Did you know that we share The Sunny House with a family of fairies?
Do you see the door to their part of the house? It’s on the pillar to the left of my desk… on top of the molding with a little wooden ladder leading up to it from the floor. Do you see it?
We helped the fairies make it because we wanted to invite them to share our home with us. They come and go in the evenings after we have gone to bed and in the very early mornings before we come downstairs.
They are very quiet and respectful and always leave their part of the house neat and tidy (which is more than I can say for us!)
Here’s an image for you to Pin.
Don’t you just love the little flowerpot?
Kitty and I made it for the fairies together. I molded the clay and she painted it. She did a great job, don’t you think… doesn’t it look like distressed old wood? We searched for the right doorknob for quite some time before Teddy found the perfect button.
This is how we made it…
Materials we needed to make our DIY fairy door :
* white sculpey clay
* a pretty button that looks like a miniature doorknob.
* acrylic paint in two shades of brown… light and dark.
* a butter knife with a nice flat edge
* seran wrap
* parchment paper
When using my rolling pin to work with sculpey clay, I like to wrap my roller in seran wrap so that the chemicals from the clay don’t get on my rolling pin. I don’t like the thought of rolling out delicious chocolate chip cookies knowing that my pin rolled sculpey last.
Step 1 :
Roll the sculpey into ball to soften it and then use the rolling pin to flatten it.
Step 2 :
With sharp end of the butter knife, draw the outline of your door softly into the sculpey clay.
Step 3 :
Use the butter knife to cut out the shape of your door.
Step 4 :
Use the blunt end of the butter knife, pressing it down gently to make ‘wood plank’ grooves in the clay door.
Step 5 :
Insert the doorknob into the clay.
Step 6 :
Lay the door on the parchment paper and bake it in the oven as per the sculpey baking instructions (ours took 10 minutes at 200 degrees F).
When it had baked hard, we set it on the counter top to cool completely.
Step 7 :
Use the lighter brown acrylic paint to paint the door brown.
To make the wood grain effect, we will work with the dark brown paint while the light brown paint is still wet on the door. Add streaks of dark brown paint to the grooves of the door, use your brush to sweep the dark brown paint upwards in long, continuous strokes. The dark brown mixes with the light brown in random places to make the door look like withered old wood.
We used the same effect to paint the little wood ladder.
We used double sided tape to fix the fairy door to the wall.
For the first few days, the door remained undisturbed. But then, on the 3rd day, we noticed a little flowerpot outside and rejoiced to know that the fairies had moved in!
This has been such a fun project that we have decided that we’ll make a gnome door for our avocado tree outside. We have lots of ideas from HERE on how to decorate it so that a family of gnomes will move in.
Don’t miss out on any The Magic Onions fun… follow on Instagram too : @themagiconions
Blessings and magic,
Donni
14 Responses
Adorable project and I love the flowers placed near the door. So sweet!
Thanks, Janet :)
It sure was (and continues to be) a lot of fun.
xo Donni
Wow!!! What an awesome door! I totally thought it’s made out of wood, if you hadn’t told us otherwise.
I’m very impressed
Hi Pat. I know… I’m also amazed at how wood-like Kitty could get it. Amazing what a little paint technique can do :)
xo Donni
Such a darling little door! Loved the tutorial, thank you!
I love your your shop and am thrilled to have found it and this blog! You are inspiring! Thank you for the door tutorial, It is so neat and could be so unexpected. I wish I could work for your company, it would be so amazing! Thank you for sharing your delightful ideas and inspiring possibilities.
Hi Sadie,
Thank you for your kind words :)
xo Donni
Wow i cant hardly belive something so cute is so simple to make. Im hopein mine turns out 1/4 as good as yours.
Can’t wait to see yours, Ora :) Please send a photo.
xo Donni
What did you use to put the ladder together? I’d like to do this awesome craft for my daughter, she’ll love it! It’s beautiful. Thank you.
Hi Rose,
I used an unpainted fair garden picket fence. The slats of the fence makes a perfect fairy ladder.
xo Donni
Is it possible to paint + insert the door knob and only then bake it? Just to make sure I don’t spill paint on the doorknob
Hi, Wytse, you will need to bake it before painting it.
xo Donni
DIY always uncovers your natural talents. My kids would love to have this fairy door, too!