Flower fairies

A long, long time ago…a friend of mine showed me how to make fairies from silk flowers and leaf garlands that you can buy in garden centres or craft supply stores.  You carefully peel off all the petals and leaves and keep all the parts except the stems.

Chubby red flower fairy

Pale red velvet flower fairy

Mauve and red leaf fairy

White and purple flower fairy

Autumn leaf fairy

Rich red and gold flower fairy

Other things you will need are:-

• Pipe-cleaners
• Glue (I used a cold glue gun)
• Small wooden beads (I prefer unvarnished as it is easier to draw their faces)
• Some fine thread (to hang them)
• Scissors and a pencil

You take the pipe-cleaner and starting at the skirt you glue the petals or leaves onto the pipe-cleaner.  As you work your way up you will want to switch from the skirt to the body (although my chubby red one is just a puff ball so that is an option too).  Finally you want to glue the wooden bead to the top of the pipe-cleaner.  (Tip: I suggest you first thread the bead without glue, cut the excess pipe-cleaner, then remove the bead, glue and replace bead.)  On the head you can attach some smaller petals, acorn caps, or perhaps you will find some interesting plastic pieces when you disassemble the flowers…like the crown on the pale red fairy above.  With a pencil you can draw a face on the bead when finished.

I have only included photos of some fairies that I have made, you can make wedding themed ones with white or ivory coloured flowers, I have Christmas themed ones made from silk poinsettia and ivy leaves.  The possibilities are endless!

Quite often you will find that stores sell damaged flower/leaf garlands at discounted prices, so these can be perfect.

Needle-felted fairies, wizards, pixie and more

As if I didn’t already have enough fairies hanging around…I decided to make some out of the wool tops that I have.  These are often referred to as Waldorf fairies, certainly if you search for Waldorf fairies on Google or Pinterest you will see hundreds of similar fairies, in all sorts of designs that can inspire you.

These don’t use any glue, they are made with pipe-cleaners, wool tops and felting needles and that’s it (oh and some fine thread to hang them). There are lots of YouTube clips about making these and you can buy books, but I though the book I bought was mostly just pictures of different fairies, the basic way to make them is very easy and so save your pennies and check out YouTube for instructions and have a look at my Pinterest for inspiration.

WARNING:  Felting needles are extremely sharp so not really a craft for young children…unlike the flower fairies above, which with a cool glue gun is very child friendly.  Despite wearing leather protectors on a my thumb and forefinger I still managed to stab myself a few times when I made my first needle-felted fairies

Fairies

Purpl

Wizards and witch

Pixie

Ladybird (or ladybug) Fairy

When I ordered some felting tops from Heidifeathers there was a lovely card in the box, which showed this ladybird fairy…well a similar one and I thought I’d give it a go, so here is my effort.  Again not a fairy ladylike pose, but to balance her she does need to have her legs apart…perhaps she’s got some Pixie in her DNA!