Friday, August 25, 2017

Fairies in a Jar Kit Instructions

Did you get one of our Fairy Jar Kits?
Or maybe you got one of our special Easter Fairy Egg Kits!
We're excited for you! My daughters love making fairies, and we think you will too.

Before you get started, find yourself a good place to work. I recommend a spot at the dining room table, and you might ask to borrow one of Mom's (clean) cookie sheets too, just to keep your materials together.

Now, let's open the jar. Here's what you'll find inside.
* Two to four flowers and/or leaves
* Two pipe cleaners
* Two wooden beads (heads)
* Hand-full of pretty plastic beads
* Two 4-inch hanks of embroidery floss

* Note: The only difference between a Fairy Egg and Fairy Jar is that the eggs contain materials for only one fairy, and may not have additional fancy plastic beads.

Here are a couple of tools you will need
* (Optional) Old, sturdy scissors or wire cutters for the pipe cleaners. (do NOT use Mom's good sewing scissors!)
* Fine tipped permanent marker for faces (unless you got one of our kits with the faces pre-drawn.)

Now that you have everything, let's get started!

Here are instructions for a single pipe-cleaner body (aka a "star" body) with no cutting required. 

1. Start by folding your pipe cleaner in half, then folding up two legs making a "W" in the exact center of your pipe cleaner, with the legs no more than 1 inch long. .
2. Squish the "W" so it forms yout fairy's legs, and give a double twist in the center.  Now you have an "X"
3. Slip a blossom over both loose ends of the pipe cleaner to serve as the skirt
4. Fold arms on each long side of the pipe cleaner.
5. (Optional) Add another blossom or set of leaves as a blouse / bodice, threading it on Top of the arms, with both loose ends poking through. Tie a belt with a scrap of thread or ribbon.
You could also use some extra embroidery floss or pony beads to dress the torso.
6. Thread the head bead over both ends of the pipe cleaner. Optionally attach another blossom or leaf cap as a hat. Or, simply twist the ends of the pipe cleaners around a hank of embroidery floss hair.
7. If desired, use a fine-tipped Sharpie or high quality ballpoint to draw a face.

And that's it! One flower fairy, ready to move into your flower arrangement or a fairy house!

By the way, there are many ways to form your fairy's body, using one or two pipe cleaners. Some require scissors. Each will require you to dress the fairy's body in a slightly different order.

My  girls usually seem to build from the top, cut several pieces off the pipe cleaner, and twist them in place. This actually requires less pre-planning and will probably feel more natural to a child.

If you have the patience, just handing the materials to a kid and letting them go to town can be both fun and educational! Just be ready to hop in if they get in over their heads.

Finally, since pictures are worth so much more than words, here are some close-ups of several of our fairies, built over many sessions using several different methods.
Three fairies made using the instructions above

Two that my 8 yo daughter made without assistance (or scissors)

Fairy with leaf wings and beaded blouse and bloomers. 
Body one these next few is larger and used 2 pipe cleaners
Fairy with blossom blouse
Fairy with jeweled wings


We hope you had fun making fairies with your kit. If you need a few more friends for them, you should be able to pick up extra pipe cleaners, flowers, and even beads at your nearest dollar store or craft store. The only thing you might have trouble finding there are the wooden beads for the heads. These can, however, be easily sourced at Michael's, JoAnn's, or any serious craft store. 

Please, let us know in the comments how your fairies turned out. We'd love to hear from you!

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