Thursday, June 9, 2011

How to attract a Fairy to your backyard...

My daughter is in love with all things Fairy. She has such a great imagination! So I thought that this would be a good way to keep that going. She is always asking questions about Fairies...where do the live? Where do they go to the bathroom, and so-on. So with a few things that I had around the backyard and a couple of Dollar Store supplies, we made our very own Fairy House!

This really has to be about the most fun that we have had in a while. OK, so I admit, I went a little nuts with this one. But I could not stop. It was SO fun to dig through things and come up with things for this Fairy House!

Here is how you want to get started...It would have been cute to build this right at the base of a tree, but I was worried about the elements. Plus I wanted something that she could sit at. I found this old plastic pot in my garden. You could use any container. You just need to make sure that it is large enough to hold a good amount of dirt for your plants. I actually have this hooked up to our drip system, so it will get some water every few days in case the fairy mama forgets to water it.
Make sure that you fill the bottom with a hand full of small rocks for drainage. And add some good potting soil. ( I never have to buy this because we compost)

We had so much fun picking out "miniature" plants. I wanted a couple of things that would trail off the side of the pot. So that is why I got the ivy. But this little beauty works perfect for something small. I headed over to where the succulents were for something small. Doesn't this make the perfect fairy plant or what?

 I am lucky enough to have a brother-in-law that does wood working. He always has scrapes of wood and bark around. He saved a few pieces for me and they worked perfect! You might be able to find scrapes in your own yard. Or a park, the beach, hiking in the woods, or maybe scrapes of wood from your local hardware store. I nailed a couple of piece to the top to form a roof. For the inside, I used wood glue to attach the different levels. I had some extra silk leaves that I hot glued to the roof. 

S loved putting all the decorations around the pot. I got the moss covered rocks from the Dollar Store. We found some miniature wood craft sticks that we used for the picket fence. Gems and stones make up the different paths.

The swing was made from some grape vines that I cut back from the winter. I saved some because I knew that they would be perfect for fairy construction. 
We have tons of shells that we have saved from the beach, and they are just the perfect accessory for building fairy furniture! I used some floral wire to attach the shell to our swing, Some extra silk flowers I had were hot glued to the top for some color.

Garden gazing ball.

Our fairy bed was a hoot to make! We found a small gift box lid. The added some batting and a scrap of fabric for the blanket. The mini-craft sticks make up the headboard. Flowers and beads finish it off.

Shells, flowers and sticks with a sunflower middle make up this sweet kitchen chair!

Little shells make great dishes! We used more craft sticks and shells to make the table. I am loving those little things!

 A chandelier over the table.

 A pedestal sink and a bathtub! We want our Fairy's to be clean! 

 S wanted a light on top of the house so that the Fairy's could find the house!

Let the fun begin! S loves her Fairy house! It's so fun for her to go and check on it every day to see if we have had any visitors! There are a lot of web sites that sell Fairy accessories. So if you feel like you can not come up with your own furniture and other fairy things, you can always order on-line. But for us, it was more fun to create our own with what we had!










Friday, June 3, 2011

Sorting out Summer!

Kids are on summer break here! So it's time to get creative with things to do! I wanted to have a craft station for the kids. I usually keep things in the closet, but this is a fun way to 
have it out to get those creative juices going!
I have seen a few ideas out there for organizing a craft station. But this was super cheap! Almost free!
I got the blue tray from the Dollar Tree. I try to always save and wash small glass jars and the lids. There are so many things that can be used for. So now, when it's time to make a craft, I can just pull this out and they are good to go! I am for sure going to go back and get more the of the glitter glue! You get 10 sticks for a $1! Plus they have a lot of other random crafts things that you can get. Why pay for a summer camp when you can do your own?

Sure, this is not very fancy at all. But the kids liked making it with me! I have a link here:eighteen25
These ladies have given you a print that you can print out yourself and frame it! 
 So cute! I hope that this can give you some ideas of ways to keep your kids busy!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Another fun teacher gift!

This is super easy and fun! There are a lot of different ways that you can make this. I got the idea from
eighteen25 
If you go to their site, you can download this sign for free!
I took it a step further and added some fun ribbon to the board. Check it out!
I printed it out on card stock. Then I got this clipboard from Wal-Mart for under $2.00. I happened to have some clear contact paper lying around. If not, you can get that at Wal-Mart too for around $5.00. There is always a use for that stuff!
I rounded the corners of the paper so that it would match the clipboard. I then traced the shape on the contact paper and cut it out. I had my son hold that paper very carefully so that it would not move around. You could also tack it in with a glue stick to hold it in place while you add the contact paper. I used an xacto knife to trim it once I had the contact paper on. Use a credit card to burnish it. Then add some fun ties of ribbon to the top to fancy it up! Enjoy!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Crayon Teacher Crafts!

Here is another wonderful gift idea for your kids teachers! Or this might be a fun thing to make for their rooms!
I got this idea from:diy-crayon-initials
This is all over the blog world! But I do have a few pointers..
~ Print your initial in Word or other publishing software on card-stock.  Cut out the letter and glue on your crayons. I used mostly "old" crayons, but I did need a few fresh ones for the tips of my letter.
When you are finished, then attach your crayon letter to your card-stock with the teachers name with a glue-stick. This gives you a chance to position it just the way you want with out having to waste paper printing it to get it right in the frame.
~ I got the shadow box from Hobby Lobby with a coupon. It was a light driftwood color. They sold it in black, but it was double the price. If you want black, go with that frame and spend the money. I about pulled all of my hair out painting this black. The glass does not come out, so you have to tape around it.
~You could just use a regular frame, but the shadow box looks really nice!


This was a fun teacher gift! So colorful and a good use of things that you might already have around the house!