Tiny fragments of nature under glass ~

I've been gathering tiny bits of nature for as long as I can remember.

It may be a small dried flower, acorn caps, twigs or moss,

it doesn't matter to me.

I think that they all are so beautiful!

I just finished a few specimen tubes filled with some

of these little natural elements.

The swirl of text embedded inside is simply a torn strip

from a very old botany book!

These tubes can be displayed hanging on a cabinet knob,

hook or even the switch of a lamp.

And of course, everything is more beautiful under glass!!!

All have been listed in my Etsy store now too!

And this little piece is finished too!

The glass jar measures a mere 4" high buy about 4" wide.

Gathered inside is a precious tiny nest with speckled eggs,

bark, moss and a sprinkling of other small nature elements.

I just love small things and this little nest assemblage turned out wonderful!

Also listed in my Etsy store ~

And one last little bitty thing.

This is a sweet hummingbird's nest that

was given to me by a friend and I simply adore it!

Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week dear friends and

thank you always for stopping by to see me!

Hugs and love,

Dawn

Creating a little magic in the studio!

I've always loved fairies.

I love the idea of them existing,

watching over nature and living

in their magical woodland homes!

So for my latest project I decided to alter a wooden

house purchased at the craft store into a whimsical fairy house ~

Here's what I purchased at Hobby Lobby!

Not too special but a perfect piece for me to embellish.

I began by base painting it with normal acrylic paints in the little bottles.

After painting I wanted to age it a bit

and created a mossy wash and also a brown wash

to give it an older look, especially around the windows

and in the crevices.

I found a great cigar box to use as a platform and painted it as well.

Next I began adding all different kinds of natural elements.

I've been gathering these goodies for years!!

Some items are store bought like some of the moss and little wood cuts

but a lot is gathered from our yard right here at home.

Three different roof styles made it so much more charming and interesting!

A thatched roof was created from unwound jute, glued in overlapping layers.

One roof is created from pieces of pine cones and mosses.

And lastly, the other roof was made from river birch bark and

other bark pieces with lichen.

The more that was added, the more I loved it!!!

It's funny when you begin working on something like this.

You sometimes have to reel yourself in and decide

when it's time to stop.

So here is my finished piece!!!

I'm so pleased with how this fairy house turned out!!!

This sweetie has been now added to my Etsy store ~

Wouldn't it be a perfect gift for a nature lover?

~ PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VISIT ~

Thank you so much for always stopping by to see what I'm up to!

hugs and love,

Dawn

A whimsical fairy house ~

A few weeks ago I was commissioned by a dear friend of mine

to transform a simple night light into a woodland fairy house!

Creating these is so much fun because you can gather elements

from your yard and even buy some neat things at craft stores.

The house started off solid white with some type of sheer fabric

glued into the openings to soften the small light that inserts into the back.

I removed it all.

The sheer material was backed with acetate I imagine for safety's sake

with their being a bulb inside.

Next I spray painted a dark brown to have a more woodsy background.

Then I found an amazing image online of the inside of a fairy house

someone had made, sized it appropriately and printed it out onto vellum.

I also had acetate sheets and cut them to size for each opening as well.

After I glued all the sheets on each window it was time for embellishing!

What I started with:

After it had been spray painted and images glued inside ~

You can see my stash of supplies I had to pull from!

The first thing I worked on was the moss around the base of the roof.

Next I made a "stone" fireplace using little pebbles and moss as well.

I had this incredible thick paper with straw and fibers that I used to cover the sides.

This added such a great contrast to the dark brown!

I cut sticks to wedge onto each corner and then

continued to add feathers, moss and small woodcuts around the base.

The finished fairy house ~

I so hope my customer is pleased and

I think I may need to make more of these!!!

Thank you always for stopping by to see what I'm up to!!!

Hugs and love,

Dawn

A precious overnight guest and a fairy house!

A few months ago I was at Hobby Lobby and ran across the most wonderful

driftwood birdhouse and it was on sale half off!

I looked at it and immediately knew it would be a great creative project for my

granddaughter Clara and I to transform into a fairy house!

So the right weekend presented itself and we planned for her to spend the night

at Mimi and Papa's and for us to have a creative time together.

Of course, I've gathered nature supplies over the years and had plenty of stash

to pull out for us to use to embellish the little house.

I had so many different types of moss, feathers, seed pods, acorn caps, sticks, straw, etc.

We pulled it ALL out!

And of course I had my favorite glue, Fabri-Tac (kind of like hot glue but cold and it dries so fast!)

Clara is now EIGHT years old and talked my head clean off during this project!

I loved it so much!!!!

She was adorable and told me, "Mimi, I think I may need to drink some milk...

my throat is hurting because I've talked so much!!"

HAHAHA!

Sweet, sweet girl. I pray we made a precious memory for her that evening.

We created the "shelves" from driftwood that were gifted to me from

my dear friend Dorthe in Denmark! How wonderful is that?

I told Clara how far away these little pieces had come that

we used on her little house.

It was Clara's idea to poke a speckled egg into the "chimney"!!! I love it!

The chimney is actually the cap from a large Burr Oak acorn!

Of course, the fairy house was hers to take home and remember our creative night together.

She was so proud of it!!!

A few close up photos of the finished fairy house!

We even had a little time for sketching too!

We had such a sweet time together!

These truly are the good ol' days for sure ~

We slept in our newly remodeled guest room too!

We said our prayers together, sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
and fell fast asleep.

As I rolled over the next morning this was my view.

What a precious angel!

These truly ARE the good ol' days.

I love you my sweet Clara!

I can't believe it's already August!

Time flies dear friends...

I'm looking forward to fall as always.

It's my very favorite!

I hope you are doing so, so good and

thank you always for stopping by

to see what I'm up to!

hugs and love,

Dawn