Altered Bird House Tutorial

Hello ! As promised, today I have a step by step tutorial for my bird house which is my DT project for the current challenge " Birds" at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog. You can see why I couldn't include the steps in my DT post; this is such a long post by itself. Let's start with the original birdhouse...

It's demo day! I always love this part of these rehab projects because that's when the ideas start flowing. After removing all the bark, nails, most of the glue and a piece of gingham fabric (What??), I ended up with what looks like a band stand. Band stands make for spooky places, and I made another here.

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I gave it a new rusty, mossy roof. I smeared streaks of Translucent Grit paste down from the top and sprinkled with Chunky Rust powder with a bit of verdigris sprinkled here and there. When it was about dry I hit it with my heat tool to melt the powders and bubble up the paste a bit. The hanger is painted with Black Soot paint. I smeared on thicker blobs of Grit Paste and allowed it to dry. I scribbled the dried paste with Peeled Paint crayon (lost the crayon in the photo when I did the photo collage) and smudged it with my finger. Lastly, I dripped on alcohol inks in Mushroom and Rust and spritzed with water, drying with my heat tool when I was happy with the way it dribbled and ran.

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Next, time to work on the wood work. I had a vision of a burnt out charred house that has sat empty for years. I painted the wood with black gesso, right over the old glue and bits I couldn't remove. Grungy is good. To add more grunge and icky texture, I smeared the beams, ceiling and floor randomly with grit paste and let it dry. When it was thoroughly dry, I sprayed with Weathered Wood Oxide spray and dried it with my heat tool. Next, I added random patches of Crackle Paste and let that dry. Once more, I heated with the heat tool to make sure it was good and dry, and then smeared all the texture with Distress crayons in Ground Espresso and Peeled Paint.

 I added some dead and diseased rambling roses climbing up the walls by wrapping black string around the beams and securing with collage medium. I also adhered some thorns to the vines (Funky Wreaths) cut from black card.

I elevated the house on a base made from chipboard pieces glued together and painted with more black gesso.I adhered this piece to the bottom of the birdhouse. I die cut and embossed silver Metallic Kraft Stock scraps with the Star Trim Impresslit. I painted on Black Soot paint, sprayed with water and dripped on Mushroom alcohol ink. These pieces were adhered to the edge of the chipboard circular piece.

 I felt like it needed something else, and I found an unfinished wood square plaque in my stash, which I also painted with black gesso, then wrapped with Halloween Design Tape at the very bottom. I coated that with collage medium and when dry, scribbled with Ground Espresso crayon and smudged with my finger. I adhered some fence die cuts from my stash across the back.

I used Brickwork 3D Texture Fade and black paper coated with Distress Collage medium and cut out a section for my brick walkway.  I colored the bricks with Fired Brick and Crushed Olive crayons and adhered the piece to the square base prior to adding the birdhouse and creating the garden.

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I cut a pair of gates using the Gate Keeper dies and old Tim Holtz paper stash glued together, so front and back would look similar. This also makes the intricate dies more substantial and stiff. It helps to use the Chrome Precision Plate to cut these out. Because of the thickness of the papers glued together, I ran it through 3 times to get a nice clean cut. After applying Translucent Girt paste to the gates and allowing it to dry, I scribbled with Rusty Hinge crayon and smeared with my finger. These pieces were added to the two beams at the opening.

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Now that the house is constructed it's time to add the embellishments.

I cut two panels of mixed media card and spray both with water. I spray one with Distress Spray Stains: 

Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Ground Espresso, spritzing with water to blend further, tilting my paper and allowing to drip onto my craft mat. I use the second panel to blot up the extra stain. When the panels are dry, I spray randomly with Frayed Burlap Oxide spray, activating with water spritzes and drying again. I blot up the extra with the second panel. I repeat on the opposite side of the panels, so there is color on both sides.

I use the darker of the panels to cut three of the thorny Funky Nests and some of the other die set's  accompanying twigs. I cut thin strips from the lighter mop up panel. The strips are spritzed with water, crumpled in my hand and set aside to dry. I cut sections from two of the wreaths and glue the ends to make nests of different sizes, and assembled everything over the crumpled strips within the birdhouse.

I placed some bones (Boneyard) and a skull (Skulls and Pumpkins) in the nest. I did nothing to the skull, but added Black Soot and Ground Espresso paint to the bones.

Next, I cut the spider and web (Spider Web) from clear waste packaging, and a second spider from black card (the spiders were cut off the photo when I made the collage, sorry.) Using a felt applicator I colored the spider and web with Mushroom alcohol ink. I applied Snow Cap Mixative to the reverse side of the spider, as shown above. These were glued into the bird house with collage medium. Because the medium dries clear, the web look like it's been put there by the spider. I applied Translucent Grit Paste and Antique Linen crayon to the black spider, and he's hanging in the eaves out back.

I used the larger of Feathered Friends dies to cut a raven out of chipboard recycled out of my cat's canned food box. I cut two of everything and glued them together, so there would be more substance to them. After drying some throw pillows in my dryer the other day, I found some feathers in my lint filter and glued these around the wings. Everything was painted with Prima's Impasto in Pitch Black. This paint is super thick, and you can achieve some great texture. I sealed with Distress Collage Medium Matte to set down a surface over which to scribble and smear Brushed Pewter Distress crayon, highlighting that texture (not pictured). I finished off the raven with a black half pearl for his eye (also not pictured).

I made a little prop to hold the bird up with a piece of waste packaging. After cutting a rectangle of it, I used my scissors and straight edge to score (but not cutting through) two horizontal lines, and then folded the clear plastic at the lines. I used collage medium to secure the bird to the house. Be sure to leave it sit until the glue dries, and it will hold like cement! (I used collage medium for all the gluing, including securing the birdhouse to the base.) You can see the prop clearly in the photo below.

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I colored an old Halloween Token with Antiqued Bronze and Black Soot paint. I found a die cut dot laying around and used that to cover the hole and adhered this at the entrance. Three Pumpkins of different sizes and a sparkly foam pumpkin from my stash were each smeared with Crackle Paste and when dry, coated with collage medium. I scribbled and smeared crayon in Ground Espresso and Peeled Paint and layered them up at the doorway and placed a single one by the raven's feet.

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I sprayed a panel of olive card with Ground Espresso Spray Stain on one side and dried. From this panel, I cut some foliage using Garden Greens and Funky Floral #3 die sets. I colored a piece of Mummy Cloth with Bundled Sage Spray Stain and Peeled Paint Oxide Spray. These were adhered in the garden and in and around the pumpkins.

More vines hanging off the front of the house come from my stash left over from this very creepy project combined with  more die cut twigs cut with the Funky Wreaths set. I sure have toned down since then!

So here is the completed bird house. If you haven't seen my original post with all the close up shots of the details, you can pop over here to see it. Thank you for stopping by! Have a great week! Sara Emily

These products were used on this project and can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

 Chapter 3 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Spider Web

Chapter 3 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Gatekeeper

Sizzix Chapter 2 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Feathered Friends

Sizzix Chapter 2 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Funky Wreaths

Sizzix Chapter 2 Tim Holtz 3-D Texture Fades Embossing Folder - Brickwork

Sizzix Tim Holtz 3-D Impresslits Embossing Folder - Star Trim

Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste Translucent

Tim Holtz Distress Texture Paste Crackle

Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Trimmings - Halloween

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Mini Skulls & Pumpkins

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Design Tape, Halloween

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tokens - Halloween

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Boneyard

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Spray  - Frayed Burlap, Weathered Wood, Peeled Paint

Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain    - Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Bundled Sage, Ground Espresso

Tim Holtz Distress Paint   - Black Soot, Ground Espresso, Weathered Wood, Antiqued Bronze

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons  - Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive, Antique Linen, Fired Brick, Rusty Hinge, Brushed Pewter, Ground Espresso

Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink  - Snow Cap Mixative, Mushroom, Rust

Prima Art Alchemy Impasto Paint    - Pitch Black

Seth Apter Baked Texture   - Chunky Rust