Fun to make Joyful Holiday Birds!

How about a reveal from another crafty competition with Mona from Craft Klatch?  This time our challenge was to create something for the holidays with newspapers.   Fun!  Only problem was, I am in the midst of getting my house ready for sale.  Ever tried to craft and not make a mess?  Impossible.  But I did manage to come up with three Joyful Holiday Birds made with a decoupage technique, newspapers and Mod Podge.

In these last crazy weeks, a little joy brought by some cute birds is a welcome thing!  These happy birds would do well on a mantle or sitting on the kitchen counter.  And they are glad to pose any way you like!  I set them up to take photos on the one space that isn’t covered with stuff in the house.  You see, the stager showed up and left me a list about five pages long of things I needed to do before the photographer shows up.

She banned a bunch of stuff to the garage, including my prized Statue of David!  Poor thing needs a coat.  And maybe some pants- according to the stager.  Ha!

Anyway, amongst the clutter and chaos, I did manage to put together my challenge project.  Want to know how to make some Joyful Birds?

For this project I used:

1 (4″ ) egg shaped styrofoam
2 (2″) egg shaped styrofoam
Newspaper
Mod Podge
Acrylic Paint
Small amount of White Polymer Clay
24 gauge wire
Pliers
Low Temp Hot Glue
Wood pieces
Glitter
White Card Stock
Assorted ribbons and holiday decorations

Begin by make six legs for your birds.  Cut the wire a bit longer for the large bird, and use your pliers to bend the toes into shape.

For balance, the large bird will need the wire to extend to the back as shown above for his back toe.  Coat the end of the wire with hot glue and push into place.  (You may have to adjust the feet a bit to get the bird to stand well).

Here are all three birdies ready for their feathers!

Use small strips of newspaper and Mod Podge to coat each bird.  It helps to saturate the newspaper with the Mod Podge as you put it in place.  Go a little at a time, allow to dry and then add more layers.

Here are all three birdies waiting for their Mod Podge to dry.

While they are drying, work on the signs.  I used wood pieces that I purchased at my local craft store.  They come in a big bag with lots of pieces for other projects.  Paint them red on both sides.  Once dry, use a stencil or freehand the letters J-O-Y.

Fill in the letter carefully with a small brush and Mod Podge.  Then sprinkle glitter over it.  Once the letters are dry, add a bit of Mod Podge to the edges of the wood piece and dip them in a small pile of glitter.  This coats the edges with glitter.

Cut out some wings for each bird from white card stock.  Hot glue in place.

Mod Podge some newspaper over the edge where the wing meets the body.  It was at this point, I also added a comb and beak to the large bird and beaks to the small birds.  I made them with white polymer clay.  Just form them how you would like them and bake them in a 250 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  Once they are cool, they are nice and hard and can be hot glued onto your birds.

Paint all your birds with acrylic paints in any colors you like.  You can also paint the beaks and comb.  Add eyes, and a bit of pink for blushed cheeks.  Hot glue the signs onto each bird.  These two little birds say “Yo!”  I said hi back.  LOL!

Add some ribbons and maybe a little Christmas wreath, and your birdies are ready to make folks smile.

Or in my case, they just might end up on the Christmas cards!

Again it has been so much fun to challenge Mona from Craft Klatch.  We both revealed our projects to each other yesterday and as usual, Mona did a fabulous job.

Check out her cool Newspaper Christmas Tree!  Want to know how to make it?  You can find the instruction on her website or watch her fun video!

I want to thank Mona for this amazingly fun competition!

Now go grab some newspaper and make something awesome!

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