This week is fairy doors, the little fun doors that are made of all sorts of materials. We're going to make ours out of mostly recycled cardboard and materials. Everything I used, I already had and I think that if you stop and have a look at packaging, boxes, and the things we usually throw away you’d be surprised at what you can find.
Materials:
- Cardboard
- Paper
- Egg carton
- Lolly pop sticks
- Wool/Twine
- Forragables - sticks, flowers, moss, twigs, leaves etc
-
Glue - this can be any type of glue it just depends on how patient you want to be, for example I don't want to wait long for things to dry so I’m using a glue gun, but you can do all of this with PVA you just need to wait for things to dry before progressing to the next step.
Tools:
- Scissors
- Plyers
- Pencil
- Masking Tape/ Washi Tape
- Sand paper
Step 1: Design
Before we can start making we need to know the base of what we’re trying to achieve. If you’re anything like me, as you go along the steps, you’ll have different ideas or get distracted by this creative process. This initial design is a good way to make sure that we’re not diving in headfirst and forgetting what we were doing. My initial design is very basic and just the most basic that the fairy door could be, this is because I know that as I craft and bring the door to life I’ll develop it and change it, and that's okay, it’s part of the fun!
If you're not quite sure on what to make or don't really have any ideas, here is a link to a Pinterest board I made for inspiration as it has so many amazing creative works on there. You can also download my template and design here.
Here is the Pinterest board: Check it out
Step 2: Template and base
Once we have the basic idea you can break that down into parts. For this I like to redraw the shapes, it doesn't need to be all the details just the basic parts, drawn to the the size that you want them. Cut the template up so that you’ve got an accurate template for each of the parts that you want for the fairy door.
Now we can cut use the template to cut out the correct sizes in cardboard, if you are following the same design as me, then you should have 3 main parts; the door, the door frame and the wall. At this point I added the door frame to the wall with just some PVA glue.
Step 3: Bricks
One of my favourite things whilst crafting is to use the weirdest materials and just find things that work well. Egg cartons are one of those things, if you like me watch artists and miniaturists online then you’ll know that egg cartons (the cardboard ones) are the perfect texture to create bricks.
To make the bricks all you need to do it cut the egg box into little squares, these don’t need to be perfect as I think it adds to the charm and whimsy.
To place all the bricks, I started placing them at the door frame working my way up and out from a corner gluing sections of the wall as I went. Remember that you want these bricks to have a slight gap between them as bricklaying uses mortar between the bricks, so to mimic this leave a little gap and we can sort that out later.
Let that dry fully.
Step 4: The door
For the door I did cut out a template, this is optional but as I like to make things more difficult I decided to put a window in the door, then I also decided that I wasn't going to paint the wood texture I was going to be using lolly pop sticks. This bit is quite technical and if you’ve got any little ones making them then now is the time they’ll need your help.
Lay out the lolly pop sticks on the template of the door, they need to be covering the door, you might need to put a few end to end if the door is long. Then tape them together with a low tack tape, this is washi or masking tape, they need to be flush together. In pencil, number each stick so that you know the placement, then draw out the door on the wood, including the shape of the window. Remove the tape and trim any excess, the reason we numbered them is because to cut the sticks down we’ll need to move them about, but when we glue them together you don't want to have a tricky jigsaw to figure out.
To cut the lolly pop sticks I found that a pair of pliers or wire cutters works well, as it grips the wood then you can just bend the stick so that it comes off. The edges and the window don’t have to be exact, there may be some rough edges but as long as it’s mostly following the template then it will work!
Reassemble the door, lining up all the pieces. Tape over the top and bottom, making sure that you’re getting any little pieces. Flip the door over and apply glue over the back making sure that it gets in the cracks between the lolly pop sticks.
Let it dry fully before taking off the tape. Once it’s dry, go around the outside with a piece of sandpaper to smooth any edges or potential splinters, lolly pop sticks are a softer wood so this won't take too long.
Step 5: Painting
So we’ve got the wall and door frame all glued together with the egg carton brick work over it. The door is glued together and sanded down smooth. Now we get to paint them! When it comes to painting things like the fairy door I tend to do it in 3 parts:
Part 1- The first coat, this is the base colour. Each item or element that has a different colour will have a base colour, that's just the flat colour that it is.
Part 2- Depth, this second coat brings in the darker and lighter colours to painting. If you think about how everything has a texture no matter how small, this will effect the way light interacts with it, so there will be darker parts and lighter parts. This coat I usually do as a dry brush layer, that means very little paint on the brush, and you lightly work it over the area so that it has a natural effect.
Part 3- Detailing, this coat adds the final layer of detail and character. Here you can add in other colours, painted details or something else that it needs. For example with the brick work near the bottom of the door way, it would most likely be dirtier than the top of the wall, so here we can add a detail of mud, this can be an actual painting of mud or just a little suggestion with the colour. Either way this will add a detail that takes the painting up a level.
Step 6: Extra details
For this we are going to be embellishing the fairy door, these little elements can be adapted and altered if you want, as this is where you can really customize it. But the first thing we are going to need to add is a door handle otherwise its a very tricky door to use. I just used a small paper bead that I had left over, glued it to the front of the door then painted it gold.
I wanted it to look as though it had ivy growing up the side of the wall, with little flowers. For these I used a twisted wool/twine that I untwisted to create a branching web of vines, I noticed that vines in real life tend to hold to the mortar and use that to come across the walls so I used the gaps in the bricks that we left to help the ivy grow. For the flowers I used leftover tissue paper that I scrunched into little balls, up close they’re not the most flower-like but from a distance the little pop of colour is enough to convince the brain that they are flowers. I also used foraged items like the acorn, for the wall light and the seeds of a pinecone for door hinges.
For the stained glass, I played around with a lot of different options but I wanted something that would shine if lit from inside. Draw around the hole you have for the window on some sticky backed acetate, then on the non sticky side, colour in with some pens. I recommend alcohol markers or sharpies as these won’t smudge but are a good pigment pen. Put the sticky side of the acetate on another piece of acetate, sticky side to sticky side. Cut around the outside - you want to leave a lip so that it's bigger than the window hole. Apply pva glue and stick it to the front of the door.
I also added a bit of trim to the fairy door by adding a gold outline to my embellishments. This is the same colour as the door knob so it ties in all the finishing touches nicely.
When finishing the fairy door I didn't want to glue my door as I wanted to be able to adjust it, but you can glue yours closed if you want.
You’ve finished your Fairy door! Well once everything is dry and not going to fall off if you move it.
I loved taking this little fairy door out into my local woodland to take photos, it just sealed the deal in making this come true, despite it being incredibly windy when I went out and nearly losing the door a few times!
If you ever do any of these crafts, I would love to see them! Send them or tag me in them on facebook, insta or tiktok at worldofthoodles
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