Crafting a Fairy Party

Ahh, yes, that is lovely woodchip on the wall in the picture above.  My workshop in our new house is last on the decorating list, in fact it is barely unpacked, check out Mrs Fox's Den for the story. 

Mrs Fox's Fairy Teaparty party-box is one of  our best sellers.  On Tuesday, after the lovely relaxing May Bank Holiday, I spent much of the morning putting together a party box for 8 to send out to a client.

I think the little drawstring cloth bags I sew for the party bags, really make the party favours seem special.  But I have to admit my favourite item is not something that we make but the Fairy Wishes Cup-Cake Kit we include.  They make up 24 fairy cakes (geddit!) and, along with the cardboard teapot vase, they make such a sweet little party table display.

Fairy Wishes Cup Cake Kit £9

I also use the ice cream van containing ice cream cups and spoons to decorate the party table and then whip out the oh so useful items inside in time for dessert.

Ice Cream Van - Ice Cream Cups & Spoons £9

Mrs Fox's Fairy Tea-Party Box contains:

Fairy invitations and thank you cards

Balloons x 20 in pink, yellow & purple

Flower bunting, 2 x 3m

Mrs Fox's MYO paper fairy kits

Teapot table centrepiece/vase

Paper cups and plates in pink & yellow and fairy napkins.

Fairy cup cake kit (makes 24)

Mrs Fox’s Fairy Party Bags: cotton drawstring bag with fairy glider, make your own paper fairy kit and felt pens, balloons, sweeties.

10 pink spotty birthday candles

Mrs Fox's will put the whole party box together and mail it straight to your home.  You can purchase the Fairy Tea-Party Box for 8, 16 or 24 children right here.  Or if your number of invitees falls somewhere between these numbers please email us and we can send you a quote for a Fairy Tea-Party Box for the number of children you wish to invite.  Here’s how it works:

1. Purchase your party box for 8, 16 or 24 children.  Or if your number of invitees is substantially different email us first.
2. Email us  info@mrsfoxs.com and let us know your child’s name and party details and the number of children you plan to invite.
3. We’ll send your invitations out within 3 days (but usually sooner) and the rest of your party box can then be sent out very soon after.

Mrs Fox’s can also supply; party game kits, bunting, signage and hand made decorations to add to the fairy fun. Take a look at our blog for ideas, if you have any questions email us, info@mrsfoxs.com

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Autumn Leaf Crowns

Now that Autumn is here my walks in the morning have that extra acoustic quality - crunch, crunch, crunch...

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day

                                      by Emily Bronte 

And while Emily wrote poetry to while away her autumn, I make felt leaf crowns.

Mrs Fox's sells the crowns on Folksy for £12.  They are made to order, so the colours are ever changing and every one is unique.  Each felt leaf is hand cut and stitched.  Reinforced with webbing so they stand nice and straight.  Tiny seed beads adorn the stem of the leaf as it joins to the headband.

I rather love these crowns, secretly I prefer them to the flower headbands that we also make - but, shhhh, don't tell anyone.

Mrs Fox's Felt Leaf Crowns - £12 +p&p on Folksy

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A Fairy Teaparty and a Bit of Mrs Fox's History

A Fairy Teaparty was the first party Mrs Fox was asked to create.  

Having thrown some great parties for our own little foxes, and helped friends out with theirs, Mrs Fox's was asked if we could put together;

"a fairy party that isn't like all the other fairy parties, not too much pink if that's possible..."  

With these words ringing in my ears I decided to use yellow and lavender, with just a touch of pink.  I made a few fairies to get into the mood; wooden peg fairies, pom pom fairies, bead and pipe-cleaner fairies...



and finally came up with a rather nice paper craft fairy for the children to do at the party and take home in their party bags too.

I'm a bit of a bunting fan, so to create a fairy arbor I made large crepe paper flowers and machine sewed them onto bias binding strung them from the ceiling to help create our magical fairy realm.  This is still one of my favourite, although perhaps the most fiddly, buntings I have made.  

I've tried to write up how I made it in another blog post here.  Inspired by the amazing Disney art director Mary Blair, I'd been watching Alice in Wonderland at the time, my flowers were huge magical monsters...

The next thing I came across were great fairy cake toppers. The cup cakes can be made and decorated before the party and used for the party tea.  Or make the cakes and let the children ice and decorate their own at the party, wrap them and tie with a pretty bow for them to take home. 



The tea table was laid with yellow, lavender and pink paper plates and cups with fairy napkins that match the cup cakes. For a table centrepiece Mrs Fox made a magical giant mushroom.  Made from Papermache it stands on a cake board so is nice and fim, but it has a secret.  The base is hollow and can be filled with sweets and the mushroom cap forms a bowl into which the sweets can be decanted.

 Our ice cream van ice cream cups coordinate beautifully with the rest of this tableware. You don't have to use the little bowls for ice cream, we used them for fruit cups at our last fairy party.   

And the great thing is the ice-cream van box looks beautiful on the table, you can make holes in the top and use it as a stand for lollipops.  I made some great marshmallow lollipops with the little foxes the other day, they are easy peasy! 

And of course we have the fairy party bags;  cotton drawstring bags contained a paper fan, fairy glider, felt-craft accessories kit, myo paper fairy and sweeties. The little guests were thrilled with their hoard.

This party was Mrs Fox's first and created the pattern for our Fairy Tea Parties.  We've changed the party bag a few times and added a few games, but, this is the template for our Fairy Party Box, which is available here on our website. It contains everything you need for a fairy tea-party of your own.

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Paper Bunting # 3 - Flowers

Mrs Fox made this bunting for the first Fairy Tea Party.  The inspiration was Mary Blair and her amazing art direction for Disney, in particular Disney's Alice in Wonderland.  

Concept Art by Mary Blair for Disney's Alice in Wonderland

To create the flower bunting I used:

Crepe paper in pink yellow & purple plus green.
Glue, scissors, pencil
Gold glitter paint
Blue bias binding, about 10 meters.



1.  I drew designs for 3 flowers and a leaf.  On each flower  I decided which colours to use on each section and cut the shape out of card to be used as templates.  I left a tag (a square of paper) at the top of each of the largest shapes where the flowers would attach to the bias binding.

2.  I then traced and cut the shapes out onto crepe paper.  Layering the shapes one on top of the other I glued them down, creating the flowers in slightly different colour combinations.  Once the glue dried on the flowers I used a little of the gold glitter paint as highlights to cover areas where the glue was showing a little.  The nice thing about the crepe paper is that once hung it is slightly transparent and means that the back of the bunting looks almost as good as the front.  

3.  Once I had my flowers and leaves (And I also cut out some crepe paper strands to imitate slender vines) I organised how I planned to hang them from the bias binding.  

Leaving about a meter at each end I folded the bias binding in half down the length sewing it together to form a strong ribbon.  Placing the tags I had left at the top of my flowers between the bias binding with approximately 20cm between each flower, I machined them into the bias binding.  Between every few flowers I also machined either a leaf or a few vines of different length.
  

At Mrs Fox's we also created paper fairy craft kits for our Fairy Tea Party and these fairies were strung onto the flower bunting. 

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