Monday, April 07, 2014

Alice in Wonderland birdhouse


Raulston Blooms




Every year in Raleigh there is a local birdhouse competition at the Raulston Blooms festival.   This is a local bird and blooms festival that is structured as a family event at the JC Raulston Arboretum.  There is also a plant sale, food trucks and games and activities for children.


Above are some pics of Miss E who joined my friend Cat and I for the festivities:



Here is my friend Cat with her awesome Peacock house.  She used feathers, peacock print paper, a feather stamp, cute outs and more!.  The inside is decorated also but unfortunately I do not have a picture of that.


FLY TO WONDERLAND BIRDHOUSE

For several years I have hoped to enter the competition but usually forget until the event is over.  This year I planned far enough ahead and was able to actually submit an entry.

I have a large collection of vintage children's books (Classics to Grow On) that I purchased at a garage sale (circa 1960's).  The pages are yellowing and have that authentic aging that can only be achieved with the passing of time.  I thought it would be great to use these papers for an altered art project, especially the images.  The birdhouse project was a perfect opportunity and I decided on an Alice in Wonderland theme as I also had matching acrylic stamps and immediately knew how I wanted to execute the idea






I know absolutely nothing about woodworking so I decided to construct the birdhouse from foam board (sides), cardboard (bottom) and a large children's book (roof).  I created a pattern and cut out the front, back and sides,  I then covered with colored card stock and hot glued together.  Once that was complete I used washi tape to clean up the sides and give a nice, crisp finished look.  I found that the washi tape did not adhere to the paper properly so I also used a tape runner to secure it.

Once the structure was complete I constructed the roof out of an old children's book, covered with harlequin-argyle pattered scrapbook paper and black card stock.  The roof was just a tad short so I extended this with cardboard treated with gesso and paint on one side and covered with scrapbook paper on the other.  Happy accident!  This added to the overall effect.  Before securing the roof, I raised slightly with vintage fringe trip and red and white raised-dot disc beads.  I secured the left side of the roof with hot glue and left the right side to be lifted.


Now the fun part - decorating!.......
I cut and individually colored each of the selected vintage images with distress ink markers, gelatos and water.  Once complete I edged the sides with chalk ink and cropped onto black paper.  I also used a few Crafty Secrets "Greetings from Wonderland" stamps in the same manner.  I then dove into my craft supply to embellish the rest of the house.   A wooden spoon was painted with gesso, wrapped with wire, decorated with a cameo pin, baker's twine, a blue sequin circle and a red ribbon bow.  I adhered to the roof to function as a handle.  Lift it up and look inside to find a large fabric heart and another stamped image.

On the exterior a good number of paper roses were added - on the back there is paint brush and a pink rose with red coloring - You guessed it!  For "Painting the Roses Red".  There were also feathers, heart icon wooden bingo chips, heart cutouts and chip board, black beads, stamped flowers, rhinestones and more!  (Many of the embellishments used were from href="http://www.mayaroad.net/" rel="nofollow">Maya Road) .

I finished by mounting on a stand made of tea cups and saucers hot glued together.  I had a small fiasco when dropping off the birdhouse at the Arboretum when half of the base broke.  Fortunately I brought my hot glue gun with me and fixed what could be salvaged onsite.  (The lady who worked there thought I was crazy I am sure but I knew that there was a good chance that the base could break during transport so brought it to be safe).

Here is the first prize winner's creation.  It was really awesome - the flashlight (demonstrated by Miss E.) is aimed through the hole.  Take a peek inside a view a variety of decoupaged bird images!  Miss E. was so impressed with this birdhouse that she told me I had NO chance of winning. (Gee...thanks.  LOL).



Here is the 2nd place winner.  Me!  I was so excited and had no idea that I placed!   I had so much fun I will probably enter again next year but until then on to the next project :)






1 comment:

Maryann D. said...

These are wonderful! I love them and congratulations!
twinkle at optonline dot net

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