Tutorial Bird House Decoration

Hello there :)


Today I want to show you how you can decorate a bird house for spring :)
I had a small wooden bird house which I got really cheap and decorated that with leaves and flowers.

Materials:

wooden bird house
polymer clay
leaf cookie cutter
(flower cutter)
needle tool
roller or pasta machine
liquid clay

Instructions:

Tutorial Bird House Decoration

Here a picture of the bird house I used.















We will start with the roof which will be covered with leaves. You can draw them on in pencil as a guide if you like. Mix several shades of green to make it more interesting and then roll out each colour into a thin sheet. Using a cookie cutter in a leave shape cut out your leaves from each sheet. You can of course also cut them by hand or create your own cookie cutter like I did. I showed you how to do this in this tutorial.




After you have cut out your leaves, take each into your hand and using thumb and finger press all around the sides. This is to remove the sharp edges and to flatten it so the sides look thinner and more leave-like.

You can then use a leave mould to texture your leaves by pressing them into it. If you don't have one, you can either take a real leaf and press your clay leaf in or you can simply add veines with a needle tool or a tooth pick.

Then start placing your leaves onto the roof. Take some liquid clay and put a line of it at the bottom of the roof.













Position the first row of leaves. You can overlap then a bit if they don't fit next to each other. Make sure you interchange the colours. 

Add row after row of leaves, always placing the leaves into the gaps of the previous ones and overlapping them a bit. Don't worry about small gaps too much. We can cover them with paint later on.

Once you reach the top, start at the other side of the roof. When you're finished with that you'll probably have a gap at the top. Cover that with another row of leaves but this time position them horizontally. This way everything is nicely covered.





Now onto the rest of the house. You can add big or small flowers or anything you like. I made a big flower at the back, one around the hole at the front and a meadow with small ones at the bottom of the house.

Tutorial Bird House Decoration

For the daisy it's probably best to sketch out where you want your leaves and the flower to know where everything goes. Roll out a thin sheet of white clay.









Then you can use a cookie/ fondant cutter like I did or simply cut out the petals by hand one by one. Flatten the edges like you did with the leaves.






You first need to place down your leaves with liquid clay and then the flower on top. Position the flower or the first layer of petals where you want them using liquid clay underneath.
Texture them with a needle tool by adding lines to the petals, so they look more organic.





Cut out another flower/ more petals and flatten the edges. Create a second layer of petals, making sure that the top petals are in the gaps of the first layer.

Condition some yellow clay and roll it into a ball, flatten it with your fingers and check if it fits into the middle of the flower. Texture it with a tooth pick/ needle tool by making little holes. Then place it into the flower's centre.



For the blue flower around the house's bird hole, simply cut out small circles and cut them in half.
Add liquid clay around the opening and place your petals on. You can overlap them a bit if you like. If you're not sure if they fit into a row, you can also try out the arrangement without liquid clay first and then attach them once you're sure.
To make the flat bottom of the petals fit the circular hole, simply drag them a bit with your fingers.
Cut away any excess on the inside of the hole if you have any overlap.

Now the bottom of the house. If you want a moss-like texture, use your several green shades and put pieces of them on the bottom of the bird house, which you have covered with liquid clay. Be sure to place on the colours in an irregular pattern.



Once you have covered everything, start texturing with your needle tool/ tooth pick. To create the moss texture, you'll need to scratch the surface by making circular movements on your clay. Circle, circle, circle until the clay has this bumpy surface, the colours also blend through this technique nicely. Press down any loose parts with your fingers.


To create grass on the side of your house you can either use a quick technique and cut out zig zag grass or like me, invest some more time and roll out your green clay into very thin snakes and cut pieces of different lengths. Roll the top of each blade of grass into a point. Spread on liquid clay and then position your grass pieces. Make sure you interchange the colours and that the blades of grass are not too straight and regular and overlap them.


For small the small flowers, roll your desired colour into a thin snake and cut pieces of the same size from it. For the daisies roll them into little logs and flatten them. Place them into the spot where you want your flower and arrange them in a circle. Add a yellow centre and texture with a needle tool. For round petals, roll the small pieces into balls and flatten them. Arrange them and add a centre.

Add as many flowers as you like and then bake the whole bird house according to the instructions on your clay package.

You can then use some acrylic paint to cover up any wood you don't want to be seen. For example I wanted the roof and the base of the house entirely green. For this, paint all the gaps with green, also underneath the roof and underneath the house's base. You can use several shades of green if you like. To add some more dimension you can also brush on some watered down paint into the leaf veins and the low parts of the moss. Use a darker colour for this like really dark green, brown or even black. Wipe away the excess paint from the high spots with a paper towel or wipe it with nail polish remover after it has dried.

Glaze your house if you'd like to give it shine or leave it like it is to keep it matt.

Here it is, completely finished :)

Tutorial Bird House Decoration

Tutorial Bird House Decoration

Tutorial Bird House Decoration

To hang it you can screw in a hook at the top if you like. Mine is just for decoration and stays inside.


What do you think of this? Do you like it? Let me know if you have any questions and show me your recreations :)


See you soon