A Bird in the ....

house, or rather 13 birds in 13 houses!!  My monthly crafting group were given little plain cardboard birdhouses, in varying shapes, at our January meet-up - we had to decorate them, bring them along to the February meet, and then we would swap them amongst each other.  Here's how mine turned out:

 

I painted it white using plain old housepaint, and then added distressed wood effect papers for the body of the house.  I had some wrapping paper with pretty birds on it, I stuck one on a couple of layers of card then cut it out, wrapped wire around the perch, painted it and then impaled the bird on it!!  I spent a while thinking about the roof, I don't have any big scallop punches or straight dies, I didn't want to do individual tiles, too much faffing about.  Then I hit on a idea which worked better than I could have hoped - I used the inside edge of a postage stamp die - carefully adhering strips of paper in two different sequences and die-cutting, then distressing and overlapping the strips and finally making a ridge tile to finish it off.  I am really pleased with the result.  Here's a closer look:

 

I'm entering this house into the following challenges: Crafty Creations ("For the Birds") and Papertake Weekly ("Anything Goes").

Here's a pic of everybody's birdhouses together - aren't they fab?!

And here's the house I received in the swap - from Svetlana.  I love the woodgrain embossed paper she's covered it with.

 

My birdhouse recipe:

Papers: October Afternoon "Seaside"

Die: Nestabilities "Postage Stamps"

Other: Wrapping paper bird

Thanks for looking and thanks to Isobel for the idea to do this swap (and for providing the houses).