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 tiny figurines will make your garden complete.
Find more inspiration to create magical little 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 sitting bench
Wire cutters
Red succulent plant
Tightly fill bottom of planter with smaller pots and packing peanuts or bubble wrap. Cover packing peanuts/bubble wrap with moss, gluing in place with hot glue.
Place fairy items as you desire, securing with hot glue. Trim bottom of plant to a 1-inch stem and secure it in place 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
Sheet of 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 teeter-totter, small bridge, twig archway, garden shepherd hook with hanging basket, woodland animals, etc.
Flip wooden tray over so bottom is facing up. Spray paint bottom and sides 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.
Measure width of opening between sides of tray. Transfer measurement to green floral foam and cut with serrated knife.
To create hillside for house, cut green foam to resemble a hill with highest point in back corner of long side of foam. Slope downward to create impression of hill toward a river, and contour other side to go slightly uphill, forming river bed. Hot glue foam to bottom of tray. Add foam at top of the hill for more height, if desired.
Place sheet of adhesive moss on top of foam, cutting out areas for river and hut. In river area, apply path of hot glue and dump pebbles on top. Use bigger stones on sides to create river bank. Pour bottle of nail polish onto riverbed, brushing stones to look like water.
Place hut at highest point, gluing it down with liberal amount of hot glue. Nestle bushes and trees around hut, varying sizes of round mosses and trees, and hot glue in place.
Glue white birch rounds behind hut for backdrop to glue trees and shrubs around; giving off appearance of a hut nestled in the hillside. Attach bushes to outside of sidewalls. Glue stepping stones in place to create path to river.
Add additional fairy items to fill out the scene.