Micro Fairy Gardens in Miniature Fairy Gardens

It’s no secret to those who know me – I have an obsession with micro-mini fairy gardens. I enjoy making micro versions of what other people do in miniature.

When I saw all the fairy gardens in a wheelbarrow on one of my favorite pic sites, I just had to grab a miniature wheelbarrow and give it a try – tiny style.

 

 

Miniature terrarium moss garden? Love them.

So next, I made a 2″x3″ terrarium using dollhouse picture frames. Rolled a few gluey stones around in some artificial moss,  added one of my signature 1/2″ scale fairy houses – and tada.  Well..it wasn’t quite that easy:)

From there it was a natural progression.  The very next table top fairy garden I was asked to make ended up with a micro-fairy garden in it! Well. Not precisely a fairy garden.

 

My fascination with moss, fairy doors and gnarly trees all came together while shopping for plants for my tabletop project. I spotted a rugged looking bonsai and inspiration struck.  What if I made a little fairy door to snuggle up to that bonsai? I could pull out my teeny clay gnome buddy and  have a photo shoot.

 

And that’s how it happened. I really get a kick out of the reaction  people have when they are checking out their new fairy garden only to discover that their fairy garden… has a micro fairy garden!

So, next time you’re playing with your  fairy garden, why not give your fairies a fairy garden.  As always – have a fairy good time!   Marthe

Fairy Garden Pebble Mosaic Path

Make a Fairy Garden Path

Making your own fairy garden accessories is fun, easy and cost effective. Here’s a really quick project that you can do yourself or do with kids.

Materials

Craft foam
glue
artificial moss
pebbles

Cut a shape from the foam to build your path on. Paths that are meandering look nice.

Use glue to attach stones in a mosaic pattern – swirls, circles, flowers, a twisting tree… whatever you dream up.

Fill in any little gaps or holes with a dab of glue and some shredded moss.

Here’s a pic of mine:) Have a fairy good time!

Make a Fairy Pond

This little pond is 4″ in diameter across the water section. It took about 4 hours to make including drying time for silicone and acrylic ‘water’. I used my favorite, always at hand, beach pebbles.

And here’s how you can do it too…

 

 

 

Stuff You’ll Need

GE Silicone II or other caulking that adheres to stone

Caulking gun

Piece of burlap or perhaps fiber drywall tape

Ziploc baggy or other piece of soft plastic

Delux Materials Scenic Water

Pebbles, stones that are readily available or purchased

Decorations – (lilies are available on my site under flowers-stems-pg3)

What to Do

I always have a bucket of pebbles handy so I used it to make my form. Any other material like sand or cornmeal that will form a depression to work in will do. Dig  a depression into your material of whatever size you choose.

Arrange  the plastic inside the depression with an inch or two extending beyond the finished area you want.Then lay the burlap over the plastic and press into the depression.

Using a caulking gun cover the burlap area with enough caulking to allow the caulking to squeeze up around the stones when you put them in. Arrange stones. After I placed the big ones I sprinkled some smaller ones over it to cover up any caulking that showed between the stones. This could be done after it dries and before adding water as well. You could also use chipped glass – clear for sparkle or perhaps blue.

Let the whole mess dry and cure for 2 hours or according to the directions on the caulking you have.

Add Scenic Water according to directions. When the ‘water’ is about half hardened… in this case with the ‘water’  at less than half an inch deep- in approximately half an hour you can poke decorative flowers in and they will stand up.

Wait about another hour and you can remove the pond by slipping your hand under the plastic. Cover the water area with another piece of plastic to keep it clean while you snip away the extra burlap from the pond edge.

Now you can dig a little whole in your miniature garden for the pond to sit in. Remove the plastic from the bottom of the pond and tuck your pond into it’s new home. I surrounded my edges with loose pebbles and larger stones.Have fun with it!

Make a Stone Fairy House

I’ve always been attracted to the cozy stone homes that dot the landscape along the Lake Erie shores near my home in Ontario, Canada. They appear inviting and almost magical to me. Like real life fairy houses. So when I took up the hobby of miniature gardening almost my very first thought was  to make a miniature stone house of my very own.  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

• 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, artificial moss

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  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. The glue will dry around the stones much faster than it will dry to the soft plastic.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 for making garden walls, arches and anything else you can imagine. However the finished project can be brittle, so add a couple of coats of varnish to help make it more stable and useful for outdoors.

For around doors and windows and on the roof of my project I glued stones one at a time to my form. On the roof you might see some ‘flowers’. Pebble mosaics, if you have the patience is a nice touch. Finally, after varnishing I add a pinch of artificial moss here and there to give my project an aged look.

Have a very fairy good time!