DIY Fairy and Gnome Houses: Eco-Friendly Birthday Party Favors

As a follow up to my previous post on Eco-Friendly Birthday Party Favors, I wanted to share a new idea which we just did for my daughter's 7th birthday. We threw a woodland/fairy themed party, and the boys and girls (ages 4-8) created their own fairy and gnome homes. We also made a mushroom pinata, and cupcakes topped with homemade strawberry jam and white chocolate chips to look like toadstools.

THE MATERIALS:

The materials we used for the houses were both gathered and store-bought. A few weeks before the party, we went on a hike and collected tree bark, pinecones and more. We already had a collection of acorn caps and seashells from various expeditions, but I did buy one pack of large spiral shells. We had scouted out places to collect moss, but as the summer progressed we discovered tons of moss on our own property. The morning of the party I put a little bit of soil in some plant trays that I had, and we moistened the moss after setting it on top of the soil.

The purchased materials were:
- 8" terracotta saucers

- 4" coconut coir grow pots
- colored glass "gems"
- colorful stones

If we had more time, we would've collected the stones ourselves, but I was able to find them at Michael's with a coupon. For the things we didn't buy, it was a nice way of using up some of our collections.

THE PROCESS:

I filled the saucers with about a half an inch of soil. I helped the children cut doors in the coir pots and they were able to use them as a starting point to rest bark and twigs and moss against them.

We didn't have a fancy set up, we just put some boards on sawhorses and covered them with a pretty tapestry. Aside from the moss, I didn't have enough materials for kids to access from both ends of the long table, so I just set them up on a separate table and the kids came and got what they wanted to use.

THE RESULT:

They all did a wonderful job! Even the boys were engaged. In fact, I saw two of the boys later in the party back at the table tinkering with theirs to get them just right.

I'm adding a few photos of the pinata too, but I had to crop out the faces of the children in the finished image.