Anna Griffin's Decoupage Birdhouses

Materials:

wooden birdhouses
Anna Griffin Beautiful Butterflies decoupage paper
Royal Coat decoupage medium
Plaid Folk Art paint: cinnamon, basil green, white/cream
wired taffeta ribbon
2 sturdy stickpins
paintbrush
400-grit sandpaper
#0000 steel wool
hot glue gun
glue sticks
rag
scissors
scalloped scissors
tape
craft knife

First, sand wood lightly to smooth any rough spots or splinters.

1. Paint the base and under the roof basil green. Allow to dry.

2. Paint the perch, inside the opening, and the roof in cinnamon. Allow to dry.

3. Trim green striped paper to fit around the edge under the roof and the edge around the base. Adhere with decoupage medium. A sharp craft knife will help you trim exact paper edges.

4. Wrap body of birdhouse with floral print paper. Adhere with decoupage medium.

5. Cut pieces of ribbon to fold into "shingles" and use hot glue to adhere to the roof. The bottom rows of shingles required ribbon pieces about 4 to 5 inches long; the rows above are only a few inches long. The width of the ribbon determines how many shingles you'll need.

(Note: The ribbon Anna used was 1-1/2" wide. For this width of ribbon, this birdhouse required 10 shingles for each of the bottom two layers; seven for the third layer up; six for the layer above that; and three to finish the top.)

6. Use a small piece of tape to adhere a pin to the back of a butterfly cutout. Adhere and identical butterfly to the back of that one with glue, keeping the pin between the two layers. You'll need two butterflies like this; you'll have to cut out two pairs butterflies.

7. Coat butterflies with several layers of decoupage medium to provide stability. Allow to dry.

8. Stick one butterfly pin into the birdhouse perch and one into the pinnacle of the roof. See finishing instructions at the bottom of this page.

1. Paint the perch and inside the opening in basil green. Allow to dry.

2. Paint the underside of the roof in white or cream. Allow to dry.

3. Cover the body of the birdhouse with the cream script paper. Adhere with decoupage medium.

4. Cover the roof using the floral paper. Adhere using decoupage medium.

5. Cover the base and the edges of the roof with the green stripe paper, adhered with decoupage medium.

6. Use scalloped scissors to trim a circle of the green stripe paper to fit around the opening. Adhere with decoupage medium.

7. Cut out several butterflies and adhere to body of birdhouse using decoupage medium. A sharp craft knife will help you get very precise cuts for the small butterfly details.

To finish each piece:

Achieve the traditional satin look of decoupage by coating the entire surface (except ribbon) with decoupage medium. Allow to dry, and then sand lightly with 400-grit sandpaper. Wipe clean and "polish" with #0000 steel wool.