Fairy Homes

A friend at work made a comment about knowing someone who turns birdhouses into fairy houses. I was secretly obsessed and she didn't even realize it. I had a 3yr old birthday party and needed one for her cousin too and this was so much fun to make.

I plan to do an instructable tutorial on the next one so stay tuned.

At the craft store, not the one in the news recently for having card skimmers stealing debit and pins and including mine, I found some unfinished birdhouses. I pried off the roof and 2 of the walls and added a hinge for an easy opening. You can see the hinge covered by the sticks and flowers. Using wire cutters and pliers I snipped off and pulled out the perch beneath the circular opening and glued the twigs to look like a window.

Someone had been cutting branches in my neighborhood and left them on the sidewalk for the garbage men. I grabbed a bag and scissors and cut off some twigs and kept them for this project (over the winter, it's been in my head for a while). After painting the parts with a couple coats of greens and blues I cut up the twigs into a pile about 5"-7" long apiece.

I had some leftover wool roving from another project and metal wire. I also bought some teeny little silk flowers and pulled them a part. Each twig got a couple small flowers and leaves and were wrapped with either the wool roving or the wire. Afterwards I glued them onto a side at a time and let it dry, repeat with all sides.

The tops are completely removable, I thought about making them latch or hinge but it's not really needed. From the silk flowers I pulled apart the petals and glued/stapled them to the top. Since the plastic centers weren't flat enough to glue down I had to put a dot of yellow into the centers and some buttons. Inside the roofs I glued down stickers.

One was painted blue inside the other greenish. I cut up some scrapbook paper and other stuff to put on the walls. Each house got a tiny table and bed. The legs to both are balsa wood leftovers from other projects and were easy to cut with scissors. When glued down I added a tiny book and key onto the table. Next to the table were 2 small corked vials, one has sparkly beads and the other has watch parts. Also glued down.

The beds were fun. Each one is a rectangle with the same size felt on top and then some muslin on that. More from my stash and I made mini blankets with flowery fabric on more felt glued onto the bed. The pillows are muslin and whip-stitched around and stuffed. More gluing down, I don't want a phone call from someone telling me their kid choked on a tiny pillow.

Both got a small wooden fairy with flower petals wings and a plastic dragon. They were opened last night and the girls loved them.