By Mel Evans

Shhhh! Do you believe in Fairies? We do! We often find signs in the woods that fairies might live there, but we have still never found a real life fairy!

We spend a lot of time thinking about what the Woodland Fairies might look like. One of our favorite Fairy spotting books is the Fairy Wonderland Handbook, by Melissa Spencer. This book suggests the Woodland Fairy wears dresses made of beautiful flowers. Rather like Cicely Mary Barkers depiction of Flower Fairies.

il_570xN.823155847_6oii.jpg — *Ciceley Mary Barkers Flower Fairies.*

*Woodland Fairy from Fairy Wonderland Handbook, by Melissa Spencer.*

You can have a go at making Flower Fairies of your own using an old fashioned clothes peg. Craft suppliers sell these, but if you don’t have any at home there is an alternative. You can find a stick and remove the bark using a potato peeler. This works best with green wood so, if possibly, cut something fresh from the garden. Children often ‘Whittle’ with potato peelers at our Forest School sessions as a precursor to using a knife. You will have to decide if this is suitable for your child and if not prepare the sticks for them. Protect the hand holding the stick with a gardening glove of similar.

We then prepared our peg by painting a top and some hair onto it. We drew on a face with a felt tip and glued on wings cut from card. There are many other ways to prepare your peg depending on the resources available. You could make hair from wool or wings from leaves.

Next comes the really fun bit. Dressing the Fairy! For this you need a few Spring flowers. Tulip Petals can be tied around the peg with a ribbon to make a skirt. Alternatively if you carefully snip the middle out of a Daffodil you can slide it up the peg to make a two layered skirt. A Primrose makes a great hat and the wings can be decorated with sequins, biodegradable glitter or leaf confetti.