Friday, July 27, 2012

Making a Birdhouse with a Book

I can't take credit for this idea...  
I saw a version close to it at a local art walk last weekend.  I made some changes to it 
(actually, I made a lot of changes...)!  The one I saw used a book for the roof and that's about 
all I kept the same.  I think they used wood for the rest of the house.  I chose to use heavy 
cardboard so it would be light. 


 I plan to use it in my (future) classroom.  

You can see that I incorporated a clothespin! In the classroom, I plan to clip notes there.

So, here are the pictures and how I did it.  
I hope this inspires you to make a project like this from recycled books.


First, I gathered my materials... a book with a lot of ripped pages inside, my paper cutter, Tim Holtz embellishments (of course!), scrapbook paper, scissors, Mod Podge, heavy cardboard (I used a box), a tiny clothespin :-), a large button (from my friend Leigh), a hot glue gun, spanish moss and floral moss.

I cut a template of the front (and back) of the house from white paper and then used it to cut the front 
and back from cardboard.  I then cut the scrapbook paper and Mod Podged it to the cardboard.  
I used a page from the book to Mod Podge to the backside so it would match the book on the top.

After cutting the side walls and covering them with paper, I hot glued the walls
 together and then I hot glued the book to the top.  To hide the "seams", I added the spanish moss 
and floral moss.  Then I added the embellishments like little rhinestones scattered here and there and the Tim Holtz embellishment for the "house number".  I added my tiny clothespin to hold my messages and I added some Spanish moss behind my beautiful button.  Finally, I added a ruler sticker (Tim Holtz) to the bottom to give it more of a classroom look (and because rulers have numbers on them...  and of course you know that I love numbers!)

See the message on the ruler, "Property of Board of Education  City of New York"



View of back with the page from the book.

Side View

This is the book I used.


I love how it turned out! 


So, what do YOU do with old books that have ripped pages?
Don't throw them away.... recycle them for a project!

I hope this inspired you to think of ways to recycle old books.

Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think.
I would really like to hear from you.

If you return to visit my blog, I would {L-O-V-E} for you to become a follower.

Until next time, 

:-) Tonya

* P.S. - I linked this post to Nifty Thrifty and Twigg Studios and 

This post was FEATURED on Destination: Craft












15 comments:

  1. That is one adorable bird house! How clever!

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  2. Came over from Twigg's to see the birdhouse. This is so adorable = I know your future studenys will love this in the classroom.

    Distressed Donna Down Home

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  3. That's adorable! Pinned it. Visiting from Keeping It Simple link party.

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  4. Visiting from Vintage Wanna Bee blog hop...such a cute idea! Do you mind your images being pinned on Pinterest?
    New follower,
    Dori @belljarvintage.blogspot.com

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    1. I do not mind if you'd like to pin anything from my blog. What a compliment! Thanks! Please come back and visit! :-)

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  5. That's a very cute idea! I have a hard time taking any book apart, but I think I might be able to do it if I found a book with ripped pages inside. :-)

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    1. I agree! It took me a while to find a book with ripped pages that I could use because I couldn't bring myself to rip apart a "healthy" book! LOL! :-)

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  6. What a wonderful project! I have a bad habit of picking up 50 cent books from the library to use in projects (that end up collecting dust on my shelf). I'm inspired!

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    1. Thanks, Julie! I'm glad the post inspired you. :-) I'd love to see yours when you make it!

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  7. This is ADORABLE!! I would like to invite you to show off your work at Fine Craft Guild, at Time for a party: http://www.finecraftguild.com/party/
    Thank you in advance for joining in!
    Rose

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  8. This is so cute! What an original idea! I'm featuring this tonight at the link party. Thanks so much for linking up!

    Kathryn
    destinationcraft.blogspot.com

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  9. Yay! Thanks so much for featuring my birdhouse! :-)

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  10. oh, this is just so, so lovely. thank you for sharing it with us, and hope to see more wonderful crafty ideas from you at our Wednesday parties at http://www.finecraftguild.com

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