Home Garden Companion

Ilona's Garden Journal




Garden crafts

Furnishing Grandma’s Fairy House

by

Just Moved In? Time to Get Decorating!

Being creative is what it’s all about- let’s make some cute stuff! I hope you enjoy these ideas and they spark your own fun projects.

A Place of Enchantment

fairy house door
Hobbit door to enter a fairy house

Whether a fairy garden or home, flights of fancy start with the tiny things that make a miniature world come alive in the imagination. Things that make us feel that some fantasy inhabitants come to live or visit there.

Little furnishings, especially those made from natural materials (but wire and ceramic ones qualify, too) bring the scene to life.

Here is a compilation of ideas, materials, and mini projects for those who have made the dwellings and need to furnish them for the brownies or fairy folk that are expected to come and stay there.

Places to eat, places to sleep, and all the little necessities for comfort (they love their comfort, you know).

Fairy Furniture Made From Nature

ideas for fairy furnisture
Cute fairy house furnishings

Twiggy Things

Tiny Table and Chair
Tiny Table and Chair

Making Little Tables

Materials You Will Need

  • Piece of scrap wood or bark the size you desire
  • Rock for base
  • Acorn cap for bowl
  • Dried flower petals for decoration
  • Glue gun and glue stick

Instructions


Just glue all the parts together. Let dry.
Simple!

Even A Child Can Do This!

Creative Ideas Given Flight

Take your imagination to the limit, jot down all the themes that this furniture crafting could take:

  1. Musical instruments? Why not? Pianos, flutes, drums (an acorn drum, anyone?)
  2. Tables, side tables, and picnic tables
  3. Chairs, sofas, stools

Sylvan Music

fairy piano
A miniature keyboard for Midsummer nights

Have you considered making instruments? A keyboard!

Did You Read How Grandma Is Making a Fairy House?

  • Grandma Can Make Fairy Houses Make a fairy house to delight grandchildren! I want to show you what I’m doing, so you can make your own delightful faerie home that doesn’t need to cost a dime and has *only one rule*.

Make Furniture for a Brownie Library or Elf School!

Tips to Remember

The video about the school for fairies is one of the best tutorials on making the twig chairs to go with your table.

1. All the furnishings need a glue gun to assemble.
Most need twigs and bark from forest forays. I like green moss, and if you don’t have any in your yard you can buy it from craft stores.

2. Sometimes the dried moss is sort of a grayish color, which isn’t nice unless it is Reindeer moss or lichens. If yours loses its color just paint it with a bit of food coloring.

3. Using bass wood from a hobby store is useful if straight-sided and even pieces are wanted (as for a bookshelf). Or you can use birch or cedar wood pieces in pre-cut shapes. Available in numerous shapes and sizes.

Cedar Wood Rectangles for your Projects

Already cut into shape and ready for kids to create fairy furniture projects. Plenty for tables, shelves, and bookcases.

Are you making fairy furniture?
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Collect Materials, Make these Items

Do you grow Lambs Ears?

I mean Stachys lanata, a common garden plant. No? Perhaps your neighbor or friend may… locate a supply and then use them as soft material for a blanket. Or flattened and dried in a flowerpress or book, they may be used as rugs.

An easy fairy bed? Find milk weed husks , use them with the silky seeds.

The bed needs mini pillows! Just the thing for sofa cushions or bed pillows are the buds of the willow plant, Pussy willow.

Rose Hips, dried and hollowed for bowls and pots, much the same as acorn caps, but rosy and rounder.

Shells, collected from beach walks make pretty bathtubs or sinks. As seats or containers of small seeds and moss.

Twig Furniture is Charming

Twig fairy house
Actually, this is clay made to look like twigs.
Useful for outdoors.

A Fairy Bed for Sleepy Dreams

Cute wire beds are available, and they are really darling accessories to add, but what if you want to make your own?

It will take a bit of time and work, but try crafting this miniature bed.

Take twigs and cut to size, glue together the framework. first a flat rectangle with slats, then the legs and headboard. Make the mattress, using gauze filled with milkweed silk or cornsilk. cover with leaf blanket and add pussy willow pillows.

Tiny Metal Daybed

Or for those who are impatient to finish the interior decorating, a darling wire bedframe is available.
Miniature Fairy Garden Accessories - Elegant, Metal Scrolled Day Bed - Measures 4 Inches Long

Miniature Fairy Garden Accessories – Elegant, Metal Scrolled Day Bed – Measures 4 Inches Long

The Many Uses of Acorns

The fact that acorns are easily found in many oak tree woods (where fairies love to congregate), and their very useful shape, make acorns one of the premier findings for furnishing a fairy home.

Let’s record a few ideas here:

  • as bowls and cups
  • as finials on the roof and posts
  • add a twig handle- and the acorn cap is a cookpot

Useful Plant Material to Collect for Craft Projects

Lambs Ear Leaves
Lambs Ears have grey felty texture. A soft rug or coverlet, perhaps?
Oak Acorns
Oak Acorns make many fairy-size accessories
Milkweed pods
Milkweed is ideal for both the silk and the pods.

Mosses are Essential for Forest Faeries

You must remember a few rules for gathering mosses, responsibly. Otherwise it is better to buy a supply.

  1. Don’t strip all the moss from where you find it, take only small amounts and then move on to another source.
  2. Keep you moss slightly moist until you use it. Perhaps grow some in your yard as a sustainable source.

Mosses decorate furnishing such as table chairs and beds. Lichens can also be used, and Reindeer moss from a craft store gives unique character to the inside of a Fairy home- just glue it to doors and walls or anywhere.

Cart Home Dry Mushrooms

gnome and dried mushroom
Victorian gnome

Gnomes count as fairies, too. Dried mushrooms make good material for fairy side tables, platters, bases, stools…

Tools Needed For Fairy House Projects

Snips and pruners to cut the materials neatly. Cut branches and twigs to size, for your projects.

A Glue Gun

This is a crafters necessity. Almost all projects involve gluing pieces together or adding moss and dried petals.

Florist Wire

This wire comes in many gauges and is so handy for attaching parts together or as a stem for holding small things in place.

A Little Hammer

You might want to nail the furniture together.

Toothpicks

Useful for adding glue in tight places or moving something just a nudge before the glue dries.

The Essential Glue Gun for this Project

Stanley GR20K Trigger Feed Hot Melt Glue Gun Kit
Stanley GR20K Trigger Feed Hot Melt Glue Gun Kit

A good quality glue gun for all your craft projects.

Did you enjoy this flight of fancy?

Out Of Your Gourd Gardening

by

The Seed That Grew Birdhouse Gourds

– Lots Of Them!

birdhouse gourds
Pretty white blossoms turn into gourds to paint and shape into crafts.

Gourds are easy to grow. And besides being easy (which makes them a candidate for growing in a children’s garden), there are lots of things that you can do with them if you love to craft and decorate.

The main thing that a gourd plant needs is SPACE.

If you have limited space, no worries mate, vertical gardening can be an ideal way to grow all the gourds you could desire.

White Flowering Draws Moths Pollinated mainly by moths and other night insects, the blooms of many of these squash family plants are often white and open at dusk. They have an unearthly beauty.

I decided to grow one specific kind, the birdhouse form Lagenaria, during one growing season. It turned out to be so fruitful that I ended up with enough dried gourds for years of decorating (maybe you won’t take as long to finish your projects, but the harvest was great). If it is before June, in Zone 6 and lower, you have time to grow your own from seed. Or make your plan for next growing season.

What can you find on this page?

  • How to grow gourds
  • Vertical Gardening ideas for saving space
  • Craft ideas for the gourds you grow

If you are interested in growing gourds and turning them into fun projects like gourd art, birdhouses, or even musical instruments are on the final leg of the gourd discovery tour at the bottom of the page.

How To Grow Gourds

My Gourds Took Over
My Gourds Took Over

A Very Simple Plant To Grow, Ideal For A Beginner

Factsheet for Growing and Curing Many Types

Tender Plants

  1. You can start the seeds indoors if you like.
  2. I started mine directly in the garden, planting according to directions on the packet.
  3. Plant 2 feet apart in the row, with rows 5 feet apart
  4. Water regularly, like for tomatoes
  5. Use 10-10-10 or 10-6-4 fertilizer once plants take off.
  6. Harvest before frost

Keep in mind that these plants are warm weather plants which should not be planted out before the last frost. They will grow best when the soils are warm.

Humid, hot days and warm nights suit the gourd family just fine, but they can be subject to some diseases and pests.

Mosaic Virus and Powdery Mildew are two of the worst, most prevalent of the diseases they can get, and those problems can kill a crop.

With Mosaic, which is a plant virus, but be sure the mottled foliage is not from an application of insecticide, which can mimic the problem.

Prevent Powdery Mildew by using the vertical garden methods which will increase air circulation. (Mildews are promoted by stagnant, close conditions).

Hand pollination can improve fruit set.

Ready To Try Growing Some Amazing Varieties?

Gourds, Vining, "Bath Loofah" - HeirloomGourds, Vining, “Bath Loofah” – Heirloom

Renee’s is a reputable seed house company that many gardener’s rely on. I love the selections and have always had good reults, so I am very confident in recommending you buy your seeds from Renee.This packet will provide you with a selection of shapes that you may use in traditional ways or as a canvas for art projects that can be anything you imagine.

This is the perfect plant for a child’s garden because it is easy, and provides fun projects that kids love. The large plants are exciting to watch grow and gives a real feeling of accomplishment come harvest time.

Other ideas for creating a Child’s Garden.

”Did you know this? The flowers attract hummingbirds!”

Growing Gourds For Crafts

Why Vertical Gardening Works For You

Cucurbit plants (cucumber and melons included) take up a lot of space, and you may want to plan for that at the outset.

If you do not wish to allow lots of garden space for gourds, consider vertical garden ideas. One of the best things about vertical gardening, besides its space saving feature, is the way the produce is at eye and picking level, as well as kept clean.

Get your vertical support ready before you plant the seeds.

Easy Vertical Garden Ideas

As you can see- a trellis is good for tomatoes, too.

garden trellis
4′ x 8′ Cedar Raised Garden Bed with Irrigation System and Optional Trellis

Vegetable Trellis

Consider using vertical growing ideas not only to save space, but to keep the fruits from damage. In English vegetable gardens it is not unusual to see netted cradles holding the cucurbits, no matter what variety they are. I think those nets are more practical for heavier fruits such as melons, but have seen them used for courgettes.

I grew the Lagenaria on the ground because I wasn’t prepared for the spread of these plants. Just a few plants took over the entire vegetable garden that year, so I would definitely recommend using a trellis or support of some kind to grow the vines upward.

While the frame and trellis outfits work extremely well, if you have a fence, especially chain link, you can use that to support the vines. Netting strung between sturdy posts would also work.

The Many Forms of Gourd Fruits

Use the following charts to see the wide range of types that you can plant and use for many different purposes. All may be grown in vertical ways, or if you have the room, along the ground.



Digital Gourds chart © Dan Dunkin 2003
This chart is used courtesy The Gourd Reserve

Starting Your Seeds Indoors

Getting a head start on the season

Many people like to start the Cucurbit family indoors. What is this plant family? All those of the squash and melon family are included, as well as the gourds. Find out more about their family,Cucubitaceae.

Like starting any tender plants inside, first plant the seeds in moist seed starter soil ( regular potting soil and certainly outdoor soil is too heavy and might cause rot).

Once you begin seeing little leaves, lightly fertilize and keep in a well lit space.

Harden off the plants once you near the frost-free date.

Plant your seedlings outside in the garden in good garden soil after all danger of frost is past.

Make Your Own Pots?

Your own pots can be easily made using origami techniques and old newspapers. How to make your own paper pots, illustrated tutorial.

There is even a small form available to ease the chore of making many pots.

Source: Secrets du Potager Paper Pot Maker One of the benefits of using old materials to make your own pots is that by recycling you are being environmentally green. Not to mention that it is a frugal step that saves plenty of money to use in for other gardening projects.

Be Green

More ways to be frugal and recycle:

Use egg cartons, or pots made of wrapping paper tubes, cut in 8″ lengths and lined with newspaper circle.

Be sure to fill your seedlings pots with good growing medium. It is not money saving to scrimp on soil that is sterile and of the right ingredients to give your new plants a good start. Regular garden soil won’t do. It is too dense, and has organisms that can contribute to the demise of your new seedlings. Of course you can (and many gardeners do) mix your own medium and go through the process of sterilizing it yourself, but that is more labor intensive than many have the time and energy for.

The following available mixes are good for your plants, and are easy to obtain and use.

Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix, 8-Quart (currently ships to select Northeastern & Midwestern states)

Or buy the fixings and make your own:

Seed Starting “Soil”

  • 1 part coir or sphagnum moss (my local greenhouse uses coir)
  • 1 part perlite
  • 1 part vermiculite

Early Start IS 66412 3-Shelf Green House WorkbenchEarly Start IS 66412 3-Shelf Green House Workbench
Having the right light, with green house humidity is one surefire way to a great start on the season

Home Gardeners Grow Them – Woo Hoo! A Good Sourcebook

That means you. You can grow these veggies easily,  and this guide will give you all the tips.

Gourds in Your Garden: A Guidebook for the Home GardenerGourds in Your Garden: A Guidebook for the Home Gardener

Guidebook for those who are serious about growing and crafting with gourds.

You can take hours poring through hundreds of online articles, or you can get this primer and get started right away.
Covering Topics:

  • Popular gourd shapes
  • Controlling gourd plant pests
  • Preparing your gourds

…and loads more including lists of suppliers, a growing calendar, and space for notes.

Easy to grow with large seeds and fast germination rates, but need a long growing season.

Building Trellis For Gourds – Garden Girl Demonstrates

Vertical Gardening – Grow vining plants or wide spreading plants with ease

Just grow up!

Literally, grow skyward and let authors Rebecca Sweet and Susan Morrison guide you into all sorts of ideas and landscape solutions which involve vertical gardening. Perfect for putting gourds into your garden.

Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large SpacesGarden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces

Urban and suburban gardens don’t always have the extra space for plants such as the gourd family, but this book provides plenty of landscape inspiration and creative ways to include more plants in more ways than you may have imagined.

Birdhouse Gourds Drying

Birdhouse Gourds Drying

Gourd Arts

Burn, Carve, Paint

Gourds can be beautiful.Sometimes in their own right, but this fruit just begs to be decorated. Plenty of craftspeople and artists have answered that plea, and you would be astonished at the gorgeous art that starts out as a humble gourd.

photo by Miguel Vera

One of the places I discovered how many truly beautiful artworks that people create from lowly gourds was on Pinterest. I was already aware of the useful projects, like simple birdhouses, and decorative displays of them (my mother always had some dried and varnished gourds in a bowl because she loved Autumn colors). I also had taken quite an interest in the painting that is displayed in the Kentucky Artisan shop off the highway in Berea, Kentucky, but until I saw the splendid works of art online I had little idea of the intricate and ingenious ways the gourds can be embellished.

So You Want To Be An Artist – How-to video

Gourd Art

How can you decorate a gourd?

  • Burn
  • Carve
  • Paint
  • Decoupage

See the work of Carol Kroll and Martha Danek

A sweet, very easy way to use your gourds for garden art is to make fairy houses. I saw a number of these cute and creative little homes posted on Pinterest boards and thought that this would be a great way to combine growing gourds with other parts of a garden plan. Create fairy gardens and a community of houses made from this material.

Uses

As utility containers they can be used as ladles or birdhouses, bowls, or bottles. Many love them as fine art canvases or sculpted pieces.

Invite Purple Martins

You grew your gourds, made your birdhouses, and now what?

Invite Purple Martins to your yard! Purple Martins are premier mosquito and insect eaters. They love to have “apartment complexes” and this is a great way to use the many fruits of your labor.

Make a birdhouse for purple martins.

Hang the gourd houses at least two stories up. Purple Martins like to live on high in the middle of the yard.

 

Complete Book For The Crafting Of Hardshell Squashes

Complete Book of Gourd CarvingComplete Book of Gourd Carving
One of the best, and most useful, how to books on the art of carving a gourd.

You will be amazed by the many ways that people turn gourds into true works of art, and here are detailed instructions needed to make your own artistic carvings.

Crafting Tools You Will Need To Make Your Own Gourd Art

 

Be sure to see the other gourd preparation videos in the series. How to saw and prepare a gourd for crafts.

List of Helpful Sites – Growing info and Craft ideas

Ladle out your comments here, let the little birdie speak, spoon it on thick, be crafty about it, burn it into our brains, and carve out a place for your thoughts… in this space.

Originally published by Ilona Erwin 02/09/13 on Squidoo.

Grandma Can Make Fairy Houses From Forest Finds

by

Make A Fairy House And Not Spend A Dime

Fairy gardens have been all the rage, and the little furniture and houses that go into them, but the idea predates all this fancy paraphernalia and you can make yours from scavenged materials. It can be no less charming than those you order ready made, and perhaps even more so. I think we ought to hark back to the place where the imagination rules and nature provides all the things we need to create a cute little fairy house.

I think this idea is so much fun that I am going to make my own creation for my granddaughter and I know I will have more ideas than I can use. That is why this lens will be so special- it will serve as my idea board and record my progress. You can follow along, or use the ideas to make your own Fairy House creation.

If you like, you can always spend a little money on special elements, but the point is that you don’t have to, unless you wish. Fairy Houses are just as nicely made with just the building elements you find while on your walks in the public parks or even in your yard.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO MAKE A PROJECT YOUR GRANDCHILDREN WILL HAPPILY REMEMBER

This post has a starter list for materials, ideas for planning the project, sources for more inspiration and creating either an indoor or outdoor fairy dwelling. It is a jumping off point for those of us who are thinking of putting together something for our grandchildren or to ornament a miniature garden.

There is one rule, however…

The Fairy House Rule

Here it is, the 1 rule:


The rule of fairy-house building is that you cannot destroy anything living to add to your fairy house.

Indoor Fairy Houses Are Easier

However, they aren’t simple

I think an indoor fairy house is easier to construct due to the fact that weathering can be very hard on the materials.

If you consider winds, hard rain, and the ways moisture and sun can destroy even strongly built “people” homes, imagine how our fairy houses might fare. But then, we aren’t exactly building for posterity are we? These are just little flights of fancy that are meant to be fun.

Imagination

Let It Take Flight

I made similar indoor crafts when constructing dried flower wreaths, long ago. Maybe that is why it seems easier to me to simply use those materials to put together a cute little Fairy home.

In making an indoor house I could use strong cardboard as a base, or start with an inexpensive doll house.

I could also make a base of grapevine or honeysuckle vine. And I wouldn’t have to worry about the little home getting overrun with insects would I? I don’t think Fairies are good at keeping such trespassers out, they are far too lenient in nature.

Other than the base materials needing to be stronger and more tolerable of weather conditions, the creation of the indoor and outdoor Fairy Houses are similar. Lots of found items that can be remade into tiny furniture, used to decorate doors and roofs, and otherwise creating a miniature world are part and parcel of the construction.

Pinterest Gave Me An Idea

Find Ideas For Faery Houses

I was poking around Pinterest and found an idea that I can use this year. Completely do-able. Using an old Christmas Nativity Stable, it could be reworked into the most adorable fairy house, I think.

It is the right size and the base is flat, with a rustic look to it already. I think all I have to do is glue moss and lichens onto it, perhaps break up the interior into little rooms and voila! Then I can concentrate on making tiny furnishings, which is something that intrigues me to no end. Twig chairs, acorn bowls, cob-webby curtains… that is my idea for 2014.

Use A Creche As Base For Your Fantasy House



Repurpose like I did, or buy an empty Nativity stable. It makes a great base for a fairy dwelling which you can use on a shelf, sidetable, or hang on a wall.

My Planned List of Fairy House Materials – I don’t know if I will use them all

source: Jo-ann
source: Jo-ann

Gather, Plan, Create

Three easy steps to making a fun and easy little fairy house. Of course it can get as complex and detailed as you like, but do begin!
1. Gather

I am gathering materials, and the second step is to draw the plan.

List Of Crafting Materials

  • Acorns and acorn caps… always highly useful for fairies
  • Sea shells
  • Spanish moss, green moss, and reindeer lichen
  • Interesting twigs
  • Dried flowers for the indoor house
  • Bits of ribbon and colored string
  • I will need glue and little brads. A small upholstery hammer.
  • Pine cones
  • Dried Mushrooms
  • Floral wire and wire cutters
  • Dried vine and grapevine tendrils
  • Sculpey Clay
  • Tree Bark
  • Pussy Willows
  • Ripened rose hips, hollowed out for teapots- bent willow frond can make a handle.
  • Poppy pods for finials and other decorative uses
  • Lamb’s ear leaves
  • Dried birdhouse gourd
fairy statue
by Septemia

2. Plan

Tiny Communities

Choices, Choices

First, what materials to use for the house?

  • The base could be a slice of wood
  • A round patio stone for the base?
  • Tree bark, maybe from a Pine tree
  • A birchbark planter if I could find one
  • Hollowed out old tree branch
  • Large broken clay pot half?

Roof material?

  • Pine cone pieces
  • Scrap wood shavings
  • Wood fungus
  • Top of dried gourd

Details wanted?

  • A mossy doorstep ringed with little stones
  • a small smooth flat stone doorstep, or steps
  • tree fungus steps or roof?
  • twining curls of twig or vine
  • windows with shutters made of natural material

The Makings So Far
My plan is to build an indoor house, but I am going to make plans for an outdoor one, too.

My daughter lives in the South and she isn’t so keen on little bitty gardening jobs, etc. But just in case she feels that an outdoor environment for a Fairy house is a good fit for her, I will be prepared that we can go in that direction.

I plan on using mostly natural materials like Tracy Kane suggests, but I may add some more delicate things that have sparkle for an indoor Fairy house.

furnishing
Source: plowhearth.com

River Rocks?

You could gather your own river rocks if you live or hike near mountain streams. Here in Ohio we mostly have shale along the creeks, but Lake Erie and other such large bodies of water are a good source of stones that are polished by wave action.

If you want the beauty of these rocks without the access to a natural source, they are available in hobby stores and online.

Their smooth rounded shape can become table tops or seats. They can be little steps or a larger one for the front stoop. Get creative!

I think a little figurine perched on a large polished river rock would be the perfect accent for a finished fae home.

Tiny Accessories – Miniature Fairy Garden Must-Haves

It might be possible to craft each and every detail of the furnishing yourself, from found materials, but when I see all these darling little accessories that are available that I can’t resist a couple, can you?

Maybe the little bicycle is from a visiting elf, who needs something to catch up with all those flitting fairy friends.

Do You Plan On Making A Fairy House?

3. Create

Hot Glue Gun – For Indoor Fairy Houses Only

IT MAY COME UNGLUED OUTSIDE

This isn’t my first choice for my grand daughter’s intended house, but many crafters use it.

If you are making a fairy house “just to look at”, this is a time saving and efficient way to assemble your fairy house.

I won’t be using it because when my husband and I made a dollhouse many years ago for my daughters, the glued joints made with the glue gun were not satisfactory.

I’m not saying this would be a bad thing for putting together your house, and I will use one, myself,  for details like adding moss, etc, on the indoor version of a Fairy House.

However, it isn’t a glue that stands up to actual manipulation and play. Like the type expected of little people, when the fairy house is intended for them.

It certainly won’t stand up to the elements in rainy climates like the East coast, etc.

So decide for yourself.

Craft Glue and a Good Glue Gun

Martha Stewart Crafts Glue Gun And Sticks

Martha Stewart Crafts Glue Gun And Sticks

Binding Kitchen
Brand Martha Stewart Crafts
Color WHITE
EAN 7174117282840
Is Autographed 0
Label Master Chef
List Price $14.99
Manufacturer Master Chef
Model 40-00004
MPN 40-00004
Number Of Items 1
Package Quantity 1
Part Number 40-00004
Product Group Art and Craft Supply
Product Type Name HOME
Publisher Master Chef
Studio Master Chef
Title Martha Stewart Crafts Glue Gun And Sticks
UPC 015586838343
Price Disclaimer

Martha Stewart craft ideas are renowned. She always has a high level of quality whenever her name is attached, which is why her stuff is so popular. If you are buying a new glue gun, this is a good one which isn’t too expensive.

When crafting, this is probably the most useful tool to have on hand. Useful for attaching pine cone roofing, mossy bits, and attaching tiny flowers.

The Creative Tiny Houses, and Supplies

A shortcut to making an enchanting house: splurge on a few extra nice items.

A shortcut to making an enchanting house: splurge on a few extra nice items.

GEORGETOWN FIDDLEHEAD FAIRY GARDEN ACCESSORIES SET

I love the idea of making a fairy house with a theme, and tiny garden tools look as though the fairies have only just disappeared after making sure everything was in order in the garden.


Making your own pails, and “Gnat baths” (birds are much too big!) from natural findings such as acorns, little beach shells or other such things make the implements look right at home.

Indoors Or Outdoors Or Just Doors

Creating For Kids, Which Would You Choose?

  • A secret garden place with just a fairy door for fantasy play
  • Indoor houses for your grandkids to enjoy “playing house” with fairy objects?
  • An outdoor fairy garden with real plants and forest finds?

Just A Door Or A Doorway To Imagination?

Sometimes just the hint is enough, and a small doorway into a tree, whether it is attached outside or covers an actual hollow, might be all that is needed for a flight of fancy.
fairydoor Look how easy it is to make attractive little doors. The videos give full instructions on the what and the how. Reminds me of playing with clay when I was a child.

How To Make Your Own Fairy Door Using Sculpey Clay

Sculpey Clay For Doors, And More

Sculpey Super Sculpturing Compound Variety Pack of 3
Sculpey Super Sculpturing Compound Variety Pack of 3

A combo of three colors, just the thing to order if you have intentions of making your own fairy door. Of course, it can also be used to make little accessories or to combine with nature’s materials.

If ambitious, making little fairy figurines from this material is possible, too. I think it would be so much fun creating some with your grandchild.

Outside Guide for Fantasy Dwellings and Their Gardens

Find Fairies a Home in Nature – Dress it up a little

If I make this craft project in my back yard, it will be sure to be part of a Fairy garden. As much as I like miniature houses and all that, right now it seems like one more thing to gather dust (when I am interested in having less in my house and not more)

Outside, it might be fun to create a little garden like the ones I planned and wrote about on my garden site.

If you like the idea of putting fairy gardens in containers or wheel barrows as well as having spaces like hollow tree trunks, do visit my pages on fairy gardens. Here, I am planning what type I would actually make just for myself and the space around my non gardening daughter’s home.

Two of very different types, one for me who is all about the garden, and one that is more of a play space for my granddaughter, that doesn’t require gardening care or weeding etc.

Fairy House Project

For The House Or for A Tree, Let’s See

A Fairy door is really important. I want it to move on hinges or be a stationary open door. The how-to video shows it made from the same type of clay as Sculpey Clay; I might use that.

If I want all natural materials I have some dried gourds, and I could use the scrap from cutting a door shaped opening in one of those gourds for its door.

Reposted:
For Those who love Fairy gardens, see the pages on Ilona’s Garden:

Fairy House Idea List – Tutorials and ideas

I don’t want to lose the tutorials for making things I would like to create, but might not know just how it’s done. Experienced crafter’s tips so my grand daughter benefits from having a lasting and sturdy “Fairy Dwelling” to actually play with, not just look at.

Inspiration and How-To

An addition to your bookshelf

No one needs to spend anything to put together one of these little houses that are made of found materials, but sometimes we lack ideas or tools, so some expense might be incurred, but only if you want to spend it. No one will need to spend a dime. I love books, so for me, that is always money well spent.

THE MAIN INVESTMENT IN THIS PROJECT?

Your time and imagination.

Sometimes we need prompting for the creative process, especially if not used to working with crafts. That is why I suggest some books and include ideas for using some of the many miniature objects, like little bicycles.

Most of us are intrigued by them, and they add so much to the ultimate outcome, but are beyond our own ability to create.

WHY A BOOK FOR IDEAS?

I love the internet, and I collect ideas on Pinterest, but who has time to sort through everything if you just want to spend a couple afternoons with your grandchildren? On the other hand, maybe you do want to lend real time into this, and need in depth inspiration. Either way, a hardcopy book is the way to go.

Two Suggested Book Guides For Your Project

FAIRY HOUSE: HOW TO MAKE AMAZING FAIRY FURNITURE, MINIATURES, AND MORE FROM NATURAL MATERIALS

For a permanent hardcopy on your bookshelf, this will continue to inspire projects using natural, found materials to fashion home crafted houses that are amazingly detailed.

Projects for garden,accessories, and cottages are given clear guidance with a touch of whimsy.

FAIRY HOUSES . . . EVERYWHERE! (THE FAIRY HOUSES SERIES)

Tracy Kane is the inspiration for thousands of people who find her Fairy Houses just delightful. I am definitely a fan! Her books and online Youtube video was my first introduction to how inventive and artistic these projects could be.

For those who like to gain their ideas more from seeing rather than being told everything in steps. Filled with illustrative photos.

Fairy Houses . . . Everywhere! (The Fairy Houses Series)


Fairy Houses . . . Everywhere! (The Fairy Houses Series)

Tracy Kane was one of the first to truly popularize this now booming trend. Her beautiful creations which alight the imaginations that blossomed into a lasting obsession are featured in photographs. This is one of her series of books that explore this amazing world.

Reposted:
Originally posted on Squidoo, moved here; copyright Ilona Erwin