It's a Creative World: Birdhouse rock

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We are a diverse group of talented, fun loving, crafters who want to share loads of great stuff with you. Inspired by colour, paper, fabric, nature, patterns, sounds, architecture, we love to create and we're not afraid to experiment. We have our roots from around the world and are constantly learning and gaining inspiration from the world around us. We hope you enjoy your visit to our blog.

Birdhouse rock

Morning, Eleanor here with a dinky little swinging birdbox pendant.

An advert for Handcrafted Jewelery magazine popped into my inbox one morning and I just had to make what I saw on the cover. First I enlisted my husband to cut me some very small pieces of wood, not that I couldn't do it myself, you understand, of course I could, but I thought I'd give him something to do! ;)

Here are the little pieces he produced for me, approx 1in by 1.5in, with a 5mm wide shallow hole drilled on one face of each block:

I then carefully drilled a fine hole down through the centre ridge,

into which I placed an eye pin (from a jewellery findings supplier, or you could cut an inch of wire and curl a loop at one end) (could have used a small eyelet screw, but even the smallest one from the hardware shop looked big and clumsy on top of my teeny house) just to test the fit:

I took the pin back out and put it to one side, glued a couple of squares of chipboard on to make a roof, then simply decorated each house with a selection of patterned paper scraps (I used pieces from 6in x 6in pads, as the print is smaller). I also stamped here and there, and gave the little entrance hole a quick lick of black paint, once I'd used the end of a pencil to press in the glue-soggy paper (I knew I'd never match a precut hole in my paper with the actual hole, I know my limitations!) . I then poked about with a long pin in approximately the centre of the roof ridge until I found the little hole I drilled earlier, dripped in a drop of glue, and popped in the eye pin. (I used superglue, the one drop easy applicator one.)

Finally I coated each one with 3 coats of Mod Podge, drying in between:

Added a chain, but might try a ribbon, or waxed cord, or a length of cotton string for a rustic look.

Big thanks to both the original designer, Heather Alexander, and also Cate Prato for her take on it, the same but different, as is mine, and as will yours be.