A little birdhouse goes 3D

Like Bev earlier in the week, I to have been inspired by a recent video by Jennifer McGuire one where she discussed looking for different ways to use the supplies you buy and also made pop up vases of flowers.  That triggered me into thinking what else could I make "pop" so I decided on a little bird house that I could still send as a new home card.

I've had the Magic Iris Birdhouse Die for a while and haven't yet used it to make a magic iris card but I thought it would be an ideal candidate to "pop" so I had a play with some paper templates to make a "box" to fit it and I managed to create a super cute little 3D birdhouse that still folds flat and fits a standard envelope for posting.

To make the birdhouse you need 1 full die cut front using the birdhouse die, one back - for that I drew around the die and cut around it so I didn't get a hole in the back but you could have a hole if you find it easier, and then you need an inner "box" made from the same colour card - the shape and dimensions you can see in the image below.  

To cut the hole in the box, line the front die over the box and trace around the hole with pencil and cut out with your closest matching circle die.

The extra cm on the end is just a tab to hold your box together so you add glue or tape to that to form the box and then just line up the die cut and traced die on the front and back and glue them on.  I then die cut two sets of the frilled trim from the same die to decorate the front and back and stacked up the little circle to make the peg for the bird to stand on.  A few leaves and the bird and the main element is done and you can stop there if you want.   However I wanted to add another bird inside........

To do that I added a strip of blue card the same width as the box with a 1 cm tab on each end to glue to the sides once I'd decorated it.  To do that I die cut another bird from the birdhouse die but flipped it and used the "behind" to create a bird facing the other direction and I wanted it to be sitting on a clutch of eggs so pulled out the Lawn Fawn Stitched basket die which as the perfect sized egg die.   I die cut that from some speckled cardstock and also cut the "grass" from the same set from brown to become the "nest"  I layered 3 brown grass first, then layered on the eggs, then 2 more brown a little lower down to cover some of the eggs before sitting the bird on top.   You can see that and how to fix it better below.

To fix it in place bend one tab forward and the other backwards and glue in place - doing the different directions helps the piece fold flat at the end.  You could leave it here as a 3D piece and if you wanted add a roof just by adding some red card with a couple of tabs to glue inside at the top - but if you do that it won't be foldable for shipping but would make a cute gift.

For mine I added a sentiment from Avery Elle's Windmill stamp set stamped onto a banner - I opted for the Elegant Folded Banner from MFT as it was a good size fit but there are lots of banner options to choose from and you likely already have a few in your stash and as you can see it still fold really flat for easy shipping.

I hope this inspired you to take a look at your die collection for other ideas to make "pop".  It was really fun to make and will stand out amongst the standard new home cards my friend will have.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We're still working on adding our latest Altenew delivery and have a couple more to order as they have a constant release cycle we will sadly always be playing catchup as it is just not practical to order every week from neither a time nor cost pov.

We also have the following deliveries to open and start to process today, we won't get them all done but will get through them as fast as we can:

• Concord and 9ths latest delivery which was stuck in customs for days is now finally here;

• MFT's card kit and most of the Birdie Brown stamps (except those currently discontinued) as well as some other restocks;

• Purple Onion Designs restocks as well as some "new to us" items that were requested for us to stock.

Thanks

Tara