Ashford Tree Trail Virtual Forest

At our last ECOkids group this term, we learnt about camouflage and how some animals hide to protect themselves. We made masks with leaves and petals to blend in with the wildflower meadow and made these nature-inspired baubles, covering and hiding the plastic with flowers and leaves.

Three community groups at our environment centre have collaborated to create this tree, which is based on three concepts that underpin our ethos. We repair, reuse and recycle broken and/or unwanted items (as in the creation of this assemblage) to reduce waste and to try to move closer to sustainable human existence. The constructed frame features three wheels, decorated with sewn and knitted leaves, seeds etc. found in spring, summer and autumn, with references to winter scattered upon the surrounding bare branches. This links the changing seasons over time with our Queen Elizabeth's resilient and reliable presence over many years and changes during her reign. We can gain wisdom and inspiration from older and younger generations, from ancient trees and young saplings, teach and learn together to restore, cherish and protect our environment, as the Queen implores us to with her Green Canopy initiative. Placed among the nature-inspired decorations are symbols of royal and national significance, for visitors to enjoy finding. Our tree artwork is placed upon the entrance path to our centre, encouraging people to stop and look closer at the feature and at the wildlife around them.

We decorated our Hat Trick Hounds Dawgi Tree to celebrate the Royal Doggies! Featuring corgi's and takeaway treats for passing pooches - including shampoo samples and Bonios. We used recycled jeans to make tasselled bunting and bone shaped decorations along with recycled Christmas ribbon to add the red, white and blue.

The bottom of the tree is made out of a plastic bottle lined with tree branches we found on our Ashford Tree Trail, all tied together with some leftover rope. The top of the tree is the top of a pineapple, and the decorations are a mixture of the Ashford Tree Trail leaflet cut-outs, the activity pack cut-outs, a garland made in school and a couple of British flag cocktail picks. The design was something mum came up with based on the things we already had in house and something a 4-5 year old can easily make/contribute to. The name Happy Tree was given because we had a happy day on our Tree Trail around Ashford and plenty of fun while building the tree itself.

Waste items such as plastic bottles and cardboard tubes were collected from our students and staff, and turned into flowers, crowns and tea cups by our art students. Offcuts of coloured paper were upcycled into paper chains by the early years students, taking inspiration from the Queen, England's love of tea, flowers, and of course, the crowns. All decorations used upcycled materials.

This tree sculpture has been created entirely from paper and cardboard. The trunk and branches have been built using cardboard tubes, recycled packaging and cardboard from boxes. It even has (cardboard) mechanical joints to help lower the branches to fit through doors! Upon the top of this tree, there is a cardboard replica of St James Crown which was worn by the Queen at her coronation day in 1953. The tree has special blossoms made from seeded paper. Each flower has a well-wish or message of thanks to HM Queen II, in celebration of her jubilee. These have been written by members of the community including the Mayor of Ashford, school children and local residents.

Our tree is made of recycled materials, using red, white and blue, as well as the Queen for inspiration. It includes: tin can crowns, paper soldiers in plastic bottles, material bunting, lolly stick weaved mobiles, pyrography Queen on wood, red, white and blue shell wind chimes, wool pom poms, yogurt pot corgis, plastic bottle-end flowers, coiled rope, decorated CDs, mosaic hearts, wooden robins, and wood circles decorated by newspaper and magazine cuttings.

The team recycled old packaging materials to create mini handbags, hats, strings of pearls and necklaces; all things we know the Queen loves! Our deliveries always come with cardboard boxes and tissue paper so this was reused to decorate our tree.

The tree's name was chosen based on our school values, specifically working together and Christian fellowship. The tree has been designed by ALL of our school community. We decided to base each side of the tree on a colour of the rainbow. Each year group chose a different aspect of the Queen to focus on, such as the Queen's love of hats, portraits of the Queen and her corgis, the Queen's love of handbags, and the Queen's garden party. We selected a range of recycled and natural materials to make our decorations for the tree. We used twigs and twine for the frames, sweet wrappers for the gems on the crown jewels and recycled delivery packaging.

Our tree was inspired by the Queen's Crown Jewels and after reading 'Gangsta Granny', our Year 4s were keen to replicate many brightly adorned crowns. We used recycled plastic bottles and Tetra Paks. Year 6 also joined in with the crown making and our Art Prefects were responsible for decorating our tree.

As businesses, Made in Ashford and the Craftship Enterprise don't actually generate much waste, so we looked to the personal waste of our community. Tania, our resident artist and owner of Tania Paige Designs, the lead artist on this project, drinks a lot of coffee from the pod machine so decided to use these pods as a base for the decoration design.  Added to this was some donated wool and fabric offcuts from Melissa Dawkins from her Aye Aye brand.  We found a few sticky gems and paints and an idea was formed.  Our theme was based on the Queen's love of flowers and the colours red, white, blue and purple. We tried to involve as many of our community, workshop members and makers as we could in the project.  The Home Education and After School Club members helped decorate the coffee pods, as did some visitors to Ashford and regular customers who were interested in the general project.  Pancake Pet maker, Deb, spent a whole day with Tania cleaning and decorating the coffee pods. Victoria from Victoria Johnson Jewellery spent the day making pompoms for the tree, she enjoyed the job so much that she has actually launched another arm to her business, producing artwork featuring pompoms - how fabulous is that? Between the groups we painted the tree green, attached floaty fabric to the pods to create a flower effect, wired in the pompoms and then attached some lovely crochet flowers from Paula North, one the Yarn Club members.  The Yarn Club also made some beautiful crochet bunting, which really made the tree pop.  A final flourish was the most wonderful crown from a member of the Sketchbook Club.  We are very proud of our community tree, around 21 people helped us decorate this and they should all be very proud of the achievement.

The Amberteers Tree focuses on the Queen's love for Corgis. One of our Amberteers has a keen interest in graphic design and was tasked with creating the 'Quorgi', aka the Queen as a Corgi! We were further inspired by what came to our Amberteers' minds when they thought of the Queen. Our tree became London themed and we added a mix of the iconic London sights. Our Amberteers painted the tree to give it plenty of eye-catching colour!

Our inspiration for the tree was the Queen's famous garden parties. We used old cups and saucers, as well as sourced materials from within our school to create our beautiful tree.

We wanted to make a design using recycled and reclaimed materials, such as old ink cartridges, bottles etc. As we are looking to the future. we wanted our tree to have a very futuristic look, which is why we have sprayed it silver. The school also has a Silver Birch in the grounds, and the children are always fascinated by the colour of the bark and how it appears to peel off. The children added a little colour by cutting leaves out of plastic bottles and painting them. They threaded the leaves using brightly coloured wool/string so that it would make a good contrast to the sliver background of the tree.

Our tree is dedicated to service and the year-round commitment the Queen and the royal family has made to charitable endeavours. The Lions Club is a service-based club here in Ashford and is one of the many organisations that the royal family support. We have tried to show different stories for each of the seasons, from our own, to the Queen's, to the Jubilee, showing how over the year, one tree can tell many different stories and has many different aspects. Our tree is made from recycled materials, from bubble wrap to old Christmas ribbons, tissue paper, egg cartons, bottle caps, magazines pages and packing paper. For winter, using bottle caps we highlighted afternoon tea and the Queen. For the Spring, using egg cartoons we create roses, daffodils, thistle and covers to represent the UK. For Summer, using bubble wrap we highlighted our organisation, and for Autumn, we used old newspapers and Christmas wrapping to show different service activities. The bunting was created using recycled ribbon and the lion, a symbol of the Royals, was made for another event and is getting a new life as the topper to our tree.

We have wrapped our tree in a full Union Jack design to celebrate our Queen's Jubilee, along with our 'Red, White & Blue School Uniform' display. Take a photo with Queenie and tag us for your chance to win a cream tea for two!

During the workshop, participants were encouraged to create their own stained-glass windows inspired by the venue's own beautiful windows, using recycled cardboard and plastic as well as tissue paper, colouring pens, ribbons and old buttons. This tree is inspired by the St Mary The Virgin Church in Ashford which houses a revolutionary pop-up arts venue, Revelation. Revelation welcomes a host of international musicians, legendary performers and incredible experiences for the whole community.

Working with artists from the Animate Arts Company, students started by creating laminated tissue paper sheets. Once dry, the Year 11 students cut out and assembled flowers. The nature of the laminated tissue paper means the light will shine through the flowers, casting pools of colour around the tree when the sun illuminates them.

We always love seeing the Queen's beautiful crowns and tiaras, so decided to create our own crowns to display on the real tree in the Civic Park. We decorated them with as many gems and jewels as possible!

This tree was decorated in a community workshop, initially using the idea of commonwealth flags. We made collages using recycled materials, and flags using scrap material. The group, based in Ashford, is a processing centre for unaccompanied asylum seeking children from all over the world - from Afghanistan to Iraq and Africa. Although their countries flags are not part of the commonwealth, we incorporated their own flags to show unity and peace for the future and to show that everyone is welcome here.

We wanted to express our love, our feelings and our thoughts about the Queen, who is President of Sandringham WI, throughout her long reign, taking inspiration from her wish to create a Green Canopy. We recycled plastic bottles to create birds and flowers that will benefit from the woodlands and which also represent the peace and hope that the Queen has stood for. We used scrap fabric, yarn, paper and plastics to make the leaf shapes to carry our words. If others wish to add their words that will be a bonus. Our first tree has colourful flowers growing in amongst the leaves. The flowers have been made from recycled milk bottles. There are also decorative details of knitted and laminated leaves, decoupaged with Royal Mail stamps. This tree symbolises all the bouquets gifted to the Queen on her trips and public appearances. After the events, flowers are gifted to charities, hospitals and hospices.

Our second tree is designed with white bird ornaments which are made from recycled milk bottles. The birds look like they are racing around the tree – perhaps they are the Queen's racing pigeons! Today HM The Queen maintains an interest in the Royal pigeon lofts and regularly visits when in Sandringham.

The decorations for the memorial garden were made in a WI workshop using recyclable materials to fit with the Queen's hopes for a green and sustainable future. We made lights out of bottles, birdhouses out of milk bottles, butterflies out of wool remnants, bunting out of fabric remnants and flowers out of crotchet plastic bags! We made so many different pieces so that every member - whether crafty or not - was involved.

The main part of the tree was inspired by the gardens of England. We created a natural looking green tree which was covered in old garderning magazines. The pages were cut up and collaged on the tree. We added shelves which were also collaged and made from cardboard collected from local shops. The shelves hold a selection of decorations made from cardboard tubes, tissue paper, feathers, old ribbon, wool and much more. These decorations were inspired by the Queen and the Union Jack colours. The children also created their own designs on an outline of the Queen's head using paints, feathers and card. These were attached to the bottom of the shelves so they could dangle freely.

Our tree is inspired by the Queen's love of animals. We have created a range of animals using recycled materials and they are decorated with tissue paper, buttons and bottle tops.

The Queen is patron to over 600 charities and organisations. She is patron of the Royal Horticultural Society and has attended the Chelsea Flower Show since 1952. Our tree celebrates these patronages through our creation of a Chelsea Flower Show garden.

We used a variety of recycled materials to produce the beautiful decorations for the tree. Our students worked really hard on deciding what to put on the tree and how the decorations should be designed.

A group of Year 11 students worked with artists from the Animate Arts Company to make paper pulp flowers inspired by flowers from the commonwealth. In the two sessions they cut, paper pulped and painted the flowers based on their own ideas and designs.