Here's what you'll need
Fairy door
- Garden stakes cut as follows:
- 2 x 300mm
- 2 x 280mm
- 2 x 260mm
- 1 x 130mm
- 1 x 110mm for the roof
- Exterior PVA glue (like Selleys Aquadhere)
- Artificial flowers
- She-oak fronds
- Owl and "doorknocker" cabinet pulls
- Bamboo stakes cut to approx. 8mm lengths
- String or twine
- 4 to 5 thin slices from a tree branch
- Pebbles
- Other decorations such as fairies, toadstools, butterflies and owls
Here's how
- For the fairy door, glue the cut pieces of garden stake together using the PVA – make sure its exterior as you don’t want your door falling to pieces! Clamp to hold until dry – if you don’t have clamps you could wrap firmly with masking tape.
- Cut a stencil of the door shape from cardboard and paint inside the shape with olive green craft paint.
- Trim the door with she-oak fronds – bunch 6 together and then wrap with green tie wire so you can shape them to fit the door. Drill a few holes around the door and use the tie wire to secure it in place.
- Add the owl and door knocker to the front – drill a hole the size of a screw and then insert. Add some artificial flowers up and around the door like a climbing rose effect.
- If you're hanging your fairy doorway in a tree, add a simple triangle hanger to the back of the door and a small stainless steel screw into the tree. You can add a blob of landscape liquid nails to the back of the door and glue it on.
- If you're adding ladders, double a length of string long enough to go between the trees, or hang down from a bowl or platform in the tree, and knot together at one end. It's easier to do this if you tape the end down on a table to hold while you tie all the pieces together.
- Lay the bamboo sticks out on the table with the string and begin looping the knots using a 'marline spike hitch', working either side of one stick before moving to the next.
- Apply a dab of glue to each knot as you work to make sure it doesn’t slip off the stick.
- If you're making stairs up to the doorway, assemble your tree branch slices and, using the PVA, overlap them and glue them together to the required height. Add a twig or stake offcut glued under the top step to support it off the ground.
- Decorate the area as you like, include mini props, more artificial flowers, and a pebble pathway.
How to make a freestanding fairy garden 'stump'
This cute, freestanding stump makes for a fabulous addition to your fairy garden or is a great alternative if you don't have a big garden with existing trees. Here, twigs have been cut to size to make the door, windows and ladder. You can drill a hole in the side to hang a twine and twig swing and make platforms from thin slices of branch held up with small branch supports and exterior PVA glue.
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