Building Fairy Houses And Gnome Homes

Ever since I made my first fairy abode of an apple tree branch, I have been playing around with other possible fairy houses and gnome homes. After all, I do not have that much apple wood and they are quite costly to ship.

One idea was to make a tiny home out of a round paper-mache box. When not being played with, the fairies, gnomes, and acorn folk could be carried around inside the box, making it a lovely toy to bring along for travel. I found the perfect boxes online and enthusiastically started sewing rooftops out of felt.

Unfortunately there is a problem with my supplier's supplier. I have a feeling it's a nationwide hick-up, like the scarcity of Green Bay Packers fleece last year, because the paper-mache shelves of every craft store I recently visited were disturbingly empty save for the two boxes I found hiding way in the back on the bottom shelf at Hobby Lobby.

On to Plan B. Wooden trinket boxes also make lovely houses. In fact, they are even better suited for my creation because they open much easier than the paper-mache boxes I have come to find out. Which means there will be far less pulling on the felt roof and it will hopefully not come off too quickly.

While I was painting my two housing options, trying to decide which one I liked best and how to fix the roof problem of the paper-mache box, Lola joined in and made a fairy house of her own out of an upturned paper basket from the butcher. She painted the roof, windows, a grass border, and flowering trees next to the front door. All by herself. All I did was make the door.

Lola's wonderful paper basket creation

The wooden house with the flat roof

The paper-mache abode. Its roof is a work in progress.

Tell me, if you will, which one do you like best?

We are sharing our creations on Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions and on Sharing Saturday at Crafty Moms Share.

Fairy House

I stumbled onto a beautiful felt tree trunk Sunday morning while going through my reader at seven in the morning. Very, very impressive. It made me forget about all the projects I have in the works and develop a severe case of Craft ADD. I do not have the patience to take on such a project though. That's why I don't knit, it takes me too long to finish something and I lose interest.

But I did want to recreate that trunk, my way. Fortunately I had an alternative at hand in the shape of a pile of wood in my backyard. I figured I would cut some wood, clean it up, and concoct a way to attach the felt mushrooms (the Dutch fittingly call them 'fairy benches') to the stump. The mushrooms looked easy enough to make.

So there I was at 8 o'clock, sipping my coffee, eying up the branches and trying to decide which one to use. I pulled out the dead apple tree branch, deciding then and there to take advantage of its hollow core and turn it into a fairy house rather than a stump to use on our nature table. The roof I would make out of felt, and I would make interchangeable rooftops for the different seasons. I could totally picture it in my mind.

I wondered if it would disturb the church goers too much if I fired up the chainsaw to chop my fairy house to size. It didn't matter in the end because I couldn't get the smaller chainsaw to work and the large one didn't have a chain on it. Ryan wasn't there to help me out but I doubt he would have been willing at that hour.

With my trusted little hacksaw I silently cut off a piece of the apple branch and several more branches in various sizes to make toadstools with. Because what is a fairy house without toadstools? I took all the wood inside and baked in a 250 degree oven on a foil lined cookie sheet for about an hour. This gets rid of any bugs, a lesson I learned the hard way last year with my acorn collection.

Next I chiseled out the spongy stuff inside the branch, scrubbed it with a wire brush, cut a door with my jigsaw, and sealed the house with a clear top coat. The other branches I painted white. Meanwhile I sewed the toadstool tops and then hot glued them on.

I am truly in love with the results. I have already started working on another roof for the fairy house, a red and white polka dotted one per Lola's request. All that is left to make are the fairy bench mushrooms. And fairies, of course.

I am linking my fairy house up with A Little Birdie Told Me... at Rook No. 17 and Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions.

Fairy Princesses

Have you ever visited Twig and Toadstool? It is the most magical place and every single one of their posts is an inspiration to me. When I saw their blossom fairies, I knew instantly I was to going to recreate these lovely ladies for my daughter's fourth birthday party. 

This weekend I brought out pegs, felt, pipe cleaners, silk flowers, acorn caps, and my glue gun. Two hours later nine colorful beauties were sitting on my craft table. My daughter loves them. She has claimed all the pink, purple, and orange fairies as her own. It looks as if I am going to have to make a few more.

The full tutorial can be found at Twig and Toadstool.