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Tuesday, June 21, 2016

How To Create A Magical Shadow Box Fairy House

When I was little one of my favourite movies was Fern Gully, I was so in love with the fairies and the thought that they really did exist. I wanted to be Crysta and have all her magical powers. I wanted to fly around all day protecting the forest. Imagine being able to really fly, how cool would that be?

girl dressed as fairy flying

Isn't it amazing how the things that excite us stay with us for years after we've grown up? I still get excited at the thought of fairies living in the forest, and there's a teeny part of me that believes it's possible. It proves just how powerful our imaginations really are. I want bub to experience this magic for herself. I want her to believe in fairies and I want her to think that anything's possible, like I did. I also hope her imagination lives on long after her childhood. 

Now days there are new fairies on the block to entertain our kids. Bub's favourite is princess Holly from Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom, closely followed by Nanny Plum {who just quietly is one of my favourites too}. Holly spends her days playing with other fairies and elves, doing magic and solving problems. Bub loves watching her adventures on tv each day and I'm fairly certain she thinks Princess Holly is just as real as I thought Crysta was.

What if we could take that magic out of the television screen and bring it to life? 


HOW TO BRING FAIRIES TO LIFE IN YOUR HOME


Building a fairy house or a simple fairy door brings fairy magic into our children's world by creating an entrance where fairies {and elves} can cross over from their enchanted world into ours. Miniature fairy products will capture your child's imagination and curiosity, and make the "make believe" believable. There are a number of products that you can use to create a simple {or elaborate} entrance to invite fairies, and elves, into your child's world. The most important piece is of course the fairy door. There are a number of different colours to choose from so the door can be matched with existing bedroom decor or you can get plain ones and paint them yourself.

pink fairy door and fairy dust keychain

Fairies are very mysterious creatures and only come out at night when children are sleeping, but there are many ways they let children know they've visited. Sometimes they leave a sprinkling of fairy dust, other times they leave notes in the mail box for children to discover. And of course the tooth fairy can come and visit via the fairy door too. There are a number of fairy accessories the fairies can leave behind to let your child know they came for a special visit during the night.

Fairy door's can be easily attached to walls sitting above the skirting board or attached to a bookshelf with double sided tape, blu-tack, or if you're game, glue. Because bub's only almost 3, and because I'm indecisive about where to put things, I've created a little fairy house in a shadow box instead. This way I can hang it up high out of reach of little hands, move it around onto a shelf in her play room and it can also be brought down to the floor once she's a bit older {when I can trust her with it unsupervised}. See below for step by step instructions on how I transformed a simple wooden shadow box into a magical fairy house with the help of some paint and a few accessories.

How to transform a shadow box into a fairy house


It's actually surprisingly simple to create a fairy house from a shadow box, it's just slightly time consuming, especially when you have a toddler trying to help you. These are the items I used to create mine, but you could make yours as simple or complex as you like.


SUPPLIES NEEDED TO CREATE A FAIRY HOUSE


* A shadow box {tall enough to accommodate the door}
* A fairy or elf door
* A fairy window
* A mail box
* Wooden picket fence
* Fake grass
* Paint {if needed}
* Glue



I used simple craft picket fences that I found at a local dollar store and I added some stones and tiny flowers from our yard. If you don't have grass and flowers on hand you can get fairy grass with flowers, stepping stones and small picket fences online. There are a number of really cute online fairy accessory stores that have even more cool accessories, such as The Fairy Garden UK, Nest In The Woods, Fairies of Tranquility, Steph The Fairy Maker and Smallhavens on Etsy.

fairy door and fairy accessories to create a shadow box fairy house


HOW TO CREATE A SHADOW BOX FAIRY HOUSE


1. Prime and paint the shadow box {if needed}

2. Attach grass to the base of the box

3. Position and attach fairy door and fence

4. Position and attach window and mail box

5. Add any additional accessories

Pink shadow box fairy house

I haven't done a DIY project for a while so I did make a rookie error by not priming or undercoating the shadow box before I started painting it. This was only really a problem because my shadow box was originally aqua and I wanted it pink, so it took a lot more coats than I thought to get it to the right colour {and the final colour turned out slightly darker than it should be because of the aqua underneath}. Please learn from my mistake and at least use a white undercoat, it'll make your life so much easier. Overall though I'm pretty proud of my efforts, especially given I'm not an overly crafty person. If I can do this anyone can!

The miniature fairy products have really helped to make the fairy house come to life and look like real fairies live beyond the door. I wish they were around when I was younger because I can imagine just how crazy excited I would have been knowing there was a door for the fairies in my own bedroom. Can you imagine, having a door to a whole other world in your own bedroom? Needless to say bub is super excited and is already asking if she can go check her house every five minutes. All the hours of painting were totally worth it.

Did you believe in fairies when you were young?




MORE FAIRY ACTIVITIES TO TRY



You can also read how to turn shadow boxes into a sonny angel houses here

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Disclosure - This post contains some affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you, should you make a purchase.

Would you like to comment?

  1. Toni this idea is so CLEVER! I just stuck our fairy door to the wall and laid a bit of fake grass down which I had to get rid of because Phoebe pulled all the toadstools off and I was scared she'd eat them! I loved the movie Fern Gully as a child too. Mentioning that movie brought back memories!

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    1. My first thought was if I put it on the floor she's just going to rip it off the wall trying to open it so I quickly decided the shadow box idea was safer. I searched for Fern Gully on youtube {because I only have it on VHS and our tape players are long gone}, the whole movie is on there!

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  2. How cute! I loved fairies as a kid.

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    1. They're so cool aren't they. I loved Tinkerbell from Peter Pan too, even though I thought she was a little mean at times.

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  3. I never saw Fern Gully, but I do love Nanny Plum! Clever idea to make this, I've always wondered how to use them without attaching them to the wall.

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    1. Nanny Plum is awesome, she's like me as a fairy haha. I wanted to do something a bit different :)

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  4. What a lovely idea! My daughter's too old for this now :( but I'm going to make one for my niece!

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  5. Toni, this is just gorgeous. I love the mailbox. We have a fairy door and grass in our house. I think we've had it for nearly two years and the girls still believe. Oh boy, do they believe. I have lost count how many letters I've written to the girls pretending to be a fairy talking about what I do at night when they sleep. Sometimes they worry that it's been a while in between letters and I make up a convoluted story about visiting Tinkerbell and Periwinkle. They seem to buy it but sometimes I think Miss Five is getting wise to me :) #teamIBOT

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    1. I'm pretty sure I first found out about fairy doors from your blog post Renee! Hard to believe its already been 2yrs. I'm so excited to write little notes and put them in the letter box for her.

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  6. Looks beautiful! Love it and hope your little girl does too xx

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    1. She keeps asking me all the time where her house is and can she play with it. I told her it goes to Ben and Holly's kingdom but they'll only come visit at night when she's fast asleep. First time she's ever been excited to go to sleep.

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  7. My boys have a fairy door and to be completely honest - it is something the whole family loves. Really like your idea of the shadow box xx

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    1. I think I'm just as excited about it as her. I had so much fun coming up with the idea and putting it all together and I know she'll love it for years to come. Glad to hear your boys love theirs too.

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  8. This is just so cute. I want another little girl so I can get this

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    1. Haha, it is pretty cute, although I'm not sure it's worth having a 5th child over ;)

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  9. Toni!! This is amazing! You are so clever! Just showed my six year old and she is in love :) Oh and I remember loving Fern Gully!!

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    1. Aww thankyou elisa! I loved Fern Gully SOOOO much it was one of my all time favourite movies.

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  10. Oh this is adorable! I want one! My bestie has believed in fairies since I met her (when we were three years old) and still believes in them to this day!

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    1. Fairies are awesome, I wish they really were real! Then again they just may be and we don't realise ;)

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  11. I really want to do this for my girl's playroom. Where did you find the shadow box?

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    1. Hi Lizzy, sorry I just saw your comment. I just got this one from Kmart.

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