Matchbox Fairy Houses - inspired by the inspiring Coloured Buttons and her Tiny Traveling Doll House.
Each little matchbox house holds a fairy doll. Or an elf. They don't have wings.
I just used what I had on hand for the dolls - flower petals from a broken dollar store lei, tiny fake roses in the Creation Station box, pipe cleaners, 1/2" beads (wish I'd had smaller ones), and thread. Oh, and a tiny googly eye on the back of one of the houses.
The houses were also made with what I had on hand - felt, ribbon, and sparkly confetti mostly.
This one I made using some nature stuff that I had on our nature table - pine needles for the door, a pinecone piece for a window, and some moss for the fairy's skirt.
This one was my personal favorite - a little toadstool fairy. The girls wanted me to make the fairy inside all blue so that it would be a smurf, but I disappointed them.
Already the girl's fairies are getting some good play in while the others are getting ready to be shipped to homes around the country.
This one's an easy, rewarding craft. I didn't make the fairies pillows or blankets like Trixi on Coloured Buttons did, because my dolls were already filling up the boxes. I think that a few of the girls I'll be shipping these to will likely use them as clips on their backpacks instead of necklaces.
First we grabbed a piece of construction paper. No drab, realistic browns for my girls. Pink was the order of the day. We cut a four inch strip off the top, folded it in half and cut a butterfly wing shape.
Then we put a drop of paint on one wing and closed the wings to make symmetrical dots - blobs, really - on each side.
While the paint was drying, we cut leaf shapes out of the remaining portion of paper...
and used a few pipe cleaners to give our clothespins antennae and legs.
Ainsley pulled one of those "Wow. Really!?!" moments when she turned her leaf over and drew two circles on it. "What is that?" I asked. "It a capillar in a cocoon," she answered, "when I turn over leaf, there will be a buttuhfy." All right, then.
When the butterflies were dry, we put them on our leaves with the wings folded up,
and then with the wings flat,
to show why butterflies keep their bright markings on the top of their wings.
Cute craft, and educational too! Probably not what Ms. VanCleave *or* Ms. Stephanie had in mind, but at this house, 'tis what you get. It's the stage we're in. Please tell me it will pass.
Put the jar on the plate upside down to show that little, if any, water goes into the jar. Take the jar back off the plate.
Light the newspaper on fire and quickly, but gently, put the upside-down jar over the newspaper so that the flame is inside.
And there you have it.
Maybe I'm just being paranoid.
Heroes always get the girl.
Becoming Grandmother Winter for another.
Becoming "such a busy Mommy".
Realizing it's a hard knock life. For them.
Putting away Thanksgiving crafts,
and toys. (Sooo simple to make, this one. We also made a gingerbread man and Hannah's lobbying for a snowman.)
Drawing mazes for each other.
Making cinnamon-applesauce ornaments.
And repurposing felted wool sweaters into children's mittens.
Again, these were so easy. I used the sleeve cuffs as the ends of the mittens, so I didn't have to hem them.
Trying to make an advent calendar -
that's not turning out quite like I'd hoped.
Fairy dancing. Which is not unique to December days, for sure, but they are currently Sugar Plum Fairies, so ...
The snow has come - though it's not deep enough to play in - and the wind and cold are here. We're making do in the house.
8. Now it's time to gather. Sew a gathering stitch along the entire top of your second tier. If you haven't sewn a gathering stitch before, it's very easy. Change your stitch length on your machine to the longest available length. Before you start stitching, pull both the lower and upper threads out about four or five inches - you will need these for gathering. Sew 1/4 inch from the edge of your fabric. When you get to the end, pull the threads out at least four to five inches again before you cut them.
9. Sew gathering stitch on remaining lower tiers.
11. Now you're going to match these tiers up. Pin the top of the second tier to the bottom of the first tier, loosening your gather as needed to make the two lengths match up and taking care to keep the gathers even. You will need a lot of pins along this edge to keep the gathers where you want them. You can see in the picture below how much you'll loosen the gather to make the two tier lengths match.
12. Sew a 1/2 inch seam, being careful to keep your gathering seam on the inside. Because my girls wear their skirts all of the time and play hard in them, I sew another seam 1/8 - 1/4 of an inch inside this seam. But that's just me.
(For those of you with eagle eyes, yeah, the hem on this one isn't done yet - this skirt is for Hannah and I always hem last on her skirts since she changes her mind frequently about the desired length.)
Now your skirt's done! I go a step further and iron the side hem open. Not necessary, but nice.
Ainsley's birthday skirt with matching doll skirt.
Hannah in a skirt that was a gift from a cousin. It's a good skirt to wear over pants when she's playing outside. Just try to separate my girls from their skirts.
