Bird Watcher

This month's kit from Alpha Stamps kit inspired me to make a little hanging ornament. It looks like a little birdhouse, so it's perfect for housing an avid bird watcher. This guy's really into it; he's got his shiny new binoculars and has evidently been talking lots of notes on his findings. He's even found a nest of bright blue robin's eggs. Luckily, he knows enough to leave it alone; soon he'll be able to view baby birds.

The house is covered with beautiful papers from Bird Watcher 8 x 8 collection. I covered the inside and outside of the house with a sweet floral print, and then used parts of a couple of the other papers to embellish the outsides. Both the sides of the house feature bird stamps found on paper from the collection.

The back of the house has a giant floral pattern, which was also cut out from the Bird Watcher collection. You may wonder what's up with the wooden blue bird in this photo. Well, funny story. He was part of the first version of this project.

Here's how the Bird Watcher started out: as The Birdy House. I used a bird from an old wooden ornament, plus a resin nest and some speckled eggs. I liked it, but I didn't love it. If you're a fan of this Birdy House, though, you can click here for a supply list.  The resin nest and speckled eggs are super cute; I'm sure I'll use them in the future. But this time around, I just wasn't crazy about the interior of my little house, so I removed all the innards and went with the Bird Watcher.

A little about constructing the house itself: you could glue all the parts together and then cover it your house with papers, but I chose to cover each side and the roof before construction. Here are the pieces ready to put together. If you do choose to do it this way, it's important to note that in some places (any wall or floor that will be on the inside of the house), the paper should not cover the chipboard tabs. But in the outside walls, the paper does cover the tabs. I didn't bother covering the back of the front facade, because it doesn't show. The roof has slots in it that need to remain open, so I cut the paper to fit as shown below.  Leave the whole channel where the slot is free so that the roof will better attach to the top of the house. The hole for hanging it optional. If you prefer a free standing shrine, just cover the hole when decorating the roof.

I hope you have fun with your bird house! For a list of supplies for making the Bird Watcher, click here.