Create Your Own Fairy Garden

Emelia absolutely loves fairies and was so excited when we talked about creating her own fairy garden.  Fairy gardens are magical and brilliant for imaginative play.  Originally we planned to create it in our garden but as the weather is so unpredictable, we were worried it would get destroyed. After rethinking and scouting around to see what we could find, we decided to make a fairy garden perfect for indoor or outdoor use.  Emelia was even more excited when she realised she could transport the fairy garden wherever she wanted, especially the thought of taking it to bed without having to deconstruct it.  Once we collected the items we needed it was a relatively quick and easy thing to make, Emelia really enjoyed helping and putting the ornaments into place.  Making your own fairy garden means the design is purely down to your child's creativity and imagination.


Emelia really enjoys small world play and I had never appreciated how important it is for children until she got her first small figurines.  Small world play allows children to act out real or imaginary stories with mini figures.    Watching Emelia play for hours has shown us first hand not only how invaluable small world play is but just how fantastic it has been for her development, amongst many other things it's broadened her language and creativity.

I've put together a step by step guide on how to make your own Fairy garden.  They are so easy and inexpensive to make. 

To make one like we have you will need:
(I have added links where possible)

Wooden Tray (similar) - you could use any tray or shallow planter
Artificial Grass - we had this left over, you could use green fabric, felt or paper.
Glitter Card
Small Stones - from the garden
Large Stone - from the garden
Fairies 
Fairy Garden Miniture Ornaments
Fairy Garden Owls 
Fairy Door
Glue Gun

Step One

We decided to use a wooden breakfast tray as the basis for our garden as it would be easy to move around, (any shallow tray would work well or even flower pots).  To line the base we chose to use left artificial grass, we then used the blue glitter card to cut out a lake.  Cut the pieces to size and use hot glue to secure.

Step Two 

We used hot glue to secure the fairy door to the large stone and put into place.  Then, using the small gravel we laid a path.

Step Three 

Our final step was to put all of the ornaments into place, as you can see from the second picture Emelia's garden is extremely busy, she had full control over where she put things. I think it is extremely important for your child to decide where to lay things and choose what they want to include.  We talked in great detail about the fairies and the animals as we were creating the garden, Emelia's imagination was starting to build a story which continued to develop throughout the course of the afternoon.

Have you made a fairy garden?  We'd love to see/hear how you got on! 
Thank you for reading.