Today is the longest day of the year, and that means tonight is the animals’ Firefly Ball. Gwendolyn Raccoon has made a crown of fresh wildflowers, decorated with a big sun and some fireflies, and festooned with twinkly golden ribbons. Here is how she did it. 

MATERIALS

Fresh wildflowers and pretty leaves. Many of these flowers don’t last long once they’re picked, so Gwendolyn made her crown as late as she could before the ball started. 

Masking tape or florist’s tape

A green twig that can bend into a circle the size of your crown. We used a green willow twig, which was perfect. You can also use a piece of wire or a pipe cleaner. Cut to length with about 3 inches extra so the ends can overlap. 
Heavy paper and crayons

optional: twinkly ribbons or decorations. Scraps of ribbon from your Hazel Village gift wrap are perfect!

INSTRUCTIONS

Make your decorations on paper. We drew a sun and some fireflies. 

Cut out the decorations. 

Attach the flowers to your twig by wrapping around and around with masking tape, adding flowers as you go. 

Keep going!

When the area with flowers is about long enough to go around your animal’s head, bend the twig or wire into a circle. Rip the tape so you have about six inches left to work with. 

Keep wrapping the tape around the overlapped section of the circle. After you wrap enough times, the crown will hold its shape. 

Attach your paper decorations with masking tape on the back. 

Here is how the sun looked once it was taped in place. 

Here is how the fireflies looked. We used thinner strips of tape to attach them. 
attach any more decorations that you want to use but haven’t used yet. 
voila!

Here is Gwendolyn, all ready for the ball. She looks great!