Tutorial: Spring Birdhouse Centerpiece

Spring Birdhouse
Spring Birdhouse

I’m not a great seasonal crafter. I guess I kind of get all my seasonal festivity worn out with my over the top Christmas, and then I’m spent. But when Elmer’s sent me a box of goodies to make something for their facebook community, I decided to step out of my usual routine and make something sweet and spring like to celebrate the season where the presents are all out doors.

Videos and tutorials below, come on in!

Elmer’s asked me to videotape my craft, so if you’d like to see it that way, check these out.

My haul from Elmer’s. They make a lot of great stuff I didn’t even realize.

The tutorial for how to make this little birdhouse. It starts out with the same clip as the haul for introduction, but then veers into the tutorial instead of showing off craft supplies.

For you photo tutorial people, keep on reading. I wouldn’t leave you out.

I started by using the bifold foam board. The bifold kind is important because you’ll need that bending ability. I used the x-acto cutting templates to cut out four rectangles all the same size.

Then I used the oval template to make the birdhouse door in one of the rectangles. Just position the template halfway off the end and cut around.

Cut a piece big enough to be the bottom of your birdhouse. I eyeballed mine and it measured 3 1/4 x 2 1/2. To make the roof you want to cut a section of foam board with that score line right down the middle. You can eyeball this too, but mine measured 5″ wide x 3 1/4″ high. The only important thing is that that line is right in the middle so it can bend correctly.

Cover the top of the roof with fake moss, sticking it in place with glue dots. Make sure that you glue it in a bent position so that you don’t loose the angle you need of that roof. You need that to stay flexible.

A lot of the foam core will stay visible, so I took the opportunity to add a cute design by wallpapering the underside with washi tape, or as Elmer’s calls their’s, designer masking tape.

To build the house part, you just pretend you’re building a gingerbread house. Use some liquid glue to stick the four sides together, then glue those four sides to the bottom piece. Let this set up for a while before decorating, you don’t want to break it apart in your efforts.

Once it’s dry, use more designer masking tape to wallpaper the outside of the house. To get those corners covered neatly, use a piece of tape half on one side, then press it over to the other.

Cut the masking tape out around the doorway, leaving a little extra to fold toward the inside and coverup more foam core. You can also see I started decorating here with a contrasting strip of masking tape.

Glue on the roof by running a line of liquid glue where the roof meets the house. There will be a big open space there since I didn’t want to draft a big pattern to get the roof to match up exactly, so I remedied this by filling it with another kind of moss and gluing it in place.

More moss around the bottom to cover up any more foam board threatening to destroy our illusion, a couple of birds, a spring message, and a bird perch made out of a chopstick.

This probably is something I wouldn’t have made without the challenge, but I totally love it now. Thanks for the ideas and the great supplies, Elmer’s!

If you’d like to participate in the fun, join Elmer’s facebook community where you can share ideas, get great inspiration, and see how other bloggers tackled this challenge. Tell them I said hi!

Disclosure: I work hard to develop relationships with companies that I believe in. All ideas, words, and opinions are totally mine. Elmer’s gave me supplies, but as always, I only work with companies I spend my own money with.

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