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Saturday, November 30, 2013

Paper Birdhouse Tutorial

Here is a tutorial for the shed-roof birdhouse on the Christmas tree. 
I've drawn out the pattern and you may print it if you like, and use it as a guide:


From one piece of card stock you can get two birdhouses-- a tall and a small.
The + on the template marks the spot for the hole. I ran mine through the Cuttlebug with a die, but you can see if a punch would work, or trace something round to get a round hole, and cut it out by hand. Or you can cut a Christmas tree shaped hole, a square hole, a star shape, a snowflake... or you don't have to cut a hole at all, but just draw one and color it in.

 Fold along the lines, and then connect the little narrow fold with glue or tape to the other side, to make it like a box. 

The one on the right has also been run through a device to make it corrugated before being put together. 
These birdhouses do not have a bottom. That way you set them over LED tea light, or in my case let the lights from the tree illuminate them.

If you wish, you can put some bird clip-art on the back wall. Put a bit of glitter on your clip art bird, too!

Now you can see who lives there. Glitter around the entrance of the birdhouse.


For the roof, just cut a rectangle about the size you want. You may want less of an overhang than I had. I don't remember this measurement but I'm guessing mine was 5" x 8" or thereabouts. I used glitter paper and also corrugated this piece to make it look like a tin roof. If you use regular card stock, you can glitter it after you assemble the birdhouse. The glitter paper I was using was not stiff; for a birdhouse roof that doesn't look like an old warped tin roof, use a heavier weight card stock or glittered card stock. 

Leave enough to fold up and connect to the back:

Glue the roof to the back of the birdhouse.

Here comes the hard part: you have to reach in and tape that roof down, from the inside of the birdhouse. Here I have put tape on the inside, and am folding it down as I'm folding the roof down. It still needs adjusting from the inside. If you want to try and glue it, use a tacky glue and put some on the top edges of the birdhouse, then press the roof down and let dry thoroughly. 

Here is one of my finished houses, with its old tin roof! I noticed I had cut the heart-shaped hole slightly crooked, so I was pleased to find a sticker that was just right to cover up the mistake.


Here I've put a bird behind the sticker, to show you another way to decorate it. However, I like the hole that you can see through to the inside. 

I hope you all have fun making a sparkly birdhouse!