DIY Project: Pretty Paper Birds

To say I have a little thing for simple bird shapes this spring just might be an understatement. I have more than one of these little guys from Bouclair. They sort of migrate around the house, depending on my decorating mood du jour.

When I was planning (okay not planning, more like choosing willy-nilly) my spring decorating projects, I knew birds would fit into the theme somewhere. When I spied this inspiration pic (originally from midwestliving.com), knew I could come up with my own version.

Yesterday I finally made ours and think it’s adorable for spring/Easter!

 To make your own birds you will need:

1. Scrapbook papers in patterns of your choice
2. Pencil (& eraser)
3. Scissors
4. Invisible thread
5. My Bird Template (print it off here for free!)
6. Twigs or a small tree

The first thing I did was to draw the bird shapes. In pencil. On lined paper. Because that’s what I had lying around. But before you despair that you cannot draw birds freehand, wait! I have made a pdf for you. Just click here for the template, right click to save and then print (for free of course!).

After making the templates, I cut out the template pieces and traced them onto the back of my scrapbook paper (typically the back of scrapbook paper is white). I fit as many birds and wings on each piece of paper as I could. (Note: I used really small scapbook paper. Like mini paper from a book that had 12 sheets and was on sale.)

Then I cut out all the shapes. Once all the birds and wings were cut out, I mixed up the patterns and colours and glued the wings onto the birds using a plain ol’ glue stick (from the dollar store, no less).

I used a sewing needle to poke a small hole in each bird.

And threaded invisible thread through each hole and knotted the thread to form a closed loop. I used this to hang each bird on the twigs (secured in some spots with clear scotch tape).

And voila! All done.

My total cost was about $5. It could be less if you have scrapbook paper lying around. Which I didn’t.

What do you think? Would you try this for your spring decorating?

Partying here:

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2011/04/scary-hang-ups-welcome-to-117th.html

 http://www.thegirlcreative.com/2011/04/just-something-i-whipped-up_17.html

http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/2011/04/feature-yourself-friday_14.html

http://craftskeepmesane.blogspot.com/2011/04/motivate-me-monday-66.html

http://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/2011/04/making-monday-marvelous-51.html

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