This button rainbow makes me really happy:
You can make your own too! Check out my tutorial Here.
It is bright and fun, and makes my heart skip 4 beats, just like these kids do:
Link Nighthawk
Captain Friday
Asher Thrasher
Mercie Danger
Well it was about time I bragged about my awesome kids 😉
I’m gonna have to add another one to this equation…
Happy booty-shaking and baby-making!
~Dot
For today’s tutorial, I will not only teach you how to make these super-cute, super-easy paper birds in cages, but I will also proceed to take you on the distracted journey that my mind travels whilst attempting to create something… Hold on to your seats. This is going to be a long post- but it will be worth it, I promise.
How cute is this little guy? With just a few supplies, and 15 minutes, you can create your own paper bird in a paper cage. I first saw these on pinterest, and since then I had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to make some! So when my niece was having a rainbow-themed party a few months back, I was excited to make a whole spectrum of these!
First I cut some birds out of heavy card stock. It took me a few tries to come up with a good design for a bird…
I got distracted here… with the kangaroo-esq legs and angry face…
…and then came fatty with the ice cream…
…and the winner was this lil guy! I posed him on the best rhubarb pie recipe in the world, as my awesome sister proceeded to make it:
MMMmmmmmm rhubarb pie with a crisp topping is so much better than with the traditional lattice-top crust! And of course my creepy brass clown had to make an appearance. My sister single-handedly (seriously- she only has one hand) converted me into a rhubarb lover.
Once we ate a pie, I got back to work:
For the bars of the cage I cut out 3 strips of heavy card stock that were 11 inches long and a third of an inch thin. (I prefer the thicker 1/2 inch one I used for the cage at the top of this post, though.) I punched a hole in the center of the bars, and then I punched a hole in Mr. Bird. (Note-I eventually just used a pin-hole because this one was way too big.) I tied and strung some clear string through the bars and the bird like this. Plain white polyester thread works great for this too.
I fastened the bars and the string with a cute matching brad. I really wish ‘brads’ were called something else. ‘Brad’ is such a gross name for anything craft related. “Oh, honey, can you grab me my cabochons and my filigrees, some embellishments and a BRAD.” Ew.
For the base of the cage, I used a canning jar ring. Someone you know probably has em kicking around, or you can definitely get them at any thriftstore for dirt cheap. I thought it was a pretty genius move. The original cages I was inspired by used either just a ring of paper or a yogurt container lid- which I have none of, as I am allergic to dairy-thanks for bringing up a touchy subject.
I just spaced the bars evenly and used a dab of hot glue to adhere them to the lid. I cut out a strip of matching paper and glued it around the ring. And then I saw the pile of left-over paper. And got distracted:
BUTTERFLY INFESTATION!
I had to tame those beasts, so I sewed them together, leaving a couple of inches in between each one- and BAM! Easiest garland ever! I’ll do a more detailed tutorial on this soon 🙂
Anyways- back to work!
Simply cut out a circle of matching card stock, stick it inside the ring, and hang up your delightful bird! Here is that whole spectrum I made:
EEeeeek! I love them so!!!
But alas I had to send them off to my niece. It was hard to see them go, so I decided to use my favorite vintage-inspired paper (which I also used for the background of my button clock) to create my very own bird in a cage to hang in my bedroom.
So precious…I needed to take more photos!
Up close and personal. Oooooh, Ahhhhh.
Well I hope you enjoyed this tutorial/ character study of an A.D.D.-er. Have fun making some of your own little birds. They are a lot quieter than the real thing, and a lot cleaner too…
Nevermind…
Happy bird-caging!
~Dot
I’m in a great mood this evening! 🙂
Yesterday I decided to start submitting my tutorials to Craftgawker, and I’m really happy I did, because I’ve gotten a pile of new followers as a result! So I wanted to post a painting as a “Welcome, Gawkers!” post:
Here is a little brown bird in a button tree I whipped up for a neat couple who just had a baby.
This was a really quick project- I just painted a simple branch on an 8×10 canvas board, then added a sparrow, using a stencil I made from a silhouette I found in a bird book. Next I glued different shades of green buttons onto the branch, and finished it off with an old frame I had spray-painted white.
These button trees are so darn versatile! The sky is the limit when it comes to ways to get creative and custom with em! Check out my first button tree tutorial here. I used pink and green buttons to create a cherry blossom feel.
Well, thanks for following, Craftgawkers! I hope you check back for more tutorials, ideas, recipes and other creations that spew from my over-active and sometimes insane-in-the- membrane mind!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Craftgawker, it’s like Pinterest, in that it is a place to browse, collect, and ‘like’ some great photos of great ideas. But it is exclusively for arts and craftiness, and the photos displayed on the site need to be approved by some magical (and very picky) elves.
There is also a Foodgawker, for which I risk electrocution on a daily basis as a result of the amount of saliva that hits my computer whilst staring at it for hours on end. My Foodgawker story isn’t as good as my Craftgawker one has been. I submitted several photos to them, then got shut down in a big way, (“Awkward angle.” “Too dark.” “Uneven composition.” A.K.A. “Who would eat this garbage? Stop trying.”) which felt so bad that I was tempted to take a course on food photography, until I realized I probbbbbablly don’t have the time to be making decisions based on the old high school-rejection feelings that were brought back by these elves.
At least they like my craftings so far.
And on that note- I must go to bed to dream of little brown birds and little clown herds…. WHAT?!?!?! Ew! that is the worst mental image that has ever escaped the recesses of my subconscious only to pounce into the unsuspecting blogosphere! I’m sorry to have imparted that into your mind! CLOWN HERDS?!?!?!? Now I don’t want to go to sleep :’O Why did it have to rhyme so well with “Little brown birds”?? Wah.
Busted Button 