Personal Project: Faerie House

For W's fourth birthday I was inspired to make her a faerie house.

With Pinterest's help I decided on mostly natural and some found materials.

And a few dollhouse add-ins, like the tea set.

After the lists were made and the sketches drawn, I set to work with paper food containers, masking tape and my Exacto knife.

Household items made from air dry clay and painted to help accessorize.

Real moss and faux plants cover the outside. Paper on the inside, along with more moss.

And lots of rocks. Some things stuck better with Elmer's than hot glue, but lots of it was hot glue.

Twigs for the bed frame. A little yarn for the bed 'mattress'. Scrap fabric for the windows and the bed coverlet. Popsicle stick floors.
 

 Shell sink and cork chair and footstool. Twig ladder. More moss.

[Lots more.]

Sliced cork and moss floors on the main level.

I had a blast making the clay items, the fireplace, saute pan, candles and holders, a few bowls and the tabletop. I've not done a project before where things were so small, it was challenging to craft little things with my regular size fingers.

Perhaps the faerie that moves in will be an artiste?

Even though this project was theoretically for the birthday girl, it turned into a time-consuming but super fun project for me. Everything about it is delicate and beautiful, so much so that she can only use it with supervision, and even then it's an imagination tool, not so much a move things around kind of place.

[She might break it. Gasp!]

And although I'm not likely to make another one, because I made it up as I went along I learned a lot about what I would do differently next time in terms of construction.

I've had many questions about where the faerie is who lives here. I'll tell you what I told W- I built it in the hopes that one might move in. If one does she will be invisible to our human eyes, but we may see some signs that she's been hanging around.

[Yes, all faeries are girls. Don't ask me how they procreate. It's magic people.]

I'm also thinking of writing up a little story about a faerie and making W a book so she'll feel more engaged with the house and the invisible faerie who may take up residence. We'll see.

What would you make sure to include in a faerie house?

ce