Fairy and Elf Houses

Well.. with the days slowly getting shorted and the air cooler, many will think “what, the garden, with the kids, now???”….  But there is plenty to do this Autumn in your garden and the great outdoors. One of our favourite activities this time of year, is to build elf houses! Sparked by the appearance of acorns in the parks (aka acorn elves in our house), we collect, we make and then we get crafty in the garden!

Everyone knows, that elves are always “local creatures”. You need to find “local things” and make a local house for them. Which means, having a good look around your garden, finding a safe little spot for the house and bits and pieces to build with. Of course, building materials can be important from the local park… but not too much further than that, else your elves will not feel at home!

Last year we made:

We used bark to form the sides of the house, large leaves for the roof and decorated the elf houses with pinecones stones and courgette flours (the male ones)

This year, we decided on a teepee:

Very exotic! We made it using four twigs for the frame and with long leaves we have from a palm tree in our garden. We tied the palm leave around the four twigs at the top. And then weaved it in and out to make the sides of the tent. If your garden doesn’t have long thin leaves (quite likely), can you make patch work sides out of large leaves? “Sew” them together as per this Leaf Crown).

Then we found a flat stone as a table and used acorn caps for bowls. Lovely. Oh and some people of course:

We made the little people the same way as we made these acorn animals. The baby’s cot is made from a chestnut shell.

And now play. And bring your elves some fresh flowers every so often. Maybe bring them the odd blackberry and go foraging with kids.  Make sure they are happy and comfy and at home!

Happy magic garden everyone!

Green Crafts

“Maggy Woodley is a mum of two and a well established member of the UK Parenting Blogging Community. Her key focus is Red Ted Art – a craft blog to inspire all the family and she is a “go to” destination for all questions relating to crafts. She is also author of the more classic mummy blog Life At The Zoo. She co-authors a number of other blogs and regularly contributes to a number of other parenting sites on a variety of topics.”

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