Quick & Easy Mini Fairy Garden Bowl

Love fairies?  Love gardens?  Love things in miniature?  Then today's project is for you!  It's a super Quick & Easy Fairy Garden Bowl!

There are a thousand kinds of fairy gardens out there.  Some very simple, some very elaborate.  All should be cute and relaxing to make.  Even when free time is scarce (like when you have an erratically napping baby and 3 active kids).  Enter my version.

The materials are easy to get together and pretty inexpensive.  The basics are from the dollar store or easy to get at the craft store with coupons.  

A little mushroom house with fairy door adds some crafted whimsy and, since there are no live plants, it'll always stay green and indoor-friendly, which will be a big help when it's a gloomy winter day (or month).

Let's Make A Fairy Garden!

Materials:
- Glass bowl 
- Glass marbles 
- Dried moss
- Wooden mushroom 
- Baker's twine
- Craft glue
- Craft wire 
- Fairy buttons 
- Hot glue (optional)

The fairy buttons are from my shop.  I fell in love with these beauties the moment I first saw them.  They're so cute & cheery.  Especially the fairy doors & welcome sign.  I've used a few for this project and plan to use others from the sets for some hair clips and jewelry for my daughter!

Start by filling the bowl halfway with marbles.  I used clear so the blue "water" would just be on top:

Fill the the rest of the bowl with moss at the back half and blue marbles at the front:

For the garden mushroom, take the wooden mushroom and put a thin layer of glue on the stem.  Beginning at the bottom, wind the bake's twine around snugly and closely to cover the wood.

Do the same with the cap, starting at the bottom and then winding upward and cutting the twine at the top center.  It's easier to do the mushroom as two steps so you've one part to hold onto while the other is covered in glue.  Hot glue fairy door and smiling flower buttons into place.

For anchoring the button decorations, cut a piece of craft wire a few inches long for each button and the fold & twist around the shank to create a stake that will help them stand in the moss.  

Hot glue into place to permanently affix.

I'm all about the easy projects to feel accomplishment and contentment, rather than stress and disappointment trying to attempt time consuming items and then being frustrated I can't get them done, or worse, make big mistakes while rushing.  This little garden is the perfect solution!  

Fairies Set Up House Next Door

So, we've been studying nature & fairies for homeschool and reading a lot of great fairy folklore which has been so much fun. It's really awakened the kid in me - I forgot how much I loved this kind of stuff when I was young and it's gotten me feeling creative and whimsical. I found this great book called Fairy Houses...Everywhere and it is just fantastic to look through and see how imaginative people have been. I'm looking forward to getting the next book in the series and will have to share them with littlest sister Cat, who is a big fairy fan herself. I couldn't wait to get outside with Ethan after we looked at it together & be inspired by what we found.

As luck would have it the latest HearthSong catalog had a fairy door, so I ordered it and put it outside as a surprise for him to discover. The excited gasp and happy look on his face when he looked out the window and saw the little door on one of our trees was just priceless. This summer he's been really spooked by the thought of bee stings and other bugs buzzing in his ear so I was glad to have an incentive for him to get out there. He couldn't wait to check it out and enjoyed helping gather the materials in between saying "What's that noise? Agh it's a bee!" every two seconds. I did most of the building with his directions ("Don't knock that over Mom" was a big help) and TA-DA here is our fairy house. Already more ideas of things to add are coming to mind and some little knots higher up on the trunk of the tree look like windows, so it's the perfect spot and is a great view from our kitchen window. Here's hoping that our not-so-gentle toddler won't destroy it moments after he sees it. He's not exactly known for being delicate or leaving stuff alone, but at least we've got some good pictures, so I'm satisfied. Just an excuse to keep building!

Fairy Fans In Homeschool

This week we're extending our nature study to include fairy folklore. I thought it would be a fun way to add some make-it-ourselves projects & interesting reading. Our local library had lots of great books to help with this. I don't mind admitting, I'm so loving this. Having two boys means we don't have much in the way of toy fairies, princesses or any of the usual "girl themed" stuff I loved growing up, so this is a fun way to explore it minus the glitter and pink, which I don't particularly miss. It's also been interesting finding out that the concept of fairies is a global phenomenon - almost all cultures have a fairy legend.

Today we read Thumbelina, played a fun board game called Fairy Finds and watched a great little video called Kristen's Fairy House which gets into the concept of making fairy houses in the woods. We went out and found things to make our own fairy house inside using a shoe box. Above is what we've got so far. As more leaves & things fall outside, we'll detail it out more and I hope to get E interested in setting one up outside under the pine trees when it's dryer out there. Working on this stuff has given me some more project ideas & themes...oh the possibilities....;)