester, heat and dust, rushing to get the harvest in before rain comes. For wildlife – maybe harvest mice or farmland birds – getting out of the way of farm machinery, then maybe emrging to feed on newly harvested stubble fields when the coast is clear! Think of the smells of hay and silage and soil.

*Look online for videos of harvesting – there are all kinds of videos of harvesting in different countries and using different kinds of machinery. And look for videos of sea gulls following a tractor as it ploughs a field. Listen to the gulls’ cry.

*Look online for videos of harvest mice, and see how agile and alert they are as they cling to stalks in the fields.

THE FOURTH OF JULY 29 June-11 July

As the USA marks Independence Day on the Fourth of July, Medley’s latest Creative Ideas have gone all-American. There are songs, art & craft ideas and ways to connect with nature, all on a US theme. I hope you will find them enjoyable and helpful in some way. It would be great if you would like to share how you get on with the Ideas on Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you!

MUSIC

Search for these songs online, maybe on You Tube, and enjoy listening or sing along. You could listen while you try one of the art & craft ideas.

*Star Spangled Banner

*Something’s Coming or America from West Side Story

*Broadway Melody from Singin’ In The Rain

*All Shook Up by Elvis Presley

*The Trolley Song from Meet Me In St Louis

*Memphis, Tennessee by Elvis Presley

*What A Wonderful World by Satchmo Armstrong

ART AND CRAFT

*Make a foldout display like my main image above. Take 3 sheets of paper or card. Fold one of the sheets into 3 and using a glue stick, stick one of the sections onto the left side of the main sheet so it folds outwards like a side panel. Do this again for the right side. Using my template shapes (below) or drawing your own, add the US images – the Statue of Liberty on the left panel, the map and the flag in the middle on the main sheet, and the Disney image on the right panel. Either paint them or colour them. Stick red and blue colour paper to the inner sections of each side panel to make them colourful, or colour them.

*Make fabric Stars and Stripes flags, using sequins or decorative stars on blue material for the “Stars” part, and strips of red and white material for the “Stripes”. You could make a few and display them on sticks made of thick card, maybe in a vase or jug or tied to a door handle.

*Take the USA as your inspiration as you decide what to paint or draw. Look online for images to inspire you. You might like to paint or draw an American footballer or baseball player, or the Golden Gate Bridge, Elvis Presley or an American bird or animal.

NATURE

*Look online for images of American national parks or nature reserves. The world’s first national parks were in the USA, like Yellowstone.

*Find online videos of American landscapes – you could watch different views or journeys through the USA’s open spaces, or maybe the Great Lakes or Niagara Falls or the Atlantic ocean.

*Look at images of American wildlife, maybe whales, raccoons, bald eagles or the monarch butterfly. Or wonder at the size and scale of the giant redwood and sequoia trees.

RIVERS 26 April-9 May 2021

Rivers and streams can be an important focus in any view or landscape, city or village alike. They might be a quiet haven and a great habitat for wildlife, or a busy, wide waterway. Here are ideas of songs and music inspired by rivers to enjoy, art and craft ideas on the theme and ways to experience nature through rivers as well. It would be great if you would like to share any responses or how you get on with the ideas on Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you!

Always take care near water.

MUSIC

Search for these songs or pieces of music online and enjoy listening, maybe while looking through pictures of rivers or even walking by one. Maybe sing or play along.

*Deep River (Traditional)

*Ferry Cross The Mersey (Gerry and the Pacemakers)

*Let The River Run (Carly Simon)

*Blue Danube (Johann Strauss)

*Roamin’ In The Gloamin’ “By the bonny banks of Clyde”

*The Swanee River (World War One song)

*Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel)

ART

*Draw a riverbank with tall trees growing along the bank, some of their roots exposed along the bank. Or try painting a river in watercolour, maybe “wet in wet” where you add different colours before others dry, so the colours run together.

*Make a paper cut collage or use applique (stitching smaller fabric cutouts onto a larger background cloth) on a rivers theme – first cut a wide, wavy strip of blue or grey paper or material to make your river, then create a riverside scene around it as you add tree shapes, reeds and rushes, fish shapes, maybe a bridge or stepping stones.

*Paint, draw or photograph different bridges – maybe large, dramatic bridges like the Clifton Suspension Bridge, or a simple, small wooden bridge over a stream.

NATURE

*Choose a river and follow its course on a map or in an atlas. See what countryside it flows through – is the land hilly or flat, how long is its course, where is its mouth where it enters the sea? You might find pictures of the river’s course in books or online too: maps reveal a lot, but a scene comes to life in a photo. You might choose a local river or one overseas, one you know or one you’ve never seen.

*Enjoy the sounds of a river or stream – go for a walk by the water if possible or else listen online – just type “sounds of a river” into your browser or search on You Tube. Notice how the river’s flow might sound different if the water’s low or near to flood, and if the riverbed is stony or sandy. Listen out for any waterbirds or insects.

*Look online at images of wildlife which lives in or close to water: like dragonflies, water birds, or fish.

NAMES 12-25 April 2021

We might take names for granted but they are an important part of who we are and of how we connect with other people. So Medley’s new set of Creative Ideas has songs to listen to all featuring names, some art and craft ideas on the theme and some ideas for thinking about names in nature too. You might like to share any responses or how you get on with the ideas on Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you!

MUSIC

Search for these songs online and enjoy listening to them. You might like to sing or clap along, or to try comparing different versions of them. You could listen outdoors. You could also search online to see if your own name features in any other songs.

*Daniel (Elton John)

*Suzanne (Leonard Cohen)

*I once met a girl named Maria (Leonard Bernstein, from West Side Story)

*Hey Jude (The Beatles)

*The Grand Old Duke Of York

*Jolene (Dolly Parton)

*Daisy, Daisy, Give Me Your Answer, Do

ART

*Make an “initial” card for someone, or an initial picture for yourself. Write the initial as the focus of the picture or card, and them draw or paint around it different items which share that initial – maybe plants, a bird or insect. For example, for the letter L you could paint a lobelia flower, a ladybird, a lapwing (bird) and so on.

*Draw or paint your own or someone else’s name to make a card or picture – in a bold or striking colour, maybe a colour which shares the name’s initial – and then create a decorative border around the name, using pens or paint. The border could be a simple repetitive pattern, or different colours and patterns on each side, or it could feature particular motifs like leaves, ribbons or shapes. The border could be rectangular or circular.

*Make a collage or assemblage of different names using paper cutouts of letters in different fonts and sizes from magazines or catalogues. Or you could draw or paint the names in different styles and colours. You could feature the names of people you know, plants’ names, or famous people’s names.

NATURE

*So much of our experience of nature is tied up with knowing the names of different species to identify what we see. Think about how some of these names came about. Look at plants (in nature or in a catalogue or online) and think about their names, like black-eyed Susan (rudbeckia) or coneflower. Think about people’s names which can also be plant names, like Holly or Rowan.

*Think what birds’ names might tell us about that species, like a swift (expertly quick at flying) or a chiffchaff (named for its song)or the goldcrest (with its yellow crest).

*Some species names sound quite striking if you stop and think about them – like a dragonfly, a flimsy drifting insect very unlike a fiery dragon!

*On a walk you could look out for place names on signposts, maybe half hidden by a tree or situated at a crossroads.

GARDENS 22 MARCH-5 APRIL

Now that gardens have burst back into life for spring, Medley’s latest set of Creative Ideas has songs and music to listen to on this theme, as well as art and craft ideas to try and ways to connect with nature through gardens. It would be great if you’d like to share any responses or how you get on with the ideas on Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you!

MUSIC

Search for these songs and pieces of music online, listen and enjoy! Maybe sing and clap along too. You might like to listen outdoors, in a garden, or indoors but with a window open on to a garden if possible.

*Rose Garden (a 70s hit for Lynn Anderson and for New World)

*Down By The Salley Gardens

*Keep Off The Grass (by US composer J P Johnson who also invented the Charleston dance)

*In An English Country Garden (Percy Grainger)

*Victorian Kitchen Garden

ART

*Make a garden-themed mural, mural picture, collage or banner, using a large piece of paper or card, canvas or fabric as your background, or try scrapbooking on the theme. Combine different art styles and media: draw and paint some images, add paper cutouts of others (maybe from seed or bulb packs or catalogues), and make some images out of colour materials, maybe felt, cotton or ribbon. You could feature all kinds of images: tools, plants, sheds, garden seats, sunhats…You could add to this over the months as different plants come into flower, and you could work on it as part of a group, all contributing different images.

*Draw and paint (or photograph) some garden birds, maybe on a bird table or feeder. They can look so acrobatic as they feed so try to focus on this in your picture.

*Draw or cut out shapes of wheelbarrows or garden sheds and decorate them with different colours or patterns, or show what’s in the barrow or shed, like a plant, gloves or tools.

*Make a fantasy flowerbed by drawing, painting or using paper cutouts to show plants which flower at all different times of year or in different countries all out together!

NATURE

*If you have a garden, try a garden bioblitz – where you see how many species you can find. Search “garden bioblitz” online to find tips and ideas on how to do this.

*Focus on listening to the sounds in a garden at different times of the day: you might hear wind rustling through a bush or tree, birdsong, insects, rain falling on to a shed roof or dripping off plants, or a nearby mower.

*Look at the way light moves across a garden through the day, how sunlight catches plants or casts shadows on to the grass or concrete from trees or nearby buildings.

*Decide to add a different plant to your garden each month this year, and see how each one grows in a particular position. If you don’t have a garden try planting a different plant each month in containers on a windowledge or add a new houseplant each month.

CITIES 1-14 MARCH

Many cities look different than they usually do at the moment, with no crowds and with businesses closed. But they’re still there: waiting! Medley’s new set of Creative Ideas has songs and pieces of music to listen to, art and craft ideas to try and ways to connect with nature, all on a CITIES theme this fortnight. You might like to share how you get on with the ideas on Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002

MUSIC

Search and listen to these songs or pieces of music. You might like to sing along, or play them yourself if you play a musical instrument.

*An American In Paris (George Gershwin)

*An Englishman In New York (Sting)

*Arrivederci Roma

*Quiet City (Aaron Copland)

*Streets Of London

*New York, New York (from the Leonard Bernstein musical On The Town)

ART

*Try drawing some city skylines in colour pens, pencil, black pen or colouring pencils. You could draw skylines for cities you know, or just famous cities – for example, for London draw the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben and the London Eye. Or you could draw imaginary city skylines.

*Instead of drawing the skylines, you could just draw or colour outlines of the skyline shapes, maybe as silhouettes. Make sure your chosen skyline has some distinctive shapes, like domes or skyscrapers or a construction like the Eiffel Tower.

*Make a fabric city – use a fabric or paper backdrop (either blue for sky or black for a night sky) and cut out and stick on to this different shaped buildings in different materials, colours or patterns. You could sew them on if you use a fabric background.

*Draw or paint a couple of buildings or a street scene in acity you know or like. You could use photographs to work from. Your picture could be atmospheric and impressionistic, or you could draw a more detailed view using a black ink pen or even a biro.

NATURE

*Cities might seem like hostile places for nature & wildlife. But many species do survive and thrive in urban areas. If you live in or near a city, look for street trees, insects, birds. Find out about local projects to help urban wildlife. There might be live webcam feeds to watch or other news to follow. In the UK, your local Wildlife Trust is a good place to start.

*Look at pictures of famous cities across the world and look out for any open spaces, trees or other signs of nature’s presence.

*Think about nature’s own “cities” – very different from our own. I’ve heard seabird colonies on cliffs called “seabird cities”. Some insect species, like ants, gather in large colonies. Think what their “cities” might be like from their perspective. Look at pictures in books or online.

RAIN AND SNOW 18-31 January

While there are clear sunny days as well, in mid to late winter we do see a lot of rain and sometimes snow too. So Medley’s new set of Creative Ideas focuses on RAIN and SNOW, with songs and music to listen to, art & craft ideas and ways to notice rain and snow in nature in new ways. You might like to share how you get on with the Ideas on Medley’s Facebook group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you.

MUSIC

Search and listen, sing along or try playing one or two of the songs or pieces of music. Listen to them while watching rain fall, or looking at a snowy scene if it snows this fortnight where you are.

*Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

*Singing In The Rain (the musical)

*Rhythm of the Rain (a 1960s hit and again in the 1990s)

*It’s Raining (No 2 in 1978 for Darts)

*Prelude “The Raindrop” Op 28 No 15 (Frederic Chopin)

*Snowy Morning Blues (J P Johnson)

*Sleigh Ride (Leroy Anderson)

*The Skaters Waltz (Waldteufel)

ART & CRAFT

*Draw different animal and bird footprints in black pen on white paper or card, so they look like tracks in the snow (look up different footprints in a book or online).

*Make snowflake patterns by cutting different shaped snowflakes out of white tissue paper or white fabric and sticking them on to black paper or card. Every single snowflake has a unique pattern, so you can let your imagination fly – but they are always six-sided, like a star.

*Paint a snowy scene (maybe a fence and gate covered with snow) or else paint an abstract picture expressing how rain and snow make you feel – maybe a swirling grey pattern.

*Draw or paint a colourful sledge, or someone skating or skiing.

*Draw some umbrellas and decorate them with different designs – patterns or colours – either using pens, paint or collage.

NATURE

*Notice how snow drains all colour from any view, all becomes bleached white, then notice how all the variety of colour gradually returns as the snow melts and every shade seems brighter than before.

*Think about or listen to the sounds of rain or snow. Snow muffles sound, so that even footsteps going by on the road sound different. Listen to rain falling, maybe pattering on to a roof, dripping or trickling, or pelting on to a window on a windy day. Listen to ice dripping off a tree as it melts in a winter sun.

*Look at reflections in puddles, particularly if it stops raining and the sun comes out. Seeing a tree or wall reflected can make you look at it differently.

*Notice raindrops glistening or gleaming on a tree branch or a spider’s web or on ivy leaves.

8 songs or pieces of music to sing or listen to, 5 art and craft ideas and 4 ways to connect with nature: Medley’s new set of Creative Ideas focuses on the theme of RAIN and SNOW as winter comes to an end. I hope you enjoy them https://medley.live/creative-ideas

DOORS AND ENTRANCES 4-17 January 2021

2021 is here: a new year, maybe a new beginning. So Medley’s new set of Creative Ideas features songs and music, art & craft ideas, and ways to connect with nature, all on the theme of DOORS AND ENTRANCES – opening up a new way ahead.

MUSIC

Search for these songs or pieces of music, listen and sing along, or play them yourself. You could listen while trying one of the art or craft ideas.

*Close Another Door (The Bee Gees)

*Open The Door Homer (Bob Dylan)

Two Doors Down (Dolly Parton)

*Welcome To My World

*On The Steps of the Palace (Stephen Sondheim, from Into The Woods)

*Come Up To My Place (Leonard Bernstein, from On The Town)

*Walls Come Tumbling Down (Paul Weller and The Style Council, played at Live Aid)

ART

*Try painting or drawing doors, gates or other entrances. You could paint doors in different colours, or draw doors open, closed or ajar. You could paint a door framed by trees or other plants, or a window with a colourful windowbox.

*Make different decorations to display on doors. You could use ivy and evergreens to make an outdoor winter wreath or posy. Or you could make an indoor decoration using colourful ribbons or pieces of fabric plaited together to make a ring to suspend from a hook or to tie around a door handle in a bow.

*Try photographing views framed by a doorway or gate. Even just a familiar view of a street could look different seen through an open doorway.

*Make a decorative transparent panel to display in a sunlit window or glass door. Use tissue paper, voile or gauze in bright colours and cut out shapes from it to make a pattern.

*Make a door greetings card. Fold a piece of card, then draw or paint a door on the front of the card. Cut along the top, right hand side and bottom of the door, leaving it attached to the rest of the card down its left hand side. Decorate the inside of the card with a colourful pattern, or a drawing, or a painting or photograph, the size of the door. You could close the card by tying it up with a ribbon.

NATURE

*Try making a bug hotel, using pieces of wood or recycling all kinds of old containers to construct entrances where insects can shelter. Search online for patterns and instructions.

*Look out for field gates, for stiles, for paths and tracks which open up new ways to go. Look for gaps along a hedge or for trees which form a natural entrance to a field or open space.

*Look down for entrances to animal burrows or setts, or for mole hills. On my walks I sometimes see an old sett and a well-worn path down the slope, but I don’t think it is used anymore. Or look up for holes in tree trunks, where birds might nest or shelter. You could look for all these in pictures in books or online if you can’t see them outdoors.

*Nature could all seem open space to us, but birds and wild animals have a strong sense of territory and will defend their own patch. Look or listen out for birds like robins perched on a branch at the edge of their territory, singing to ward off other birds.

LIGHT AND DARKNESS 14-27 December 2020

Now that darkness falls so early and some days it barely comes fully light at all, I thought I would focus Medley’s latest set of Creative Ideas on LIGHT and DARKNESS. Soon now, slowly, the days will start to draw out once again. You might like to share what you do with the Creative Ideas on Medley’s new Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you.

MUSIC

You could try listening to the songs in the darkness as well as by day, and see how you respond differently to them. You could sing or clap along, and search for covers of the songs which are instrumental only.

*Shine A Light

*Blinded by the Light (Bruce Springsteen or cover by Manfred Mann)

*Star of wonder, star of night (We 3 Kings of Orient are)

*You’ll Never Walk Alone (“When you walk through a storm/Hold your head up high/And don’t be afraid of the dark…”)

*In The Still Of The Night

*Candle In The Wind (Elton John)

*Light (Michael Kiwanuka)

ART

*Experiment with painting objects and their shadows: maybe a tree and the shadow it casts, or an ornament and its shadow. A shadow will be cast on the side of the object opposite to or away from the light. Or try photographing objects and their shadows, like my photo here of a houseplant and its shadow by lamplight.

*Cut patterns or shapes out of tissue paper or other transparent, see-through paper or gauzy material in different colours, and display them in the window or even on the windowpane, so daylight and sunlight shine through them. They may cast colourful reflections on the windowledge or floor like stained glass might do.

*As soon as I took up drawing, I learned how important it was to shade my drawings to create the illusion of 3D. So try drawing any item you see and shade in the side of the object further away from the light, and it will look more solid and lifelike.

*Try making a glove puppet to use as a shadow puppet. It needs some distinctive features to stand out and make the shadow more dramatic, so you could make an animal puppet with large ears or a shape puppet with circles and triangles at the top.

NATURE

*Compare a familiar view in daylight, at dusk and at night – on a bright moonlit night or on a darker, overcast or foggy night. Switch on an outside light and see how it changes a familiar scene like your garden so that it looks like a stage set – or look at the light cast by a street light and how this contrasts with the shadows nearby. See how your eyes slowly adjust to the darkness so you can observe more.

*Notice how different colours shine in the raindrops on wet grass or in water droplets on an icy tree, when the sunlight catches them

*See how the Sun’s height in the sky differs through the day or the year by measuring the shadow cast by a tree or other object. In midwinter the Sun is so low.

*****************************************************************************

TREES, WOODS AND FORESTS 30 November-13 December

Marking National Tree Week and a time of year when many new trees will be planted, Medley’s new Creative Ideas focus on trees, woods and forests – such important parts of any landscape. There are songs and pieces of music to play or listen to, art and craft ideas to try and ways to observe and experience trees, planted singly or growing in a wood or forest. You might like to share what you do with the Creative Ideas on Medley’s new Facebook group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you.

MUSIC

Search and listen, sing or clap. If possible, you could listen outdoors in a wood or looking through a window at some trees. You could even listen while you plant a new tree for National Tree Week.

*Moments In The Woods (from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into The Woods)

*I Talk To The Trees (from Paint Your Wagon)

*Song From The Wood (Jethro Tull)

*A Walk in The Black Forest (Horsl Jankowski)

*Tales From The Vienna Woods (Johann Strauss The Younger)

*The Ash Grove (traditional folk song)

*If you go down to the woods today…

*By Banks of Green Willows (George Butterworth)

*O Christmas Tree

ART

*Try drawing or painting one tree in different media: pencil, charcoal, colouring pencil, pastel, watercolour paint or acrylic – and compare them all.

*Draw tree silhouettes of different tree species which have contrasting shapes, like the squat, broad form of an oak and the tall, narrow poplar. Display them all together.

*Choose a tree you see regularly if possible – maybe a tree in your garden or visible from your window or seen on a walk) and decide to photograph, draw or paint it every month for a year, to record how it changes. Or you could photograph/draw/paint just one branch each month, to focus on how the buds unfurl, leaves open and expand, then tint and fall.

*Cut tree shapes out of different green or brown material, some plain, some patterned. You could stick them on to card to make a fabric forest, or sew them onto white material. Vary the fabric trees’ sizes and shapes.

NATURE

*Usually we might only cast a fleeting glance at a tree, so try looking more carefully (if you can’t get outside, then look through pictures of trees). Look at the different markings, patterning or colours on their trunks, any ivy on the trees, how high on the trunk the first branches form, the tree’s shape, any early buds and so on.

*If you can find an old tree stump or a log, count the rings. Each ring marks a year of the tree’s growth, so you can work out how old the tree was when it came down.

*Listen to the different sounds trees make on a windy day: the rushing sound of the wind blowing through a conifer or the stirring of bare branches.

*If you can get to a wood or forest, identify as many tree species as you can. As it is winter the tree’s shape will be your main clue, but fallen leaves underfoot might help.

*Take bark rubbings of different trees, or look out for different types of bark. It might be gnarled or fissured, smooth, scaly or patchy.

TIME 16-29 November

Time is the theme for Medley’s latest set of Creative Ideas, at a time of the year when the clocks have changed and day turns to evening earlier and earlier (and when by New Year the days will be drawing out slowly once again). It would be great if you would like to share what you do with the Creative Ideas on Medley’s new Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you!

Music

Search and listen, or if you play a musical instrument try playing along, or respond by clapping or dancing. Sing along to the songs, or listen while you try one of the art or nature activities.

*(Thank You For The) Days (The Kinks)

*What a difference a day makes

*Yesterday (The Beatles)

*Clock Symphony (Joseph Haydn)

*4’32” (John Cage) – a famous and controversial piece of silence!

*You can’t hurry love (Phil Collins)

Art

*Draw, paint or photograph one scene or view at different times of the day to see how different it looks. This could be the view through your window or any other scene.

*Create a word picture on the theme of time. Write words on the theme (like midnight or year) in different colours or styles, in upper or lower case letters, or in different sizes. You could create your word picture using a graphic design programme as I have here.

*Design an hour glass or sand timer in different colours.

*Draw clock faces or cut them out of sheets of card or paper in different colours. Then decorate them with patterns or illustrate them with symbols of day and night, like sun or stars. You could draw or cut out 4 or 5 clocks each with the clock hands drawn at different times of day, and illustrate each with pictures of what you connect with that time of day.

Nature

*Follow the day’s progress by noticing how the shadow cast by a tree or bush changes angle as the Earth turns and the sun moves across the sky, or how the sun shines into the house at different angles.

*Try planting some vegetable seeds, or some tree seeds (an acorn maybe, or a conker) in a container on a warm windowsill indoors. Notice how long they take to germinate and begin to grow.

*Look at a twig and count the girdle scars along the twig across its width to work out the age of the twig – each scar marks a year as it is the site of a year’s main bud.

*On a walk, in the garden or through an open window, be quiet for one minute or for five minutes and see how many sounds you can hear. I have just done this and heard rooks cawing, the wind gusting through bare trees, and a clock ticking!

COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW 2-15 November 2020

The third theme for Medley’s Creative Ideas is COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW. As the days and nights become colder and darker, I know I like to see some bright colours as a counterbalance. And a rainbow is a sign of hope. Would you like to share how you get on with the Creative Ideas on Medley’s new Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002? Thank you!

MUSIC

Colour’s so important that many song titles or pieces of music feature different colours, as do one or two musicians’ names! Search and listen, or try playing along, or clapping or dancing. Sing along to the songs, or listen while you try one of the art or nature activities.

*Somewhere Over The Rainbow Judy Garland

*The Rainbow Song (“Red and yellow and pink…I can sing a rainbow”)

*Mr Blue Sky ELO

*Blue Suede Shoes Elvis Presley

*Rhapsody In Blue George Gershwin

*The Green, Green Grass of Home

*Greensleeves Henry VIII (attributed)

*Yellow Submarine The Beatles

*Any Dream Will Do (Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat) Lloyd Webber

*Any song by Pink or by Simply Red

ART

*Try drawing with a black pen on different colour papers. Or cut out silhouettes or shapes in bright colour papers and display them on a black sheet.

*Draw a scene or an object (maybe the view from your window, a plant or a chair or ornament) in pencil or black pen, and then try painting the scene or object in colour. Compare the two, see how the pencil or pen drawing needs shading to create the impression of 3D.

*Draw some outlines of balloons or even hot air balloons and decorate them with different colours and patterns.

*Let your imagination fly – paint trees and other plants in colours you would never see in nature!

*Attach some ribbons or long pieces of fabric in different colours to each other at one end and weave them together to make colourful garlands or scarves.

*Look at a colour wheel and experiment with painting in complementary colours or in primary or secondary colours.

*Paint what you see when you look through a kaleidoscope.

NATURE

*Either go for a colour walk or look at the colours in the garden or use your imagination to think what colours you might still see at this time of year. Even now you could see many different shades of colour.

*Think of one colour and list as many examples of that colour in nature as you can think of, for example for white, a swan or a daisy, or for turquoise, a dragonfly or a kingfisher.

*Plant some later spring bulbs in as many different shades of colour as you can find

*Imagine planting a colour-themed garden bed or windowbox. It might feature plants all of one colour, or in two contrasting colours, or in all colours of the rainbow, or else vegetables grown as much for their colours as for eating.

****************************************************************************************

TREES AND LEAVES 19 Oct-1 November

The second theme for Medley’s Creative Ideas is Trees And Leaves, as leaves tint and fall and trees grow barer.

Trees become so familiar that maybe this is an opportunity to look at them differently.

Music

Search and listen. You might like to sing along to the songs, or clap or mark time. You could listen to the songs and music while looking at a tree or some leaves, either through a window or outside. Or listen while you try one of the art activities. If you play a musical instrument yourself then you might like to find the sheet music and play, or improvise your own version to the music.

Maple Leaf Rag Scott Joplin, the “King” of Ragtime

Autumn Leaves Nat King Cole or Eva Cassidy

Blowing In The Wind Bob Dylan

Falling Leaves of Autumn Debbie Wiseman

Art

Try drawing outline leaf shapes for different tree species: maybe the large leaves of a sycamore or the narrow leaflets of rowan.
You could use these outline shapes to make your own leaf stencils from card. Then paint in the stencils, either in traditional autumn leaf colours or else use your imagination and paint fantasy leaves in any colour of the rainbow. Use them to make a mural. Or draw a tree and then place your different leaf shapes on the branches to make a fantasy tree.
You could also use your leaf shapes to make leaf chains, or cut them out of tissue paper to make a leaf mobile to sway in a breeze.
Experiment with a themed painting on one tree species: paint or draw the tree’s silhouette shape, a twig, a leaf, the tree’s fruit or seeds (like an acorn) and any flowers or blossom (like a catkin).
Make a leaf rubbing by laying a piece of paper over a leaf (veins uppermost) and rubbing a crayon over the paper so the leaf’s shape and form are seen. Or try a bark rubbing: hold a piece of paper against a tree trunk and rub over it with a crayon to reproduce the bark’s pattern on the paper.

Nature

Look how colourful autumn leaves stand out against a bright, cloudless sky, but also how they lighten even an overcast day.
Listen to all the sounds: how the wind whispers or roars through different kinds of tree; how fallen leaves stir, rustle or shiver in the breeze; and how rain patters more loudly onto leaves when they first fall but then silently as they become sodden underfoot.
See how some trees become bare before others, look out for the last leaves to fall and how they stand out when they are the last leaves left in a hedge.
As leaves fall and trees become bare, notice what different shapes tree silhouettes of different species have. Notice ivy growing on the tree trunks or amidst a bare hedge, which you might have overlooked before. And notice different bark colours and patterns, like a silver birch’s white bark.

**************************************************************************************

SPACE October

The theme is Space, to mark World Space Week which runs from 3-10 October.

Space conjures up freedom to explore, new perspectives. It is elemental, exciting, awesome.

MUSIC

The Planets (Gustav Holst)

Moon River

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (The Beatles, later cover by Elton John)

Sing To The Moon (Laura Mvula)

Star Wars film scores (John Williams)

ART

*Cut star shapes out of colourful paper and display on black paper or cloth

*Cut star shapes out of felt or other material and embroider them or paint or draw patterns on them with fabric paint or marker pens.

*Experiment by painting the night sky in different media – acrylics for a bold, striking painting, or watercolours for misty atmosphere.

*Try a detailed pen or pencil drawing of the solar system, labelling the planets.

*Make a word picture on a space theme. With colour pens or pencils, write down words which come to mind when you think of outer space, like planet, meteorite or astronaut.

*Try photographing the night sky.

NATURE

Spend time looking at the night sky. Compare the impenetrable darkness of an overcast night with the bright clarity of moonlight: there should be a new moon by the 13th of October here in the UK

Look at the shadows and reflections cast by moonlight.

See how moonlight filters through a tree’s leaves or bare branches.

Look at the moon on a misty night, when hazy clouds half-obscure it or pattern the sky.

Look out for satellites. These can actually be seen more easily with the naked eye than with a telescope – look out when dusk falls.

Share this: