For the Birds {Paper, Book and Doily Ornament}

Last week, both Belle and I had the tremendously exciting opportunity to be guest bloggers at Under the Table and Dreaming, along with 23 other bloggers during the week of Thanksgiving. Each of us showed a handmade ornament, and let me tell you, I was more than a little awed to be included with such talented and amazing people! The ornaments were so amazing, and my want-to-do list grew as the week went on! :)

Stephanie Lynn coordinated all of this, and did such a wonderful job putting it all together~ even adding the most beautiful collages that highlighted her favorites of each blogger's projects when she closed at the end of their tutorials...I was so touched by her thoughtfulness!

I thought I would show you my ornament now on this blog, too, because you may not have seen it...do you mind? Actually, it's essentially the same post...

I have been noticing all of the gorgeous and creative book wreaths in Blogland for some time now, and thought it would be fun to somehow incorporate that idea into an ornament.

I also love paper birds and so decided to make a paper bird, but add a twist to this idea by using the pages of a book for the body of the bird.

This Paper, Book and Doily Bird Ornament is an inexpensive and fun way to add a simple yet festive touch to your Christmas tree. And it is not at all difficult to make either!

What you'll need:

Bird and wing templates (see below)

Card stock, solid colored

Decorative card stock

A book {Dollar stores often sell paperbacks that are just perfect for this}

Miniature doilies

Buttons and decorative jewels

Felt

Twine

Glue gun, glue sticks

School glue stick, such as Elmer's

{Along with these, you will also need fabric and paper scissors as well as a hole punch.}

Begin by printing out the bird and wing patterns. They are not pictured to scale here, but if you save them to a file and then print, they will print to the correct size. (About five inches wide.) These pictures of them are not pictured to scale, but if you save them to a file and then print, they will be the right size. You can trace these onto cardboard or card stock~ these will be your templates.

Trace the bird template onto card stock, and then do the same thing onto your book pages. I had to glue two pages together to make it big enough for the bird, and most book pages will probably be this way.

Glue the book page cut out onto the card stock one.

If you used a hole punch for the twine, make sure to do this part before going any further. It will be too difficult to do it later.

(You can find these miniature doilies at JoAnn Fabrics, for 99 cents a piece.)

To give the doily "wing" extra firmness, I used stitch witchery. If you haven't used this before, don't worry! It is easy-peasy!

Cut a piece of stitch witchery about half the size of your doily, making sure when you fold it, the stitch witchery doesn't extend past the edges of the doily.

Now cover your folded doily with a damp cloth and place hot iron onto it, holding it there for 10 seconds. (Although I did notice cream doilies were a bit thicker than the white ones, and they needed about 15 seconds to fuse.)

Using a glue gun, dot the folded doily with glue and press onto the bird. You can glue the wing on however it looks best! See how the wing covers the hole punch, so no one will know it's there?

Now if you want layered wings for extra texture, trace the wing templates you like, and cut them out. You can use book pages or felt for the extra wings...or anything you want! :) Glue these onto the doily wing, and add your other embellishments~ buttons, sparkly gems, sequins...you name it!

I also thought it would be fun to make birds out of decorative card stock as well, with book page on the back of the bird, and combine this with book page wings...Once you get going, the possibilities are endless! You can mix it up however you like!

Then the best part of all~ decorating your tree!

Here is my little "kitchen tree" with the birds!







And here I added a miniature version of the bird to the front of a book page tag...I like the twig underneath, but am not happy with the shape/size of the felt under the bird...I have a few ideas of how to make it look better, but I wanted to show you what I had so far! :)

Well, I hope this L-O-N-G and drawn out post didn't bore you to tears! If you haven't seen all of the wonderful ornament ideas posted at Under the Table and Dreaming last week, be sure to head on over and check it here!

Hopefully you are all doing well, and having a great week! :)


Thanks so much for stopping by~

Jenni

I am linking this to Freckled Laundry's Air Your Laundry party.