Miniature Spun Cotton House Ornaments

 Hello Friends!!  Hope you all are well! Today I am sharing some houses that I have made for my bird tree.  The inspiration for the little houses came from a Pinterest post from Rosanna at Sweethavensanctuary.org.  This is my first time ever trying to work with cotton covered treasures.  In fact, I had never even seen the technique.  But I have had so much fun learning and making these little ornaments for my tree and decided to share what I've been making with you!

I began with the Sparrow Post house that is my replica of the one that Rosanna Shares in her YouTube videos.  She also has a link to the house template.  I actually made two houses using the template then I branched out and made other sizes.  You can find Part One of her Sparrow Post HERE.

To make them appropriate for my bird themed Christmas tree, I decided they all needed shop or business names that are bird themed.  Easy enough!  I have made six so far and I am not done!  These are so fun to make.  The hardest part is the drying time after gluing the cotton down.  

I began by using my favorite chipboard and cutting out and wood gluing the houses together.

Then covered them with masking tape as the glue mix while gluing the cotton down would just sog the poor houses to death.  The glue mix is simply one part school glue to four parts water.  Most of the time I would squirt a thin layer of school glue to the house and lay the cotton on top, then use the glue mix and a paint brush to dampen and press down the cotton.

I just used cotton balls, unrolled them and pulled pieces apart.

It is a learning process and I am sure professionals would say 

I'm not doing it right, but it worked for me!

It has been so hot the last couple weeks here in Tennessee that I decided just to sit them outside in the sun to dry while I went and did something else for the afternoon.

These are the only pictures that I took when making the Do Duck Inn.  I simply made the duck head out of aluminum foil and hot glued it to the top of my round house.  Then covered it with masking tape and glued the cotton to it.

These are the two made from Rosanna's template for the Sparrow Post.  I found it easier to make one just like hers for my first house.  I am so appreciative for her teaching and style.   It's never too late to learn to make something different and learn new techniques!

I really hope you enjoyed this post and will visit Rosanna's blog HERE and also her YouTube Channel called RosannaMakes HERE.  She is a delight to listen to and follow along and is so very talented.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

XOXO ~Laurie

Shabby Cottage Ornament

 Hello to all my mini loving friends!!  Here's is another ornament for my Bird Themed Christmas Tree!  I call it The Shabby Cottage.  And... I kinda want to take a nap in there, lol!  This one came together pretty fast as I used techniques that I have used in the past.  So, I will link to other posts within my blog where you can find the tutorials.

Her dimensions are 3.75 inches tall by 3.5 inches long by 3.5 inches wide, measuring from roof edge to roof edge.  The body is actually 2.5 inches wide.  

After cutting the pieces out (you also see the headboard cut out here) I covered the inside with scrap book paper.  

I wanted the headboard to look wicker so I glued down some just ribbon and outlined the headboard with rope looking string.

I thought she needed a velvet bedspread.

I found these little bird and flower stamp pictures online.  I printed them and made frames.  

You can find the frames tutorial HERE.

Now I am making the floral siding.  I am using the exact same method as the flooring in one of my pumpkins.  You can find that tutorial HERE.

For the roof I used very thin, corrugated paper that I saved from light bulb packaging.  It's pretty flimsy but it worked perfectly. 

I used silver metallic paint for thew roof and added rust spots from brown, green, orange and copper.

And now for the roses!  I probably should make this tiny tutorial in another post.

Update:  I've had this tutorial in drafts since May 8th.  I've made the eggs for this house but have yet to glue them in and take pictures because I've started two other houses lol.  So, today I am posting this without the eggs in the house!  hahaha

Thank you so much for visiting!  

XOXO~ Laurie