Fairy House Fort/ Hide Treasures in the Tree Trunk

Hi everyone, welcome to my instructable. This time I made a fairy house with a platform floor on a tree stump. The stump is a nice sized hide and currently is empty. I should think of something to hide in it. Any suggestions?

For this project I used:

A plastic jar purchased at Menards

Aluminum foil

Air dry clay

An empty box from taco shells

wood sticks

paint

mod podge

woodland scenic clump-foliage

woodland scenic fine turf

various clay tools

I used foam board and drew two circles bigger than my jar and cut them out.

I traced around my jar and cut on the middle circle of one foam board circle. On both circles, I cut out where I wanted my boards and cut notches off the end of the circle with the middle cut out.

I used a taco shell box and drew a small house. I included extra cardboard on the end on the drawing for a flap to glue it together. After folding and glue the box house, I cut out a rectangle from the taco box, folded it in half and place on top of the house for the roof. See step 32 for instructions to drawing the house.

The chimney was cut from the same box and folded into a triangle; the bottom was cut at a slant and it was glued to the roof.

The open ring was wedged onto the lid of the jar and the whole circle was glued on top of the lid.

I glued the house in the center of the circle.

I put a thin layer of clay on the chimney. Using clay tools, I drew lines in the clay for the brick. Using a toothbrush, I tapped lightly to give the brick texture.

I cut and attached wood sticks, purchased from Walmart.

I used a round cookie cutter to trace a circle onto the back of the house. I then sketched in the frame and then cut out the windows.

I started with a thin layer of clay on the roof and then added thin clay cut into strips with lines for the tile carved into the strip.

I applied a thin layer of clay on foam board and then etched lines for the boards.

Using my round cookie cutter, I created the line for the door.

I started with carving the horizontal lines on the house and then I added vertical lines that were staggered to make the bricks. I lightly tapped the bricks with the bristles of a toothbrush to give the bricks texture.

Using my dental tool, that came in a pack with the toothbrush from the dollar tree, I etched the lines for the door.

I used two round cookies cutters to cut out the raised circle and attached the clay circle. I carved lines for the circle to become brick and used the toothbrush to add texture.

I free hand cut out hinges and the doorknob and attached to the door.

Using the two circle cookie cutter, I made another circle for the window and carved the lines for the bricks and used the toothbrush for texture.

I folded and smashed aluminum foil into the desired shape and glued the foil to the jar.

After applying clay, I used my silicone clay tool to draw lines for the tree bark.

Around the top of the jar, I drew lines around the mouth for the rings of the tree.

I coated the entire stump, except for the inner rings, with burnt umber.

I used light grey on the brick.

I used green, white and yellow mixed with a little burnt umber to dry brush a pop of color onto the tree trunk, and finished by dry brushing a little burnt umber over the top of all the colors to help blend them together.

Dry Brushing- have very little paint on your brush. I dip my brush in the paint and then swipe the bristles on scrap paper or a paper towel a couple times before lightly going over the bark.

I used red paint to dry brush over the grey bricks, adding more paint to a few bricks to create more contrast between the bricks as you don't want them all the be exactly the same.

For the wood beams, I watered down brown paint and applied it lightly to barely stain the wood.

The window and door I painted red.

I painted the door and floor with Apple barrel's Chocolate bar. I mixed water with the paint to thin it out.

When the floor was dry, I spread black wash on the floorboards. Black wash was made by mixing water, black paint and a couple drops of jet dry.

I painted the hardware black.

I painted the entire roof with Apple barrel's pavement and the chimney with Folk art's true burgundy.

After they dried, I dried brushed the roof with white and the chimney with the same paint as the roof, Apple barrel's pavement.

I roughly traced, on foam board, around the base of the tree, leaving space to put little mushrooms.

I cut it out and glue the trunk to the foam board.

I used little pieces of wire for the stems and foil for the mushrooms caps.

To make the caps; I used a small square of foil. First, I fold the corners into the center and then go around the edges and crumble and smash until it is the desired shape. The pointed top mushrooms I fold a thin line down on top then fold the top corners in twist the point before smashing the rest of the foil to create the edges of the mushroom.

Once all the frames were created, I used thin sheets of clay to cover the mushroom and used my silicone tool to etch lines under the mushroom caps to create the gills.

I used orangish red and orange and blended where the two meet. Using a small ball stylist tool, I dabbed on white dots.

I applied a little glue to the wire end of the mushroom before pressing them into the foam board.

Once they were all placed, I painted the ground green.

I applied mod podge to the green ground and then press on woodland scenic fine turf.

I used mod podge and painted the glue in random spots to hold the woodland scenic clump-foliage in place.

Thank you for reading my instructable!

Picture 1- For this house I choose a small wooden cutout circle, purchased from Walmart, for the base.

Picture 2- I measured the circle to decide how long the side wall should be. For this house I picked 2 inches. Next I measured the front and decided I would want a square home, so I will also make that wall 2 inches. You can pick any length. The house does not need to have a square foot print I could have done 2 inch long sides and 1 1/2 or 1 inch front and back.

Picture 3 and 4- I started with a line on the left side of the cardboard and then made a mark, 2 inches from it. This is the length of a side. Next, I marked 2 inches over for the front and then 2 more inches for the side and 2 inches for the back.

Picture 4- I choose for the side walls to be 1 1/2 inches tall by laying my circle down on the table and using the ruler to pick what I thought would be a good height. I then drew a line for the bottom of the house and measured and marked 1 1/2 inches up for the top wall. On the top line, I measured and marked every 2 inches and connected the top and bottom marks to show where I will fold for the corners of the house.

Picture 5- The second square from the left is the front of the house, I divided it's length in half so 2 divided by 2 equals 1. I marked the center of the front square on the top and bottom and drew a line to connect and up past the top line, to use as a guideline.

Picture 6 and 7- From the bottom line of the house, measure up double the height of the walls. My walls are 1 1/2 inches tall. I marked on my guideline dividing the front section of the house 3 inches. Then I connected that dot to the corner of the front of the house and the side of the house, on both sides. I repeated this step for the back of the house.

Picture 8 - I added a 1/2 inch rectangle to the side of the house. This is the tab to glue the house together.

Picture 9, 10 and 11 - I cut the house out. Folded the house on the lines and put it together, putting glue between the tab and the inside wall of the side of the house.

Picture 12- The Roof- The sides of the house are 2 inches long and I wanted a over hang so I picked 1/4 inch on each side, making the width of the roof 2 1/2 inches. The length I got by measuring the lines in picture 6 and 7's instructions, From the point of the front of the house down to the corner wall was 1 1/2 inches I doubled that number for each side of the roof and have 3 inches from the top of the side wall to the other side wall top. I added 1 inch per side for an overhang. Bringing my total up to 5 inches.

It is better to have this too long than too short. As you can always trim some off if you don't want that much over hanging.

Picture 13- Cut out the rectangle for the roof and fold it in half.

Picture 14- Glue the roof on the house.