Making of the Fairy Gardens

One of the biggest projects we undertook last week during Granny Camp, was the crafting of individual fairy gardens.  After doing some searches on Pinterest for Inspiration, the kids began brainstorming about things they would like to include in their own gardens.

Their highest priorities were:
1.  House
2.  Ladder
3.  River or water
4.  Swing
5.  Fairies or gnomes

We made a trip to Wal Mart to purchase flower pot saucers and also found some tiny bird houses on sticks.  At Dollar Tree we picked up stones and pebbles and a couple of silk flower branches, then came home to begin working while it rained outdoors. (Most of these photos were taken with my phone, indoors, with very low light, so please excuse the graininess)

First, they painted their houses.

 Next up was the construction of tiny bridges.  I used florist wire that I had on hand to make a base and the kids glued pieces of craft sticks on for the "wood".  I manned the glue gun and they stuck the pieces in place.  I had an old roll of fake pearl ribbon that the girls used as a railing for their bridges.

As I mentioned yesterday, we took a little walk during a break in the rain showers and found some natural elements to add to the gardens.  We brought home sticks, acorn caps, pecan shells, leaves and magnolia cones.

Using the stones that we purchased, each of the kids made a river and river bank.

We broke the sticks into tiny pieces and glued them between longer pieces to form the rungs on fairy-sized ladders. The kids also painted stones to make bugs and such.

Interestingly, the hardest part of the whole process was finding affordable fairies.  Who knew that fairies would be so expensive??!  It took stops at several different stores, but we finally located a tube of fairies at Michael's that wasn't too ridiculous using the week's coupon.  I also purchased a package of tiny birds and a package of moss at Joann's.  Here are some closeups of Adellelyn and Jexie's gardens.

Naturally, Michael did not want an girl fairy, so we decided to make a boy gnome.  I used the wire to form his body and glued on scraps of fabric for clothes.  Michael added an acorn cap and put a fishing pole in his hand.

The construction of these gardens was bit messy--I kept a vinyl tablecloth spread out in the living room with all of our supplies and tried to keep all the mess on that as much as possible--but they turned out so great!   The ideas were their own and I just helped them figure out how to make them work.  I like how we were able to use so many "found objects" and how each garden is unique, despite similar elements.   It was so fun and the kids loved making them!  While I never really wanted one for myself before, I'm thinking that I might have just the right spot for one out in my herb garden.