Outside of my kitchen window is a pine tree where I thought it would be cute to display a collection of miniature birdhouses. Here is how I decorated them:
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Starting with these miniature birdhouses from Dollar Tree, I painted them in shades of gray and black. The birdhouses come unfinished in light wood and really are too small for birds to actually use. They make a cute decor, but you'll want something larger if your aim is to attract actual birds to your yard.
You can check out Dollar Tree's online selection of crafting supplies here.
So I had this idea that if I applied glow in the dark vinyl as windows, then the little houses would light up at night! Isn't that a cute idea? They don't work though 😞
I've used this same roll of HTV on clothing -that's been washed multiple times- and it works fine. It also works just fine on the roll. If I have the storage drawer open long enough that it's exposed to the light and then switch off the craft room lights, the entire drawer glows up 😁
Since I know it's not a problem with the vinyl, I'm thinking that the houses just aren't getting enough sunlight exposure to charge up during the day. That combined with light pollution from nearby porch lights and the glow just isn't visible. If you try it yourself and get it to work, let me know!
Anyway, here is how I did it - Cutting a small square of HTV I applied it with my Cricut mini press. Once cool I outlined the details with puffy paint and let dry.
You can read about my Vinyl storage and organization here.
You can see the craft room here.
Using more puffy paint I also added some rose decor to the fronts.
At the same time that I purchased the Dollar Tree decorative houses, I also found this candle lantern for .25 at a garage sale. Again, birds don't like to live here (this time because the entire back is open), but I still thought it would be a cute addition to the collection and give visual variety to the display.
I used the same glow in the dark HTV and puffy paint to detail the windows, with the same lighting trouble as the tiny houses.
Once all of the houses were dry, I used screws to attach them to the tree trunk.
Note: Sometimes wasps like to nest in tiny areas like this, so keep that in mind when you decide where to hang them. I have mine up high enough that if wasps do come in, they won't be a threat to anyone walking by.
And there you have it, a nice little tree village!
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I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer
© Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams 2023
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Super cute - hope you do get some birds to come and nest in at least one of them. Our then 9 year old grandson made a birdhouse at school and as we are avid birders he gifted it to us and we hung it outside our backdoor and not long thereafter we saw some bird decided it to be a good nesting spot for them. We followed the progress and saw the younglings as well. Super cool.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your links with us at #273 SSPS Linky. See you again next week.
Nobody decided to nest in these this year, but we did get a Chickadee family in the backyard. Thanks for reading!
DeleteThese are just too cute Jennifer! Sorry to hear the HTV did not work, but they are still adorable though.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThese are adorable and such a great idea. This post will be a feature this week. #HomeMattersParty
ReplyDeleteLove your bird houses. I put out some really nice bird houses and they nested in my clothes pin bag instead. Congratulations, you are being featured on Thursday Favorite Things. https://www.eclecticredbarn.com/2023/08/thursday-favorite-things.html
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Bev
Lol and thank you for the feature!
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