There’s magic in the woods…

Take a walk through the woods, sit on a stump or rock, close your eyes and listen. The rustle of leaves, the call of the birds, the humming of a bee, the sound of a dragonfly flitting past you all stirs the imagination and brings your surroundings alive…

When you open your eyes and take notice of the moss and lichen on rocks, tiny wildflowers, and mushrooms of various hues, you can’t help but think of a miniature fairyland.

The wood fairies leave their marks everywhere. Where would you look for them? Hollow logs, in the crevasses of the rocks? Perhaps we could make a home for them. Wouldn’t it be lovely if while walking through the woods you’d stumble upon a little door in a hollow tree or a fully landscaped fairy house?

That’s what I’d like to have some of my campers do. Build a fairy house and leave it in our woods. And I am also planning to leave painted fairy stones around the camp for children to find and bring home. But the fairy stones will be addressed at another time. For now, I would encourage you to build or buy a fairy house of your own and decorate it with what you find on your walk so that you might bring the magic of the woods home with you!

You’ll Need:

• wood slice
• small wooden house
• hot glue gun and glue sticks, E-6000 glue
• rocks
• moss
• branches
• sticks
• pinecones
• fairies (amazon or dollar tree)

Instructions:

1. Using a hot glue gun, decorate your small wooden house with the items of your choosing that were collected on your walk. There is no right or wrong way to decorate your house
2. Once you are done, glue the house onto the wood slice.
3. Decorate around the house by gluing moss, branches, pinecones, and rocks wherever you think they work best!
4. Once your fairy house is complete, add a fairy to live in the house!

Use this as a decoration inside or put it outside for other fairies to stop by!

Note: My fairy house was made with a wooden design your own birdhouse from amazon sold by Oojami. I simply removed the hanging string. I found the hot glue doesn’t adhere well with the stones, e-6000 is a better choice.  The other inexpensive option is Bulk Paradise unfinished wood birdhouse asst. (12 for $33.49) 3.9” x 2.8” x 4.3”

The mushrooms were acorn tops, the roof was made from pieces of pinecones stones were glued to the sides and moss, dirt sticks and branches were used as landscaping. 

A slice of tree branch about 8-9” in diameter was used as the base.  and branches were used as landscaping.  A slice of tree branch about 8-9” in diameter was used as the base.