Birdhouse 24-7

Well, I don't know about your area, but the birds are very busy building nests around Phoenix right now.... it won't be long before we hear the little peeps from the babies! When I was watching them this morning, hustling around, eating and grabbing the stray bit of grass or twig, it inspired me to decorate a birdhouse today. I purchased an unfinished one at Walmart over a month ago for a few dollars. There were many different types available, and they were found in the crafting area. Here's a close up of the nesting bird...

I snapped photos at various stages of construction, and thought I'd share how I put this together this morning. First I started with my supplies - the paper comes from the Raspberry Tart collection (LOVE it!), and the stamps are from Friends 24-7 (LOVE this even more!). I picked out a few different colors of acrylic paint to give a distressed look to my birdhouse.

As you can see below, I put a basecoat on the roof, bottom and post.

Then I added the other colors to give the birdhouse a distressed look -

To make an easy template for cutting your patterned paper, use a sheet of printer copy paper and trim it so it's slightly larger than the face of your birdhouse.

Line up one edge of the paper along an edge and bottom of the birdhouse, then simply use your finger to press a crease in the paper as shown below - you may need to trim off the bulky, excess areas so that you can make a good crease. After you've creased your edges, just trim off the extra paper with scissors to make your template.

Put your template back on the birdhouse and use your finger again to lightly crease an outline for the holes in the center. Cut out the holes with scissors.

Use your template and cut out 2 pieces from your DSP for the front and back. Remember to cut holes for the front DSP piece only! :)

I measured and cut two rectangles from the DSP to fit the sides of the birdhouse. Going in sections, I applied a coat of ModgePodge to the birdhouse using a 1 inch sponge paintbrush, then laid the appropriate piece of DSP on it - press around the DSP to make good contact with the glue. When this was done to all 4 sides and dry, I used a sanding block to distress the paper. Then I applied a top coat of ModgePodge over the entire birdhouse.

While the birdhouse was drying, I stamped the bird and flowers on Whisper White using Staz-On brown, then immediately heat-embossed with clear EP. These were watercolored with markers and aquapainter, then cut out. I created a nest using a very thin strip of raffia and stuck/glued spanish moss around. The flowers, bird and nest were adhered with dimensional popdots and mini gluedots.

Here's an overall picture again - straight on....

There you have it! I hope this inspires you, just like I was inspired this morning by simply watching the birds. Have a great day, and come back soon!