Fairy gardens add charm to home and yard
While the stress-relieving capabilities and health benefits of gardening are well known, a twist on this timeless hobby offers a way to add charm and a whimsical feel to your home and garden. Creating an enchanted fairy garden can boost imagination and offer a family-friendly way to hone your green thumb.
These miniature landscapes, often hidden in a secluded area of your garden or planted in decorative containers, are an easy way to refresh your interior or exterior decor and can be revamped seasonally to align with any design theme.
The possibilities and styles are endless, so to help you get started, the crafting experts at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores created these fairy garden projects featuring a host of tiny details to bring your scene to life. Pottery, moss and figurines will make your garden complete.
Find more inspiration to create magical villages from start to finish at joann.com.
Fairy garden broken pot
Crafting time: 3-5 hours
Skill level: Intermediate
Supplies and tools:
- Planter container with broken edge
- Smaller pots to fit inside
- Packing peanuts or bubble wrap
- Small bag of brown moss
- Bag of Spanish moss in basil
- Hot-glue gun and glue sticks
- Sitting fairy
- Mini birdhouse
- Resin swing on a tree
- Green bushes
- Green trees
- Little resin house with moss
- Resin stepping stones
- Resin bench
- Wire cutters
- Red succulent plant
1. Tightly fill bottom of planter with smaller pots and packing peanuts or bubble wrap. Cover packing peanuts/bubble wrap with moss, gluing in place.
2. Place fairy items as you desire, securing with hot glue. Trim bottom of plant to a 1-inch stem and secure it with hot glue.
Naturalist fairy garden
Crafting time: Weekend project
Skill level: Some experience necessary
Supplies and tools:
- Unfinished wood tray
- Small can gold spray paint
- Old rag or paper towel
- Small can walnut wood stain
- Sheet of green floral foam
- Old serrated kitchen knife
- Hot-glue gun and glue sticks
- Adhesive sheet moss
- Wood hut
- Bag of small pebbles
- Package of stepping stones
- Bottle of clear nail polish
- Bag of assorted round mosses
- Artificial pine trees
- 2-3 medium white birch rounds
- Fairy garden accessories such as a teeter-totter, small bridge, twig archway, garden shepherd hook with hanging basket, woodland animals, etc.
1. Spray-paint bottom and sides of wooden tray gold. Allow to dry. Using old rag or paper towel, rub on wood stain sparingly, allowing gold to show through stain in areas. Allow to dry.
2. Measure width of opening between sides of tray. Transfer measurement to green floral foam and cut with serrated knife.
3. To create hillside for house, cut green foam to resemble a hill with the highest point in the back corner of the long side. Slope downward to create the impression of a hill toward a river, and contour the other side to go slightly uphill, forming a river bed. Glue foam to bottom of tray. Add foam at the top of the hill for more height, if desired.
4. Place adhesive moss on top of the foam, cutting out areas for the river and hut. In the river area, apply a path of hot glue and dump pebbles on top. Use bigger stones on the sides to create a river bank. Pour the bottle of nail polish onto the riverbed, brushing stones to look like water.
5. Place the hut at the highest point, securing with a liberal amount of glue. Nestle bushes and trees around the hut, varying sizes of round mosses and trees, and glue in place.
6. Glue white birch rounds behind the hut for a backdrop to glue trees and shrubs around (giving the appearance of a hut nestled in the hillside). Attach bushes to the outside of the sidewalls. Glue stepping stones in place to create a path to the river.
7. Add fairy items to fill out the scene.