Birdhouse Mobile made with the Birdhouse Box by Simply Crafty SVGs

Hiya, This week I've been making a mobile to decorate my craft room using a simplified version of the Birdhouse Box from Simply Crafty SVGs. I love the shape of this birdhouse design and decided to miniaturise the file and use just the foundation shapes (walls and roof base) to make some light-weight houses for the mobile. This is a great project for displaying your hand decorated papers. I have lots of background papers made from gel printing, but for this project I used paper that I'd decorated with distress inks. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut all the card and paper pieces, but any cutting machine that uses SVGs could be used instead.

Materials Used


Wooden Mobile Hanger Bracket
AC White Textured Cardstock
Smooth Watercolour Paper
Distress Oxide Inks (Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet & Picked Raspberry)
White Gel Pen
Silhouette Pen Holder
Pink & Turquoise Beads
Turquoise Embroidery Thread


Hand-decorated Paper

Each birdhouse roof is cut from watercolour paper that I'd first damped with water and then painted with Distress Oxide inks, blending each colour into the next. Once it had dried, I stamped a crackle pattern in the Salty Ocean colour over the top. Although I'd taped the paper to a board, it still warped as it dried. My solution was to finish off the drying in my heat press. When it was almost dry, I sandwiched it between clean sheets of paper and applied a little low heat. Then I turned of the press, and left in in the closed press to dry completely.

Sketch and Cut Birds

Using a bird design from the Silhouette Design Store (#268417) I sketched the outline of the bird in white gel pen onto the decorated paper and then cut an offset around it. I made a duplicate and some mirrored images, and gave each an eye in crystal Nuvo Drops. Then I adhered them back-to-back on a length of embroidery thread.  Beads were added at the end of the thread to ensure that the thread would hang straight, pulling out any kinks. These beads were re-purposed from a discarded child's bracelet. N.B. If you were making this for child you'd need to omit the beads and spend more time straightening the thread.

3-Dimensional Clouds

I designed my own 3-D clouds to hang on each thread. Each cloud consists of three identical cloud-shaped pieces with a fold line down the centre of each.  Any cloud shape would work so long as it is symmetrical along the fold line.

The clouds were cut from white textured cardstock and the cut edges highlighted with blue oxide ink.

The pieces were folded in half and they were adhered together in sets of three with one side left open. The last sides were stuck with liquid glue around the embroidery thread once the birds and houses had been attached to the threads.

Miniature Bird Houses

I made the houses by reducing the size to 65% of the original.

I used just the house and the roof (without the panels). To keep the weight down, I didn't use the door and frame, but just added a hole in their place, with a simple circle frame around it. The house parts were assembled and two small holes added in the floor, used to attach the thread together with a bead. The the roof was then threaded on and adhered to the house with a bead added on top.


Assembling the Mobile

The four 'house' threads (of identical length), were attached to the mobile hanger arms, and the 'bird' thread was attached to the loop in the centre. The finished mobile is in constant motion and consequently proved somewhat difficult to photograph.

I'm so looking forward to putting this up in my craft room once I've finished tidying and decorating. There is something rather special about having a moving paper craft project on display!

Simply Crafty SVG Files:
Bird House Box


Additional Silhouette Files:
Bird (Fox Sister) #268417
or
Bird (Fox Sister) #268416

Chalkboard Birdhouse

Hiya, Janet here with my first ever Design Team post for Simply Crafty SVGs. Today I have a fun little chalkboard birdhouse made by combining the Bird House Box and the Holiday Lamp Post. It's made almost entirely from black cardstock and decorated with white gel pen. I've included details on how you can make this 'hybrid'. I used a Silhouette Cameo® 3, but of course these svg files can be used with other desktop die cutting machines (details here).


MATERIALS:
Black AC Textured Cardstock
White Uni-ball Signo Gel Pen
Black & White Baker's Twine
Black & White Patterned Paper
(Shine Bright from Kaisercraft)
Black & White Paper Straw
Beacon 3-in-1 Glue
Silhouette Pen Holder
Silhouette Cameo


Adding a Perch

Prior to cutting add holes to the birdhouse file to allow a perch (paper straw) to pass through from front to back. Also added corresponding holes to the front and back panels. It is easy to match them up by measuring the diameter of the straw and drawing a circle in the software of the same size. Then temporarily position the panels in place on the main piece on the virtual cutting mat, and copy the hole to the correct position on all of the pieces.  Make it an integral part of the design by selecting each part and one copy of the hole, and then making each into a compound path.

Decorating the Birdhouse

The main birdhouse makes extensive use of the Silhouette Cameo's sketch facility to draw the decoration using the Silhouette Pen Holder and my favourite white gel pen with designs from the Silhouette Design Store (listed below).

The Cameo 3 has a dual carriage and so can use a pen to sketch in one holder with the AutoBlade in the other. I usually do the sketching first with a pause to let the pen dry before continuing to do the cut - no smudges that way!

Constructing the Birdhouse

The construction part is straightforward as Sandy includes a set of instructions in pdf format with each of her files.

I also recommend following Sandy's advice for crease lines, and use a shallow continuous cut instead of the dashed lines (these files are supplied with both). 

Using textured cardstock gives a variety of surfaces; use the rougher side facing out for the main parts, and the alternate with the smoother side for the sketch work on the panels.

Making the Stand

Use the pole and base pieces from the Holiday Lamp Post to make a stand for the birdhouse. A pinstripe line can be added to the pieces by using the polygon line drawing tool, adding a line just inside the outer faces. Then use the sketch function to sketch the lines before cutting out the pieces.

Once the pole and stand are constructed and attached to each other use the base from the lantern part to attach them to the birdhouse.  Simply use the knife tool to 'remove' the mounting base from the lantern.

Push the tabs at the top of the constructed pole piece through the hexagonal hole, bend them over and adhere them to the mounting base. When it is firmly stuck, adhere the new top to the underside of the birdhouse.


Adding the Bird

Save the waste circles cut from the birdhouse and adhere them to the ends of the trimmed straw. Then cut a slit in the straw with a serrated knife. Carefully trim the legs off the bird's body and push the bird into the slit. A blob of adhesive behind the bird ensures that the bird stays in place. Once dry push the perch through the holes in the assembled birdhouse and add more adhesive at the entry points to keep the perch in place and the bird upright.

Feather Embellishments

Sketch and cut two sets of feathers, one the mirror image of the other. Make an additional set with a slit at the quill end, so that the feathers can be layered back-to-back with a piece of twine entrapped between the layers.

Finally tie the feathers onto the perch to hang below the birdhouse ...

... and that completes the chalkboard birdhouse.

It's such fun to combine files to make something unique. I hope you'll try it.

Bye for now,
Janet, DT Member Simply Crafty SVGS

Blog: https://CraftingQuine.blogspot.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftingquine



Simply Crafty SVG Files:
Bird House Box
Holiday Lamp Post

Additional Silhouette Files:
Leaf & Flower Border Set (Nic Squirrell) #87418
Late Summer Border (Nic Squirrell) #146669 
Monogram Circle frame (Lori Whitlock) #192922 
Patterned Bird (Nic Squirrell) #65418
Wild Bird Feathers (Nic Squirrell) #151820