Musical Fairy Garden Set

The Oldest Daughter, now 10yrs old has decided to take up a job and raise her own money.  While I am very proud of her (that will be another blog post) this is more about how I helped her today with that job.  Her job of choice is selling miniature Fairy Gardens.  Most of the time she makes all her own accessories, whether its a painted rock house, a garden banner, or even a rope swing.  Sometimes she will ask me for a little help to make them "fancy" or "pretty" or so on and I do what I can to help but she really doesn't need much of my help.  Honestly, I'm sort of jealous of her job, its so fun, its like being a kid again playing with doll houses and I just love helping her when she lets me.
I'm so proud of her for everything she had done so far and I really love how she enjoys it all.  Yesterday she came home with an order of 6 more teacup sets, WOW!  Thankfully one of them did not need to be ready till Friday so that left a little breathing room but it was for a special person, her music teacher.  She was determined to make a "musical" themed one but she was also determined to go to her best friends birthday party so the time to put it all together was going to be limited on Thursday night.
Since she has worked very hard with her fairy garden business I decided to help her out and surprise her with a few musical instruments that she can use in her fairy garden.

When I first thought about making them I thought it was going to be so easy and I would just whip them right up and be done.....Of course not, I spent half the day working on them but I'm finally satisfied.  All that was left was the wait till she returns from the birthday party to see what she thinks of them.

The hardest one that I made has to be the Harp.  I loved all the pretty harps on Pintrest (my idea source) but I sure as heck couldn't make one even close to the ones I was seeing.  Thinking I was just using the wrong type of branches I went out in search of a a different kind.  Apple tress seem to have the best textures and shapes so finally I was able to come up with something I liked.

Although I glued all the parts together I also added to straight pins to the top branch to keep it together till the glue dries.  I think I will also put moss around the those areas to hide the connecting areas but I wasn't sure yet if the "Business Girl" would like it our not so I will wait an see?
As for the block base that its all attached to was from a wreath project I did and I just drilled it out and stuck the stick inside it for stability.   Unfortunately, the strings are a bit lopsided but I didn't notice that till I took this picture so maybe its just the angle of the camera. lol

On the other hand the Pan Flute was probably the easiest instrument that I made.  I used Bar-B-Que skewers all just cut at random lengths and glued together from shortest to tallest.  I glued another piece across them to hold the shape and then weaved a little thread between the sticks for decoration.  Oh and the tassel that is just a few looped threads tied off and attached.

The banjo/guitar or what every stringed instrument a fairy would want to play was another tough one to figure out.  The wooden disc was simple as I had the from other projects once I found the right thickness.  Attaching the arm was a pretty easy as I just drilled a small hole in it and stuck a branch in it.  The strings were the problem.  I tried to attach them to the sides on pins but it just didn't look right.  Finally decided to attach them to the top and it worked great.  Just a balled straight pin shoved as far into the stick as I could and bent over, worked like a charm.

The drum set was pretty easy too.  I just cut a wine cork in half, added some white fabric in a circular shape and then glued it in place.  For the sides I used the same black thread as on the stringed instruments and sewed around it.  It doesn't really "hold" the cloth as the glue does that but it looks good.
The drum sticks are simply left over from the flute with some of the same white fabric as on the drum glued to it.  Again the black string is not "holding" the fabric as its glued into place but it gives it that finished look.

All and all, I love how they turned out.  Guess what she did too <3 and I'm sure that her teacher will love what she created for her too.  I love how she arranged them in the teacup set after she got home from her friends birthday party too.  I was not going to do it like this at all but it worked out great the way she did it.  Guess she is better at her job then I am.