Bird Ornaments Tutorial

 Hello Friends!  Today I thought I would share something other than miniatures.  Every Christmas, my sisters and I (along with nieces and nephews), have Crafty Christmas.  Instead of buying something for each other we make something.  This Christmas I made pans of cinnamon rolls for everybody, and I made clay birds for my sisters and mom.  I love making the birds so much that I decided to keep going after Christmas and hopefully by next Christmas I will have an entire tree filled with birds that I made!  I also snuck in Walmart when their Christmas stuff was 75% off and got a six-foot flocked and snowy tree for ten dollars!  This will be my bird tree!  I also plan on making some whimsical bird feeders and houses to go along with my birds.  With all that said, here are some of my birds and how I made them.

I hope you didn't expect them to not have glitter!  They've got to shine y'all!

First, I use aluminum foil and wad it up into as good of a bird shape as I can.  Heavy duty foil works the best and you don't use as much.  For the hummingbird I hot glued a piece of toothpick before I used the clay for his long beak.

Creative Paperclay is my favorite.  Just using a little water on my hands and molding it into shape is fun.  The not so fun part is waiting for them to dry!  They are usually ready to paint the next day, depending on how thick your clay is.  I really do love checking on the drying process with this clay.  You can tell by color or temperature.  If you pick it up and it is cold it's not dry yet.  

And this is me saying "Don't forget to press a small hole in the top of your bird for a 

hook to hang them up!"

When it's time to paint, I simply use a pencil to mark up my bird marking where 

paint colors will change.  I try not to be too accurate and detailed in the painting.  I could be, but when planning to glitter them up it's mainly just the colors that I want.  Just enough to be able to tell what kind of bird it is.  

This is by beloved Wood Thrush.  My favorite!

When I use glitter, I like to use Mod Podge and mix very fine glitter in the glue then paint it on.  This way the glitter stays on the project and doesn't leave a glittery trail everywhere!

I used one of my bird books for inspiration.

I just love them!  I can already see the tree all decorated up!  I've got a lot to do between now and December!  I also have a Mushroom Tree that I made mushrooms in this same way.  On that tree I also made acorns and pinecones.  

I hope you enjoyed this post!  While I LOVE making miniatures, my creativity does not stop there!  And I can't wait to share my Bird Tree with you next Christmas!

XOXO ~Laurie

Christmas Advent 2025

 Hello and almost Happy New Year!  When my family gets together for Christmas, we always bring a gift and play the game Dirty Santa.  For the past three or four years I have created a gift to give for the game.  I love for someone to pick and open a gift that I have made.  This year I decided to make an Advent to give out of a wooden Advent calendar that I bought five years ago... LOL.  I actually had it in my donate pile, like a silly girl, because it's just been sitting in it's box in my craft room since I ordered it.  I guess I was just waiting for the right time to make it.  And the right idea.  Pardon the photo dump incoming. 

This is the original that I bought from Amazon.  

You can find it HERE

First, I sanded and painted all of the little drawers and wound up lining the inside bottoms with a soft flannel.  Mainly because the inside of the drawers needed sanding but were difficult to smooth out. 

I also painted the outside of the calendar in a maroon shade and painted Christmas flowers and such around the outside and on the borders of the drawer squares.  I wanted a sort of "Old World" painting theme.  Don't know if I achieved that or not but I really liked it.  I also sprayed the whole thing with a semi-gloss clear coat.

I knew I wanted a 3-d type scene of winter time, with trees and birds.  Here I've started the background.  I cut out trees from chipboard and also some snow banks.

I doubled the thickness of the trees, painted them and added snow.

I painted a couple trees on the background.

I made little ornaments for each day.  I made pinecones, birds and snowflakes from THIS air-dry paper clay that I LOVE using.  I also made a hole in the top of each one and added a little hook.

To give the trees depth I glued pieces of chipboard in triangles (standing of their side and painted) behind the trees.  I also used trimmed sewing pins for everything to hang on.  I used E6000 glue for each.  Hopefully they will stay in place!

And as always, sign your projects!

I had a lot of fun making this Advent!  And one of my nieces got to take it home with her!  I hope her family has lots of fun for many years putting ornaments on all through December!  

I also hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and wish tons of blessings for you in the New Year!

Let's create some stuff in 2026!

XOXO ~Laurie

Miniature Canvas for Paintings

 Hiya Mini friends!  So, the person who has leased the Loft above my Apothecary is apparently somewhat of a painter.  lol.  I needed some canvas style pieces to paint on although I don't have any actual canvas.  So, I made my own and it worked!  

I used scraps of balsa wood and also some of the really long match sticks.  I liked the match sticks better because they are sturdier than balsa wood.  I just randomly cut pieces for each canvas so I would have different sized paintings.  

Next, I glued the pieces onto a piece of white card stock and when they dried, I cut them out.  I then used spray glue on the top of the cardstock and stuck pieces of thin white fabric to the front.  

When that dried, I trimmed the white fabric, leaving enough fabric to go up the sides and a little on the back.  I used E6000 to glue the sides and back.  

Then, it is just on to the painting!  They have the look of canvas from the front and the look of canvas from the back.  

So simple and easy to make.  I made several at once and wound up making more.  I haven't decided what kind of painter the tenant is yet.  So, I just painted several different styles.  The paint doesn't bleed through to the back which I like.  If I had just used fabric the paint definitely would have bled through. 

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO ~Laurie