Fairy Houses: A Fun Summer Project

With my daughter nearly off to her first year of school, we have been having fun doing things together before she is a big Kindergartner, and gone from me for most of the day :(  (Are you sensing my trauma??)
When we were at the craft store the other day, we spotted all these darling birdhouses on sale - on my mom had the brilliant idea to make them into fairy houses!

Each birdhouse cost $2 or $3, and the only other cost associated with the project was glue!  Very inexpensive, and my girls had so much fun!!

Below you can see the birdhouses pretty much as we bought them.
The girls painted them first with acrylic paint (because they absolutely love to paint, and it gave us a colorful base in case the wood showed through after we were done gluing.)

We went to the beach and collected a gigantic pile of shells and rocks.  We also collected sticks and leaves from around our house.  Pretty much anything earthy and organic made it into the pile. 

I picked up the super strong glue from the craft store that doesn't smell - so that the kids could use it without worry. 
I smeared a layer of glue on the first side, and let the girls stick shells and rocks to their hearts content.  I helped them push things close together, but they were really able to do most of this on their own.

We let each side completely dry before starting another side (sometimes for a whole day).  It stretched out the project, and allowed us to collect more items as the days went on. 

Here you can see that we have many more sides done.  Sticks for the roof, some twine, etc.

And here they are all done!
We finished some of the sections with raffia, beads, beans, fake flowers -- things that fit each space and covered all parts of the wood.

The girls are now having fun making "beds" and putting things inside. I think they look adorable in the garden!