The best kind of kid projects create a little bit of magic, and this one was one of my favorites.  My older daughter and I made this fairy house for one of her best friends.  On the day of the party, we wrapped up a fairy book, and my daughter included a tiny vial with a message hinting to look for magic in the backyard.  When her friend saw it was a book, she tried hard to hide her disappointment.  Then she unrolled the message and all the girls ran outside screaming.  And there it was – the fairy house – lit up with teeny rice lights in the dark backyard.  It looked absolutely magical!   What fun to create that kind of excitement!

I’ve provided below some of the steps we followed to make adorable house.  While we had made fairy houses outside before, we wanted this one to be more like a small dollhouse that would last a bit longer.  The girls at the party absolutely loved it!

1.  To make fairies…
A friend introduced me to this book and I should warn you – it’s addictive.  The photos are so enticing, you’ll really be tempted to make all of the wee characters!  The author is also coming out with a new book: Felt Wee Folk – New Adventures: 120 Enchanting Dolls.

The book does a great job covering all aspects of fairy doll construction, so I’ll just add photos of our fairies.  The fairies require fairly precise cutting and sewing skills, so younger children can be involved in finding the acorn hats, twisting the bodies, picking out felt colors and assembling the flower skirts. But the making of the clothing is better suited to older kids and/or adults.

I should add that I have ZERO sewing skills and no experience with embroidery, but I was able to easily follow the instructions and make these dolls.

2.  Assemble the natural materials

We started with a log ‘slice’, which made a nice natural base for the house.  If you don’t have an easy way to make this, you can find log slices on etsy.com at a variety of price ranges.  We also collected bark to make the back wall, acorns for the fairies, and other branches and moss.  To assemble the house, I simply glued the bark to the base, and then used another piece of bark for the roof.  We then added the moss, lichen and pine needles around the base and top.

3.  Add doll-house furniture

We purchased the little stove, bookshelf, etc. on ebay and then added tiny accessories from etsy, including a complete set of Little House on the Prairie books and a picture book with pages you could turn!   We purchased some items from etsy seller kaleidoskopicromance and marottesud.  Adorable stuff!

4.  Add rice lights

The lights really made the house.  So cute!  I picked these lights up at A.C. Moore in the dollhouse section.  Look for ‘rice lights’ or ‘grain of wheat’ lights for the tiny ones on wires.

5.  Fairyopolis

Here’s the Fairy book we gave as well.  It’s similar to the other ‘ology’ books (Wizardology, Dragonology), with lots of 3-d things to explore.

We had as much making this house as we did giving it!   

Do your kids enjoy making fairy houses?  Have you ever brought one indoors?