Tropical Island Fairy Garden

Finally, the weather is nice enough to go outside and build my tropical island fairy garden! I use a large stainless steel mixing bowl from the kitchen supply store. You can get them other places, but they are far cheaper there. My husband drills a small hole in the bottom for me. Then I spray paint the inside and outside. I used a mix of three blues to get an ocean feel here.

The next day, I gather my supplies; potting soil, styrofoam packing peanuts, blue aquarium gravel, natural aquarium gravel, plants, gloves, shovel, and decorations!

I like to use the styrofoam packing peanuts to fill in the bottom instead of rocks or gravel because they are so much lighter.

 On top of those goes the potting soil. Make sure to leave plenty of room for your gravel!

 This looks about right!

 Now I make holes for the plants and plant them. They are a little off center because I want them on the island, but with enough room on one side for the house. I decided to use a rabbit's foot fern and a dracaena because they look sort of tropical, but I think, are easy to care for. I am definitely no expert on houseplants!

 Pat the soil down around the plants with a slight mound in the middle.

 Then I water it thoroughly and let it drain for awhile before the next step.

Now I put the plain gravel in. I decided to use gravel instead of sand because I have found through experience that the sand tends to mix with the potting soil. I'm afraid it would mix with the blue gravel as well. So, this is a rocky island.

 

 Again, make a mound in the middle.

Now it's time for the ocean! I found this beautiful mixed blues gravel at the pet store. That's also where I get my natural color gravel. It's so much nicer then what you find at the hardware store. Pour it in a ring around the outside.

It's beautiful already!
I added a little more natural gravel to the center.

 Then I get to decorate. First the beach hut, then two beachcombing gnomes. One has a pineapple and the other has a surfboard. I found this little bamboo statue at the pet store when I got the gravel. It's actually for an aquarium, but the aquarium aisle is full of cool stuff that is perfect for fairy gardens! And finally, a couple of tikis!

 Aloha!

Here comes the bride!

A customer that bought some gnomes mentioned that she had made a wedding themed fairy garden as a wedding gift, and I thought, "Of course! Bride and groom gnomes. How obvious!" So I started making them the very next day. I thought I'd take some photos of the process to show you. I work on a piece of marble tile I got at the hardware store. First I condition the clay by kneading it till its nice and stretchy and smooth. (Sometimes I can get my husband to help me with this part.) Then I weigh out pieces for the heads, bodies, hats, and beards. I use a small kitchen scale. The bodies and hats are 6 grams each, and the heads and beards are 3 grams each. This gives me a standard size.

 I have a small manual pasta machine that I use to roll out the clay for flat things like clothes.

 See that round silver thing on the right? My husband built it to my specifications for my gnomes. He drilled holes in it for the toothpick to stick down through from the base of the gnome. Then I put the whole thing in my portable convection oven. (I love that thing!) I keep it out in the garage because baking polymer clay does smell a bit. That little pink piece of paper in the picture below is my template for the lady gnome's hair. I make paper templates for everything to save myself a lot of time and stress, and to make everything standardized.

 Here they are, ready to go in the oven. I bake gnomes at 275 degrees for 45 minutes. You can't really see it in the picture, but when I am going to put a ribbon on her hat, I stick a tiny jewelry finding with an eye on it into the tip of her hat. I don't know what it's called. It looks like a pin, but with an eye instead of a head.

 After baking, I use Mod Podge to glue on the glitter, paint her cheeks pink, and glue on the rhinestone.

 I don't make them until they are ordered, so I can customize as much as you want! It's actually more fun for me to do so.

New heart pond

Now my popular koi pond is also available in a heart shape!

Ho ho ho!

Santa Claus, Snowman gnome, and his igloo, and cottages with icicles and snow.

Happy Thanksgiving

Now you can redecorate your Fairy Garden for each holiday and season! Introducing Pilgrim gnomes for Thanksgiving.After Halloween, remove your Halloween gnomes, and decorate with fall leaves and tiny gourds. Mr. and Mrs. Pilgrim Gnome can host a dinner for all their woodland friends that visit your garden. Availabe in 2 color combinations.

Also new... sports fans! Gnomes love sports and like to dress like their favorite athletes. Football, basketball, baseball... any sport! Give me the name of an athlete and I will create his gnome fan. Colors, numbers, and special touches like head and arm bands, tattoos, akin color,,,

Birth Announcement

 Mr. and Mrs. Gnome are thrilled to announce the arrival of the new addition to their family... Baby Gnome!
He or she is only 1 3/4" tall, and looks just like his or her parents.

Winter cabins

 I have winterized my cottages! The snow is puffy fabric paint, and I made the icicles with hot glue. (I didn't come up with that idea on my own; I found it on u-tube). For the heart window cottage I made the glue icicles on parchment paper, as suggested online. It worked, but it was difficult to get the glue off, and they came out opaque. So I went to Michael's and and bought a hot glue work mat, that you use to protect your table. I glued the icicles on that; they peeled right off, and were clear, as you see on the round keep! What I did was glue a line about 9" long, then glued icicles pulling down from it. When it cooled, I trimmed it a bit with tiny scissors. I really like how it came out. I made the blue snowflakes you see below with polymer clay and press-out cookie cutters that I actually purchased originally to use with rolled fondant for cakes. After I baked them, I painted them with Mod Podge and sprinkled them with glitter that I custom mixed to match the light blue!