Making Fairy Garden Accessories: 22 Enchanting Projects for Your Backyard

By Anna-Marie Fahmy and Andrew Fahmy

How to Make Backyard Fairy Garden Accessories is a fun and adorable guide to creating little outdoor wonderlands for visiting mythical creatures. Authors Anna-Marie and Andrew Fahmy combine their two passions, the outdoors and crafts, providing step-by-step instructions on how to create one-of-a-kind fairy garden accessories. These projects are beginner-friendly with only one requirement -- bring your imagination. Also included is an inspirational gallery of fairy gardens, houses, and hand-made accessories! Sections of the book include different techniques and materials like working with twigs and sticks, rough and polished rocks, types of moss, acorn caps, and pinecones, and working with glue guns and miniature accessories available at your local craft and hobby stores. Other projects include mini and large fairy houses, a swing, a fire pit, a Gnome garden, as well as tips for lighting your creations. Create an oasis in your own backyard for your visiting mythical friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fox Chapel Publishing
• Release date: Mar 19, 2024
• ISBN: 9781637412428

Anna-Marie Fahmy

Anna-Marie Fahmy has worked in college admissions for the past decade. She is currently the Regional Associate Director of Admissions for the West Coast at Muhlenberg College, a small, private, liberal arts college in Allentown, PA. She graduated from Scripps College, the women's college of the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, CA, in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology. In 2019, she earned her Master of Education in Higher Education Administration from Northeastern University.

Book preview

IllustrationIllustrationIllustration

In Memory of herese Fahmy

© 2024 by Anna-Marie and Andrew Fahmy and Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552.

Making Fairy Garden Accessories is an original work, first published in 2024 by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc. The projects contained herein are copyrighted by the authors. Readers may make these projects for personal use. The projects themselves, however, are not to be duplicated for resale or distribution under any circumstances. Any such copying is a violation of copyright law.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holders.

ISBN 978-1-4971-0396-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023950867

To learn more about the other great books from Fox Chapel Publishing, or to find a retailer near you, call toll-free 800-457-9112 or visit us at www.FoxChapelPublishing.com.

We are always looking for talented authors. To submit an idea, please send a brief inquiry to [e-mail].

Because working with craft tools and other materials inherently includes the risk of injury and damage, this book cannot guarantee that creating the projects in this book is safe for everyone. For this reason, this book is sold without warranties or guarantees of any kind, expressed or implied, and the publisher and the author disclaim any liability for any injuries, losses, or damages caused in any way by the content of this book or the reader’s use of the tools needed to complete the projects presented here. The publisher and the author urge all readers to thoroughly review each project and to understand the use of all tools before beginning any project.

Introduction

Welcome to our fairy garden book! We’re so excited to share our love of making fairy homes and furniture with you.

We’ve always liked working with our hands and being creative, and we also enjoy teaching and working with people. We met volunteering at a summer camp where we were counselors and ran outdoor activities for youth. Being outside and working with others got us into another hobby: lapidary, the art of carving and polishing rocks into wearable jewelry. We liked this hobby so much that we started teaching lapidary classes at a local community center in southern California. While teaching classes at this center, we discovered that there was another popular activity happening in the classroom next to ours—fairy gardening! The community center even had a fairy trail outside. We were intrigued and wanted to know more.

Fast forward a few years, and we got engaged (Andrew proposed under twinkly fairy lights, of course). While we were deep in wedding planning, we decided to make most of the decorations and centerpieces by hand (DIY, as it’s commonly referred to). And because we loved the space and it meant a lot to us, we ended up getting married at the center where we taught our classes! We spent hours perusing craft stores and exploring the outdoors to find what we needed for the wedding, and after everything was said and done, there was quite a bit of leftover material— wood, moss, rocks, and fairy lights. That’s when we had the idea that it would be great to start some kind of craft project.

Attracted to the magic of the fairy garden world, we decided to dive in. The beauty of fairy gardening is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t need to focus too much on miniature scaling or perfect borders. You can get messy. Break a stick while you’re working on a project? No worries, now you’ve got a new shape. Got too much glue on your fairy door? Not a problem, just cover it up with some moss. Fairy gardening is all about freedom and creativity. Find inspiration in this book and other sources, but don’t limit yourself just by the photos you see. Follow our directions, but go off course to make each item your own. Go wild and explore. Take an adventure to your local park or craft store to find unusual and unique items. Your own personal touch is what makes this hobby so magical, and by all means, bring some children along. There is nothing more magical than spending time with children and helping them create their own personal fairy land.

While we started out calling this our hobby, it has evolved into a sustainable source of income that generates over $1,000 a month in Etsy sales. If you’ve picked up this book, you’re probably thinking about building a fairy home, or maybe even your own fairy garden. Maybe you’re looking to start your own business, or you want to gift this book to someone who also cherishes the magic of the fairy world.

We’re so glad you’re here, and we’re excited to share our love of the magical fairy world with you.

Anna-Marie and Andrew Fahmy

Table of Contents

Introduction

Getting Started

Materials

Tools

Techniques

Gallery

Projects

Doors

Blue Door

Red Door

Door with Steps

Hanging Door

Hobbit Door

Houses

Gnome Planter House

Small Lighted House

Large Lighted House

Secret Staircase House

Furniture

Fairy Lamp

Fairy Desk

Fairy Bookshelf

Table for Two

Garden Swing

Fairy Chair

Accessories

Gnome Ladder

Fairy Mailbox

Trail Sign

Fairy Window

Fire Pit

Gnome Frame Garden

Wishing Well

About the Authors

Acknowledgments

Getting Started

Before you begin, find a suitable space where you can craft and gather all of the materials you will need. Whether you have a craft bin of supplies, a shelf, or an entire room, it doesn’t matter! Find what works best for you, but the great thing about these projects is they require little working space and simple tools and materials, so you can accomplish them anywhere you like.

Materials

One of the best parts about building fairy homes and furniture is the adventure in finding all the materials! We like to use both store-bought materials and materials that we find in nature. Over the next few pages, you’ll learn about different types of materials you can find outside and use, from wood and rocks to nature bits, like acorns and miniature pine cones. You’ll learn about all the scavenging we do