Stone House Bothwell, Ontario
I’ve always been fascinated and drawn to those beautiful field stone homes that look so cozy and inviting. Like real life fairy houses. Stone houses, bridges, and pathways find a perfect home in a fairy garden. Good news. After many experiments I stumbled on a quick and easy way to get that tiny stone house look using DIY veneer. Here’s how.
What You’ll Need
- Wood glue
- Ziplock bag
- A form – bird house, old margarine container, gourd or other item
- Some small stones
- Tweezers
- Shellac or urethane
Optional – Laundry Bad/ Plastic berry box
Materials
Getting Ready
I live near a lake so I just gather handfuls (and buckets full) of beach pebbles. I’ve also used crushed stone that’s commonly used on gravel roads and driveways. This can be purchased in large bags at places like Lowe’s and Home Depot. Smaller packs of stones can sometimes be found at craft and dollar stores. Any stone will work that is small and has some flat-ish surfaces.I’ve applied stone this way to gourds, wood, and even glass. This time I am experimenting with a plastic juice bottle and a plastic salad bowl.
The plastic berry box comes in handy to sift out the tiniest of stones and some of the sand. Remove any stones that are larger than a 1/4″ and set them aside. I now have some fairly uniform sized pebbles. Next, put them in a mesh laundry bag and give them a good shaking around out doors. This gets rid of most of the sand and the rest disappears when I give the stones a rinse while still in the bag.
What to Do
First squeeze some wood glue onto the Ziploc baggie and spread it around making several small square areas up to 4 inches square. Then take some stones and arrange them on the glue. I like working with beach pebble. You can more or less just dump them on the glue, pat them down and do just a little adjusting to get them into a nice little square. The crushed stone takes a little more fussing, so just start with one or two glue squares. The tweezers come in handy for adding the tiniest of stones to fill in any spaces.
Wait about half an hour and check your squares. Try lifting the stone from the corner. When its ready you will be able to lift the square of stone without the stones separating. 
The trick is, you need to lift the square while the glue is still tacky on the under side and the square is still flexible. This allows you to apply it on rounded areas. If it dries out completely, no worries. You will still be able to lift it from the plastic and you can add some glue to the back.
Next
Now you can apply the stone to whatever form you have chosen for your project. Cut out any windows or doors you want before applying the stone. You should still be able to pull individual stones away from the veneer if your square overlaps any cut out areas. Wood glue works well for gluing stone to stone as well. Using the same methods you can make small rectangles or lines of layered stones and apply them around doors and windows or corners. Or, make stone garden walls. To finish off add dots of glue and use the tweezers to add little stones into any areas that need it. Two or three coats of shellac or urethane will help keep the glue from degrading in the outdoors. How easy is that?
Have a very fairy good time!
The Fairy Garden 