New Forest Fairy Crafts

Posted by Lenka Vodicka-Paredes and Asia Currie on Aug 16th 2018

Hello! We are Lenka and Asia and we’re so excited to see our second book, Magical Forest Fairy Crafts Through the Seasons, in print. Writing a book is a long, rewarding process.

All of our projects begin in the classroom. As art teachers, we see how children respond to changes in the world around them. Each new season is an opportunity to celebrate with festive crafts. Engagement with the world inspires us along with young crafters.

Since the first Forest Fairy Crafts book, we have connected with crafters and children all over the world. From grandparents with visiting grandchildren, homeschools, classrooms, scout groups, everyone we hear from requests new ideas for ways to create through each season. So in our new book, we went from sharing ideas with each individual to collecting them together into one book!

We approach writing a book with a “chaos of ideas,” as we call it. We begin by collecting everything we ever made with our own kids and community. Then we choose the favorites. We curate ideas for a wide range of skills. We also want both girls and boys to craft, so every craft includes directions to make boy and girl fairies. And crafts for active kids are shown with a variety of colors that all children enjoy. We choose some projects that appeal to mellow personalities interested in deep investments in crafting and some for quick crafters that want to take their craft and go play already.

With this book, we bring diversity to the fairy forest by painting beads to show fairies with a range of different skin tones. Crafters will also find new ways to customize fairies if they have the first Forest Fairy Crafts book. Crafters new to the forest will find all the foundation skills shown, with many step-by-step photos for children to learn hand-sewing and fairy-making.

This book shares our popular sewing techniques and fairy-building that made the first book such a success. We add to the fun with baby fairies and more gnomes.

We also bring new critters, such as a fox, chubby cat, and lavender mouse, to play with the fairies. And we add interactive crafts, like small treasure-keeper bags and fancy beanbags with colorful streamers.

We teach the tried-and-true techniques of the Dolphin Stitch (running stitch) and Polar Bear Stitch (whip stitch), along with a new Manta Ray Stitch (back stitch), perfect for sewing swoops and lines, and Seed Stitch for raindrops and seed details.

Once children start making, they quickly learn the skills and make many crafts. What do you do with all of these crafts? Of course, you can build little houses to go along with the fairies and gnomes. Or give crafts to friends and family. Or use them to decorate your home.

We use all of our enchanted crafts on a nature table in our home. If you haven’t heard of a nature table, it is a small table or shelf that becomes a decorative space throughout the year. Children (and adults) collect treasures to feature on the nature table along with their crafts. Colors can change for each season. A scarf makes a pretty surface or backdrop. We collect nature table ideas on our Nature Table Pinterest Board. We also collect seasonal project ideas on a Pinterest board called Seasonal Goodness. And of course you can follow our Forest Fairy Crafts board to see our blog updates with more ideas throughout the year. The foundational skills shown in our book help children create the projects in the book, of course, along with all sorts of other crafts all year around.

The projects in the book also include extension ideas so the crafts can be modified for any season of the year. A cat can be sewn with black felt for fall or white felt for winter. A garland can feature fall leaves or spring blossoms. While each season showcases suggested crafts, you can make any of the crafts year round. We also share extension ideas to make young crafters curious and empowered. Our goal is creative crafting that encourages children to design their own ideas and see those ideas become reality.

We enjoy creating with children because the natural world amazes them. Each season is an opportunity to notice and be inspired by our beautiful world. We are delighted by this book because it collects our favorite projects for children to make and gift to the people they love. We’re excited to invite everyone back to the fairy forest!

You can find our new book, Magical Forest Fairy Crafts Through the Seasons, by clicking here. If you have the book, we appreciate everyone leaving reviews on Amazon to help new crafters find our community. Click here to leave a review. Of course, if you haven’t discovered the first Forest Fairy Crafts book, you’re in for a treat with both of them. Let’s make magic :)