Flower fairies...

The other day we awoke to the ground being covered in a blanket of snow. Yes, that's what we get for putting our winter coats and boots away. In the spirit of hopefulness though, we made some flower fairies, to bring the spring inside!

Here is a tutorial on how to make your own flower fairies...

You will need:
artificial flowers, (a bunch or two will suffice)

ribbon

wire

a wooden bead with a hole

and a length of dowel that will fit inside the hole

a glue gun

scissors

eye hook

First things first...you must cut your dowel into short pieces for the fairy body...about an inch and a bit will do. Your dowel should fit into the hole in your bead comfortably, (I use a 3/4" bead with a hole).

You can paint your bead if you wish, cover it with beeswax polish, roll it in glitter, or keep it plain...it's up to you!

Next cut your lengths of wire...I use a 12 inch piece for the legs and a 9 inch piece for the arms...take your wire and wrap it around your dowel a few times, until they are a desirable length.

Slide the wire off of the dowel, get your ribbon and fire up the glue gun. Starting at the top part of the arm, put on some glue and then begin wrapping your ribbon overtop...continue to the bottom of the wire, (the hand), and rewrap back up to the top, then do it again. Basically, you are just putting on a small line of glue, then wrapping the ribbon, then glueing, wrapping... When you're satisfied with the thickness, cut the ribbon and glue the end down. Do the same on the other side and with the legs as well.

Now, take your legs and put them at the bottom of the dowel. Take a bit of glue and glue them in place.

Get your flowers ready, take them apart and give the centers of them a little nick with the scissors, (to make the holes a little bigger for sliding onto the dowel). I usually glue the first petal around the bottom, to hide the top of the leg wire. Keep adding flowers until you are satisfied with the body, (the trick is to use the big petals for this part). Slide on the arms...it helps to add a bit of glue here, to hold the arms in place, and add more petals, (now you want to go for the smaller petals), until you begin reaching the top of your dowel.

It's time to put on your head bead, glue it into place.

You're almost done now...you can leave the head bare, or put a petal on top, or a couple of leaves. When you're happy with your fairy, screw the eyehook into the top of the head and she is ready to hang...the beauty of using wire for the arms and legs is that you can pose her any way you wish!

*I also like to add a few bigger leaves onto the back of the arms, to make "wings".

There you go...now you have some lovely fairies to adorn your windowsill, ceilings or where have you! My one word of advice for crafters is, don't make it too complicated...have fun with it, play around with the rules and enjoy the process! Happy crafting to you all! Please feel free to make as many fairies as you please, give them to your friends, or start your own flower fairy business, (I used to make these by the 100's and sell them at craft fairs)...in my mind, the more fairies out there brightening up folks spaces, the better!

Maureen