Category Archives: Crafts

Fairy Garden

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We made gorgeous fairy gardens a couple of weekends ago. They were party take home gifts but we also made one for Granny for Easter. These would make great Mother’s Day gifts too. I had spent the previous few weeks collecting wee milk cartons.

I figured they could cope with the moisture from watering better than regular card.

We set up a house building area with, flowers, craft sticks, bugs, an Uber Cutter and a glue gun.

Our super party helper Ang, was ready to help the kids glue their chosen items onto their house. They did have the option to use the glue gun as it is low temperature but most chose to have glue applied for them. They also spent time snapping craft sticks in half with the Uber Cutter. When they were happy with their fairy house they moved on out to the garage (the weather was miserable), to put the rest of their garden together.

Daisy went for the minimalist look!

Areas were set up in the garage:

  • Add gravel (for drainage)
  • Add soil
  • Add plants (two Pansy’s and a sunflower)
  • Decorate with rocks and glass pebbles
  • Add a butterfly and a few ladybirds

The children moved around the garage helping themselves and gradually building their gardens.

Discussions as to where the plants and decorations should be placed were had.

I forgot to say the planters were labeled before they went to be filled. It made life easy when it became time to go home.

The birthday cupcakes had a plastic fairy cupcake topper. The guests licked them clean and many included them in their garden.

They seemed to be very pleased with their fairy gardens.

Fairy Pinata

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Daisy requested a fairy pinata for her birthday but the deal was that she had to help make it.

I did not grow up with pinatas so how to make them was a bit of a guessing game.. all part of the fun!

We started with a balloon and used a mixture of glue and water to make a paste. Newspaper and glue mix formed the first layer of the pinata.

When that was dry we added toilet paper arms and legs and pipe cleaner wings with masking tape.Masking tape is easier to glue over than scotch tape.

We got to work again pasting newspaper and then tissue paper. The wings had only tissue paper.

I was worried about strength and had visions of it collapsing when the sweets were put inside so I added string. You can see the string when it is hanging up later. It had two long pieces of string wrapped under the fairy.

We used glue rather than a traditional paste with flour because it tends to dry much quicker and I was on a tight timeline due to inadequate planning!

Daisy added features to our fairy. I love her crazy eyes!

I used a knife to cut a small hole in the top. Daisy stuffed wrapped candy(sweets) inside and hot glued the top back on. Wool hair applied with the glue gun, completed our gorgeous fat fairy pinata!

The strings were a little short so my hubby took over as the pinata holder (brave man!).

The kids all took turns, even Rose but by the time we went around the circle twice I was getting bored. My wonderful party helper Ang. gave it a try and even she could not smash it  so I ended up smashing it on the floor, with the bat (lots of fun for me!).

The fairies descended and not a sweet was left!

Fairy/Zen Garden

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A rock collection has been growing on our window sills, in pockets, in bags. They seem to pop up everywhere! Action had to be taken.

An empty Swiffer box made a perfect container for the garden. Daisy headed out to the sand box and came back swinging a lot of sand around. She organised some of her rocks (pebbles) and shells and added the fairy furniture we made last summer.

She wanted to be able to change the garden around. A pastry brush did a wonderful job of smoothing out the sand. Daisy made herself a challenge to see how many different ways she could set up her garden.

Smoothing the sand. This had an instantly calming effect.

Making a camp fire.

The middle rock is for fairies to sleep on.

Precariously stacked table and benches.

Making the ‘living room’ more cosy.

Reorganizing and adding some more rocks and pretty stones.

The garden was hidden away from little sister’s grasp. When it warms up we will find a  great spot outside. I have been informed we need to check to see if the fairies have visited… yes I will be sneaking down stairs and moving the garden slightly!