I do believe in fairies

Milly is now at an age where the nightmares she has stay with her and she has started to develop a bit of a fear of the dark and of being left alone at night.  It breaks my heart to think of her scared of anything at this age so we've invented a story to help things along a bit.  For all of her love of cars and lego and traditional boy toys she is a real girly girl and loves fairies, so we've told her the fairies will come and take away all the horrible things she dreams of and keep her safe.  Of course they need a way of getting in to her room so I took something else I've seen on the internet and used it to our advantage.

Knock Knock...

I have no idea what these things are actually for or what they are supposed to look like, so apologies to anyone who comes across this blog knowing their purpose.

You will need:

Air drying clay

Paint

Varnish

Rolling pin

Sharp knife

Paper and pens

Draw out your design on paper.  You don't need to be an artist for this - you are simply drawing a door.  Think about the size of your wall or skirting board when you do this because it needs to fit in place.  Any type of door will do.

Roll out the clay to about 1/2 cm thick, put your drawing on top and, using a ball point pen or sharp pencil, draw around the outline.  Cut around the indentation.

Now add your extras.  We had a rather famous teacher in college and I only found out about that fact on the internet a few years ago, which shows just how little attention I paid to pottery.  As a result, I am rubbish!  So, I went for some easy bits and bobs and added a "stone" arch and base, a tiny window, letterbox, hinges and door knob, a small plant, a few roses, a couple of butterflies and a ladybird.  If I was doing it again, I think I'd leave out the plant.

Leave to dry.  The packet I used said allow 3 to 4 days but mine was dry within 24 hours.

Once dry paint however you want.  Since I am a typical toddler parent I have absolutely loads of ready mixed poster paint in, so I used that.  It needed a few coats but its cheap and easy stuff to use.

Once again, leave to dry before gluing all the pieces together and varnishing.  If you want to add any glitter do so when the varnish is wet.  Wait for it to be completely dry before adding embellishments.

If I was going to do this again I would probably use normal modelling clay rather than air drying simply because it does dry out exceptionally quickly, which makes any smaller pieces difficult to create as it crumbles in your fingers.  I also wouldn't use my beloved global knife which has the end broken off it due to the fact that my husband thought it was the best tool to break a block of ice.  I'd probably get something a lot sharper for cleaner lines.