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!  

Woodland Fairy Garden Birthday Party

A few weeks ago we celebrated our little lady's birthday and for the first time in 3 years it didn't rain us out, so we were able to make it fun outside with a full Woodland Fairy Garden Party!

Since fairies are super popular I was SURE there'd be tons of ready-to-buy themed party supplies. When I started looking I was shocked that there was next to nothing out there. Weird right?  This time I put in a lot less work, time & money and didn't have to DIY myself out of my mind.  I think it was my favorite one to date too!

In previous years I went ALL out for her parties and did all kinds of decorations, favors and games that took a lot of time and effort to put together.  Looking back at all these previous parties from the past, I don't know where I found the time or energy:  

  

Even these, which were much less DIY or cost-intensive, exhaust me to look at now.  They still took a lot of planning & prep, which I just didn't feel like doing this time:

 

Instead, I decided to mainly shop my house for stuff I already had and make only a few basic items.  I had several baskets and tabletop items made from twigs & faux moss I've used as home decor over the years.  They were perfect for adding a woodland feel to our table.  

I bought some butterfly paper products and a few little fairy, bird and butterflies to decorate them: 

The big birthday present from us (that also served as ideal party decor) was this fairy garden.  We made it in a shallow pot so it can be brought inside in the winter to enjoy and stay green all year round:

We picked a special fairy friend and got her all sorts of garden goodies (scored on sale since it's end of the summer) so she could flit about as desired.  The doors on the fairy cottage open & close so our fairy friend can enjoy being inside and out:

It needed to have some floral stepping stones, mossy rocks and a few woodland friends too:

Our go-to local bakery, Sorella's, did an amazing job making this beautiful fairy house cake for us too and everything on it was edible and delicious (no yuck-flavored fondant here!):

I also whipped up some quick edible mushroom houses too with marshmallows & strawberries on skewers and a quick stroke of food marker details.  Super cute and tasty, but next to no skills or time required:

My kids love having a themed piñata for parties, but I'd had a hard time finding anything right (or less than $10) in stores, so I literally threw this fairy house one together the night before the party.  I'll post a tutorial for it soon:)  

I used supplies I had on hand (including a cardboard box from a recent package and streamer remnants from past parties) and it worked great.  It was nice & strong too, so all the kids got a good number of whacks in before the candy exploded out:

And since photo booths/frames seem to be all the rage at parties these days, we made our own little fairy frame and costume station.

My husband used fallen branches from our yard to put together the frame and I got some floral garland to wrap around it.  The wings, wands and head wear were all things we had already.  The fleece elf hat I'd made for my daughter when she was a baby worked great as a little gnome cap:

And we used all the floral stretch headbands I made last summer (tutorial for them HERE) for pretty flowery headpieces too:

It was great that everyone enjoyed doing a whimsical picture with the birthday girl - I think the adults enjoyed it even more than the kids!  And I finally got a photo of me with my special girl for her birthday...the last time may have been her first birthday (since mom is always the one running around during the party, not actually experiencing it).  

It was so much fun, we even got teenage big brother to take part:

I think what I loved the most was I wasn't driving myself insane, or staying up until dawn, to put together a fun, pretty party.  It was in-expensive and didn't involve elaborate plans or set-up.  It's so much better to be able to experience it than just stage it!

Easy Gardening: A Native Plants Fairy Garden

My craft room has been a bit underused recently.  Instead of sewing and indoor things, I've been focused on sorting out my yard.  Most of it is boring & laborious, but I wanted to share the recent part that was a total pleasure: my Native Plants Fairy Garden!  There is something about fairy gardens that is so relaxing and enchanting.  I've been wanting one for a long time and it was surprisingly easy AND will attract fairy friends like butterflies, bees and hummingbirds!



A few years back my husband had bought me this large resin fairy house.  I'd had it in a shady corner surrounded by some meager hostas.  No one ever goes over there and I tended to forget about it.  Now my little house is center stage!

Our yard gets A LOT of sun and has tons of clay soil.  I have a 4 foot square raised bed that has mocked my prior attempts to grow vegetables.  The results have always been pitiful no matter what I've done.  This year I wanted to take a breather from urban farming, but was trying to figure out how to pretty up the space.  Now it's home to native plants and hopefully a few fairies;) 

FYI - If you want to attract the pollinators (aka butterflies, bees & hummingbirds), and have minimal maintenance in your yard, go native.  These are plants that originate in your region. No special soil amending, fertilizing or gardening magic is needed for them to thrive.  If you're like me and despite lots of effort you struggle to get things to grow, this is an ideal way to add beauty and help wildlife at the same time.    

From Top Left Clockwise: Pussytoes, Monarda didyma, Turtlehead, Orange Hyssop Agastache, Bradbury's Monarda.

Since I'm in Michigan I used White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra), Pussytoes (Antennaria parvifolia), Monarda didyma and Bradbury's Monarda (Monarda bradburiana).  Not a lot of nurseries carry native plants, so it takes a bit of searching to find them, but they're worth it.  They'll fill out well, flower throughout the summer and add pretty colors to an otherwise blah spot.  I did also add one non-native plant, Orange Hyssop Agastache, because it also attracts the butterflies and birds.   Fairies like to feed those lovely creatures you know! 

I actually had a good portion of the other supplies already.  I moved my little house and added a few accessories like a little fence, stone mushrooms and a mini gazing ball.

I wanted to add a little pond, so I used a terra cotta dish and glued small stones along its edge with some weatherproof silicone.  

I filled it with some clear and blue glass stones I had in my stash and set it into the soil.  Instant permanent sparkling pond!

More small pebbles made a meandering path and larger egg rocks from my front yard made a nice border behind the house.

I also found some moss growing elsewhere in the yard and transplanted it for an added fairy-esque feature.

I'm seriously in love with how my little garden looks and can't wait to see it in full bloom and filled in as things grow.  I also feel confident it will be able to handle the sun & weather.  I've seen a lot of lovely fairy gardens with delicate plants and pretty, yet fragile furnishings, but most of those just won't stand up to the outdoor elements around here.  

On the plus side, I found a few dish garden containers in my basement this week, so I'm eager to do a few smaller fairy gardens with the kids using them.  We can keep those in our enclosed back porch, which means we can craft up some decorations from scratch or use some of the more fragile props and plants I keep seeing.  Inside or not, the more fairies around here, the better!