Hello welcome back to Kids Get Crafty! Having made our Nature Bag last week, we have been collecting even more “nature things” to craft with on our visits to the park and playground. Even in our very urban environment nature is all around us and we have been making lots of lovely things!
Little did I realise that it would result in result in Red Ted saying: I NEED TO MAKE A HOUSE FOR THE ELVES.
So a house we made.
I have been wanting to make a Fairy House of sorts ever since seeing the collection of Fairy Houses posted on Puppy Love Preschool a few months ago. I knew that these *must* form part of my kids’ childhood crafting and finally we had a go. I know we will be making many more over the years to come. And as they grow older I will encourage them to make them themselves!
UPDATED: we have since made fairy houses on a number of occassions – wherever takes our fancy.. here is our Summer Holiday Fairy House:
And our Autumn Fairy House Teepee:
Nature Fairy House Materials:
The idea is simple: make a little house from things you can find in your garden or collected on your walks. Everyone knows that fairies and elves like “local habitat” so you need to make it very special to where you live!
1. Find a suitable fairy house spot. I needs to be sheltered enough that it won’t be trampled by small people, cats or foxes, but accessible enough that the children can bring small decorations and flowers to the fairy’s home. Our garden is small, but we found just the spot next to our buddha and wooden lady that we inherited when we bought our house. This is a great spot, they are sheltered by the statues and they have a lovely bushy canopy. They can also see most of the garden from where they are, which gives them a lovely view.
2. Construct your house. We have bamboo in the garden, which I recently cut back. So we made the basic walls from the bamboo sticks and then rested some bark walls around it. Of course normal sticks are fine.. but our garden does have bamboo! Then we cut back some of our “fake fig” tree leaves (I have no idea what this plant is called, but many gardens seem to have it in our area – and it has large fig tree like leaves). This was our roof.
3. Find additional extras to make a happy home. We brought some stones to sit on and for decorations. Some little fire cones and some Helicopter Seeds to hang from the side of the house. We also had some male flowers from our courgette plants that we thought would look nice.
I think our Woodland Elves will be very happy.
Here are the kids inspecting the house (yes, they are in PJs)
And here are some other Fairy Crafts to Get You Inspired (click on the names to link through):
**Thinly Spread *************** Let The Children Play ********* Sun Hats & Wellieboots**
**Artful Kid**************Puppy Love School************* Nurture Store **
I do believe in Fairies, I do, I do!
I do believe in Fairies, I do, I do!
I do hope you have a go at your own Nature Fairy House DIY one day soon!
What others are reading
Nature Crafts 101 – 20 Stunning Crafts Using Items Found in Nature
Fairy Houses Nature Craft
Nature Crafts – Beach Drift Wood & Broken Shell Rattles- Our Crafts on Holiday
Four Seasons Crafts: Autumn Nature Tree
Kids Get Crafty: 5 Little Ducks went Swimming One Day…
DIY Elf Desk Tidy & Pencil Pot
Nature Crafts: Angel
Zoe says
August 24, 2011 at 6:39 amOne of the girls’ favourite things at the Just So Festival was meeting the Fairy Queen. There was a special route through the forest decorate with bells and ribbons and little plaques with forest folklore and at the end there was a fairy house in which the fairy queen really lived. They were entranced!
Monique says
August 24, 2011 at 6:46 amWhat a fab idea!
becky (babybudgeting) says
August 24, 2011 at 6:57 amWell I adore this Maggie How fabulous! I will link our fairy craft later today. My favourite childhood craft without a doubt was playing with fuzzy felt. We had very little money so this was a prized real toy and I would spend hours bulilding scenes, Zoe i am so jealous of you meeting the fairy queen!
Red Ted Art says
August 24, 2011 at 7:06 amOh Zoe, I want to meet the Fairy Queen too!! Sounds magical!
Becky – fuzzy felt is fabulous!! I need to get some for our kids at some point (great for holidays?)
Monique – I bet you can make great Seaside Fairy Houses… or would they be called something else???
Annie says
August 24, 2011 at 7:52 amAh! Fairy house ! Right ‘KIDSSSSS WE ARE OF TO THE WOODS TODAY !’
Thanks yet again for a great idea x
maria says
August 24, 2011 at 9:36 amWhat a lovely idea! I am sure the Fairies and the Elves will be very comfortable there:)
Emma @mummymummymum says
August 24, 2011 at 9:59 amMaggy, that is amazing!!! We will definitely be doing that! x
Red Ted Art says
August 24, 2011 at 10:00 amAaah thank you Annie, Maria and Emma… aren’t fairy houses just the loveliest? So pleased I saw them over at Puppy Love!
Michelle says
August 24, 2011 at 10:26 amSo cute! Following from Triberr. I’m going to enjoy your blog a lot! My daughter loves crafts. We are always trying to come up with something new. I’m my kids would live in the jammies, inside or out!
Michelle
Heartfelt Balance Handmade Life
Isil says
August 24, 2011 at 11:10 amWhat a beautiful fairy house. I love the addition of courgette flowers 🙂 In Turkey, we stuff them with rice and spices,delicious :)By the way,I love Pip’s photo on the cover,gorgeous!
Bernadette - Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas says
August 24, 2011 at 12:15 pmsuch a fabulous idea! I believe in Fairies, I do, I Do!!!!
We had a cardboard box fairy house a while back since we do not have our own private outdoorsy space – it is maintained by our community and I know if they “messed” with our fairy house my girls would be crushed so we kept ours indoors! It was magical none the less! 🙂 Yours looks so lovely.
Red Ted Art says
August 24, 2011 at 12:29 pmMichelle – how lovely to *meet* someone via Triberr! Thank you for visiting and leaving such a lovely comment!
Isil – Oh yes, stuffed courgette flowers are supposed to be delicious – I will have to look up a recipe – we came back the next day and the snails had eaten them! Tsk tsk.
Bernadette – a cardboard box fairy house sounds good to me too! You can still make it very special! I know what you mean – my children would be so sad if they came back to see someone destroying their house!
Esther says
August 24, 2011 at 2:01 pmFabulous Bamboo and fig leave house for the elves! my daughter got fascinated for fairies after seeing the tinker bell movie:-)
Red Ted Art says
August 24, 2011 at 2:26 pmWhat isn’t there about fairies not to be fascinated by!!!
Luschka says
August 24, 2011 at 3:25 pmYour courgette flowers still make me green with envy! Love the project. It’s beautiful!
Red Ted Art says
August 24, 2011 at 3:44 pmLuschka – next year it will be you with the courgettes! 🙂
Jude says
August 24, 2011 at 7:43 pmI love fairy houses – if you want to see some really stunning ones it’s worth checking out those that have been pinned on Pinterest (if you’ve not done so already that is):)
Red Ted Art says
August 24, 2011 at 7:55 pmOoh Jude, good idea, I really must use pinterest more!!!!
Adele- playful learners says
August 25, 2011 at 7:02 amoh I have seen the ones on pinterest I think Jenny has a board . xx
Kate says
August 25, 2011 at 7:07 amI absolutely adore this fairy house. I am going to encourage my grandchildren to make some in my garden. I have lots of nooks and crannies. This will keep them enthralled for hours. I love doing craft activities with natural materials and don’t like to give too much direction so that the kids can be imaginative and creative and solve the problems they encounter. Please keep sharing. I love the sparks I get to get me going and adapting some projects to suit my kids.
Red Ted Art says
August 25, 2011 at 7:10 amKate – What a very kind comment, thank you so much!
Janelle says
August 25, 2011 at 5:31 pmYou can never go wrong with a fairy house building activity! My kids also enjoy any type of craft that involves paint, like painting rocks and sticks.
artsy_momma says
August 25, 2011 at 5:33 pmWhat a fun idea! Wonder how it would look in the desert…lol!
Rebecca English says
August 25, 2011 at 7:43 pmMy daughter would love this. Have to give building a fairy house a go – she’s wanted to do it since we saw the last Tinkerbell movie but I wasn’t sure where to start.
katepickle says
August 26, 2011 at 12:29 amOh the fig leaves made a great roof… my kids would love to play with something like this… can’t wait for spring to arrive here!
Gayathri says
August 26, 2011 at 4:28 amYour efforts appreciated. You do deserver all those awards awarded to you…Keep it going great mom…
Shell Louise says
August 27, 2011 at 6:30 pmMy girls and I made fairy gardens earlier this week. I had a dream about a fairy garden and knew the girls would love making one.
I’ve loved everything miniature since I was young and I enjoyed making the fairy garden just as much as the girls!
We entered a fairy garden competition on another blog I happened across…..it was fate!
We’re in the middle of a total revamp of our garden but when it’s done, I’m going to get the girls to make fairy houses in all the nooks and crannies. They’re going to love it….thank you for a great post 🙂 xx
Angelique Felix says
August 27, 2011 at 6:35 pmHi dear playfriend, this is such a beautiful activity! Me and Chanel love everything that has to do with fairies.
Maybe you didn’t know but I am a fairy. It was not enough for me to believe in them, so I became one!
Our favorite childhood craft is facepainting and transforming into special caracters.
A fairy well hug to you and all the great activities linked up,
Angelique
Mañana Mama says
August 30, 2011 at 12:37 pmWhat a lovely creative idea! Those poor elves will need somewhere warm to go with winter coming 🙂
Thanks for joining in the carnival.
Aimee says
September 1, 2011 at 2:19 amIt’s awesome that you just did this- I took my children to a local art gallery a week or so ago- and this type of art was featured! Great work on yours- you have to proud! Thank you for linking up to The Sunday Showcase.
creativejewishmom/sara says
September 1, 2011 at 7:13 pmLove it! Thanks so much for linking up this your other posts on Craft Schooling Sunday, you can see it has been a busy week as I’m just getting to the links on Thursday night! All the best!
Amanda says
October 10, 2011 at 10:40 pmSo cute!! Got this featured 🙂 http://funfamilycrafts.com/fairy-house/
Red Ted Art says
October 11, 2011 at 8:50 amYou are fab! Thank you!
maryanne @ mama smiles says
August 30, 2012 at 11:56 amThis is darling! I’m sure you got some very happy elves 🙂
Red Ted Art says
August 30, 2012 at 2:33 pmWe did we did! We need to make another!!
Gude @HodgePodgeCraft says
April 23, 2014 at 9:34 pmThis is such a sweet idea! I am so going to do this with my boys (though Mister Podge is not keen on encouraging fairies – boo to him say I!) 😉