DIY Tooth Fairy: Aka How to Trick a 4 Year Old

My daughter unexpectedly lost her first tooth when she was 4. I thought we had another year or two before I had to plan for this so we were woefully unprepared for the tooth fairy to visit. My wife and I teamed up and threw together the best "magic" that we could for the tooth fairy's first visit to our house.

(Key thing to remember after watching that video: our target audience was a 4 year old and a 3 year old.)

For this project you will need the following materials:

• Rebar tie-wire (or something similar, craft wire, wire from your electronics station, etc.)
• Tape - I used electrical but duct tape, painter's tape or masking tape would probably all be fine
• Fiber optic strand - I have some for another project I never got around to, but you could salvage this from one of those kids toy/light things they sell at amusement parks and other tourist traps. You can order it from Amazon, but if you have time it is cheaper to get it from China (Aliexpress).
• A flashlight or other small/portable light source- I used a cheap 2 aaa flashlight from harbor freight
• 2 envelopes- any envelope will work. I like these to store seeds in.
• Glitter - don't use the big glitter in the picture. That is what I had in the garage. You want the finest glitter you have. We used iridescent white and light pink.
• Washi Tape or ribbon and glue*
  * You can substitute or augment the washi tape/ribbon with any embellishments that you have available. Stickers, rhinestones, gems, etc. can all be used

You will also need the following tools:

• Wire cutters/nips - any will do. I love my Channelloks- have beat them to death for years
• Scissors - you should already have some but if not these were the cheapest/highest reviewed I saw on Amazon
• Optional - clothes pin or other small clamp

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Cut off a few feet of your wire. If you are using rebar tie wire please understand that this is actually a razor blade in disguise and put a piece of tape over the cut ends (or work in an area that you don't mind getting blood on). Coil your wire into a circular/oval base but be sure to leave 18 inches or so extra to form the first part of your fairy - you can always cut it down if you leave too much. The base I made was an oval about 7 inches by 5 inches.

I was using a bundle of fiber optic strands that I want intact for their original project. So I butted the bundle up to the lens of a small flashlight and taped everything in place.

As you can see from the pictures this worked fairly well. I just pulled individual strands from the bundle as I needed them on the fairy. This made covering up all the unused ends that were emitting light and the coils of my strand easy since it was all coiled together.

If you are salvaging shorter strands from a toy or something similar you might want to consider how long the pieces you have are and how your light source is going to be setup. It might be better to run the fiber optic first, then connect the light at the end since you won't have as much leeway as I did running the strands.

Our tooth fairy is going to be a wire frame that supports the fiber optic strands. The less structure that you use, the less chance it shows up in the video you will take to show your kid.

I built the frame and the fiber strands together in stages. I would add pieces of wire when needed to let me get the fiber strands where I needed to flesh her out.You can just twist them into existing stands, or wire them into the base if you want to go a different direction/branch out more.

From the beginning my fairy wanted to tip over, so I used the flashlight as a ballast for the project. I ran the pocket clip around the wire to hold it in place and it worked well for this purpose. It also made it a lot easier to transport into the bedroom where the live footage of the fairy was taken.

You will just be bending the wire into a rough shape that you want and then taping the fiber optic to the wire. By varying the locations you tape to, the angles the strands are taped at, and how much the strands protrude from the frame you can get a pretty decent result without needing a whole lot of wire pieces.

I found it easiest to cut a piece of tape around 2 inches long from the roll, then cut it into 3 pieces (so you have 3 2 inch x 1/3 width of the roll sections). This allowed enough length to manipulate the fiber optic the way I wanted, but was narrow enough to work in the tight spaces that develop.

Even with the narrow pieces of tape it can be a pain to hold the fiber strand to the wire and wrap it in tape. I found a clothespin to work great as a clamp while I was taping it all together.

This was done under the cover of darkness in the kid's bedroom and she immediately destroyed everything upon waking so we don't have photos of some of these steps.

We had her put the tooth in a plain envelope and put that under her pillow. Then when she woke up the tooth fairy had "magicked" the envelope into one with her name. My daughter's favorite color is red and she likes hearts, which the tooth fairy obviously knows. She will probably customize this step to your particular child. This would be the place to use your washi tape or ribbon and any other embellishments you might have laying around.

I believe using an envelope also had the unintended benefit of making it a lot easier to find a tiny child's tooth under their pillow while they are asleep. It was a simple matter to swap them out.

At the window that the tooth fairy footage was taken my wife drew tiny pixie-dust (aka glitter) footprints on the windowsill and spread some pixie-dust around the area. She also cracked open the window that had been closed when the kid went to bed.

When my daughter woke up and found the envelope she was ecstatic. I showed her the video I took and she tore over to the window to check it out and LOST HER MIND when she saw the open window, footprints and pixie dust scattered about. She was really focused on recovering all of the pixie-dust (because it would make her fly) so we really had no chance to take any pictures.

I took my video and then dismantled her and put all of the components away. It was a fun last-minute project but if I was going to do this over again there would definitely be room for improvement:

1. Have an idea of the design first.

I had no clue how big, or what shape it should be so I just started putting it together as I went. I would probably do an image search of a fairy with wings to get an idea of the silhouette. Then build towards that specific shape. It would also be better to build the rough frame of the fairy first, then add the strands. I would run small bundles to each part of the body and have much better cable management, and use a lot less tape.

2. Don't bother trying to sneak it into the room to take the video.

Just put up a quick backdrop like a cardboard box and take your video. Nothing is visible in cell phone video in low light anyway, and you want to intentionally make it crappier with camera shake and moving the camera erratically. I just risked waking her up and spoiling everything for no gain.

3. Focus more on the physical evidence that is left behind.

My daughters wanted to see the video again and again throughout the day... BUT only because they were talking about what they found in the bedroom. "I think I needed ONE THOUSAND MORE PIXIE-DUST TO FLY... dad can we see the video of her flying again?" "I wonder how she knew my favorite color was red and used her magic to change the envelope... dad can we see the video again?" The glitter footprints and glitter dusting on the windowsill was what carried this entire thing. The video just put it a little bit over the top.

4. Have fun!

They are only going to be babies once. Enjoy it!