Miniature Barn Ornament

 Howdy Doo Friends!!  Let me just tell you, I have been having some fun around here.  I currently have three new ornaments to blog on!  YAY!  Also, I have decided, as all of these are for my Bird Themed Christmas Tree, that as long as they have bird eggs, birds on them or in them or just a bird itself, it's OK to be on my bird tree!  As long as that's settled, here is my precious little barn dance barn.

This little gem stands 3.75 inches tall by 2.5 inches wide by 3.5 inches long.  Going back to 1:12 scale after this is going to seem like making items for a giant!  

As usual, I made this one out of chipboard.  I cut the pieces out and didn't take any pictures of that part.  But I covered the insides using scrap book paper from my stash. For the "wooden" siding and flooring I had to do a few samples.  I wanted the weathered look but couldn't decide what basecoat color I wanted.  I chose my chocolate shimmer that I love so much and went with a mix of red and red shimmer acrylic paint on top.  I simply painted the brown and let that dry then went on top with school glue and painted on the red while the glue was still wet.  That is what gives the crackle effect.

The flooring has the same brown undercoat with mushroom and buttermilk paints on top.

I also went around the edges of the red planks with a paintbrush and the mushroom paint for dimension and used my brown ink pad to go around the edges of the flooring planks.  I cut each strip 1 centimeter wide.

I went in with the glue around the inside edges and sprinkled saw dust because that's what is on the floor of a barn dance!

I wanted a party banner for the inside so I found a tiny, thin piece of lace from my stash and draped it around the inside of the barn making sure that the front piece could be seen through the doorway.

I made the tiniest hay bales I've ever seen using cut blocks of balsa wood, glue and sawdust.

The rooster, hen and chick came from a yard sale years ago.  They are cast iron and have little wires for legs which is perfect to stick them down in something.  So... there are my birds on this piece!

I also thought that a tiny barn dance needed a couple of instruments.  At this point I believe I have lost my mind!  I don't own the tee-tiny paint brushed needed to make these look really real.  So, they turned out a little sloppily painted but the eye will never know at a distance.  I made a Bass and a Banjo!  I drew a Bass shape on a piece of cereal box and cut it out, then glued that to another piece, and then two more cutting each out along the way and painted it.

I also went to my computer and looked up county fair, circus and just old posters for the inside walls.  And, for the outside banner, I found a blank banner online then added Barn Dance, Saturday Night to it and glued it to the front.

Here you can see the finished instrument in the corner waiting to be played.

The plant in the corner and also to the right of the front doors is just twine that I cut and brushed.

Here's the banjo.  It is just four hole punches glued together, and cereal box cut and glued together for the stem or whatever it's called.

The roof is deconstructed cardboard that I pulled off both of the top and bottom layers because I wanted to stretch it out more while gluing it down.  I originally wanted to paint See Rock City on the roof.  I tried it and it did not look good.

I also made a disco ball from a bead with glued on glitter and a longhorn skull made from wire and air-dry clay.

I mixed black paint with gunmetal metallic paint for the roof and added a bit of rust using paint.

And there she is!  Ready for the Barn Dance!

If you like this one or have any questions, please comment!

These are so fun and really don't take that long to make.

Thank you for stopping by!

Got any more ideas for my Bird Themed Christmas Tree??  Let me know!

XOXO ~Laurie

Mini Stone Cottage Birdhouse Ornament

 Hello sweet mini friends!  Today we have a mini stone cottage birdhouse that I made for my bird tree.  I had a lot of fun with this one.  A bit of challenging fun I should say.  I am currently hooked on Pringles chips and have managed to include a few empty cans in my stash and what better way to use them but for bird houses?  This one is a little bigger than the other five that I have made so far.  Also, pardon me for the large amount of pictures here lol.

I had a couple of different "how am I going to do this" moments.  First with making something stick to the surface of the outside and inside of the can, and second with the roof.  So, here are some pictures of the house along the way.

I tried on another can just painting the inside.  It just wasn't working like I wanted. So, I used Mod Podge and covered the whole thing in paper towels.  Luckily it did stick so I moved on to adhering torn up eggs carton "stones" to the outside using wood glue.

Oh, I went ahead and painted the outside and inside before I added the stones so the white paper towels wouldn't show through.

I used clay to make a wooden-like frame for the hole.  

I let it dry on a spare can so the shape would hold.

The roof was throwing me for a loop.  I wound up just cutting some triangles and taping them together.  It seemed like it was going to work so I used strips of cardstock and glued them on the inside seams.  

I used my favorite napkins with the roses and lined the inside walls.

I used a piece of soft pink fur and glued the edges to a cut piece of round chipboard, then stuffed it, for the base pillow.

After the stones on the outside were dry, painted and gloss Mod Podged, I used joint compound to fill in around the stones.  I have found that a couple coats of Mod Podge added to the stones first makes it easier to wipe off the joint compound with a damp paper towel.

I also went ahead and used my rose napkin on the inside of the roof.

I added some cereal box pieces (like my other house HERE) for the shingles on the roof.

I used metallic acrylic paints for the shingles.

I scanned Pinterest for cute bird pictures and found some with crowns that I thought were cute!  I made some frames for them and painted them with metallic acrylic paint.  You can find my method for making the frames HERE.

For the little pillows, I used pieces of chipboard and glued on fabric that I stuffed and stitched a little knot in the middle then added a rhinestone.

And of course, the house has to have eggs!

I added ivy vines using floral string.  I gave each leaf a little buttermilk paint around the edges to give it a variegated look.

And I couldn't leave the bottom blank!

And that's her folks!  I now have six little bird houses for my bird Christmas tree.  It's not going to be enough!  I feel like I need at least ten, maybe twelve, houses for the tree.  

Thank you for coming along with me on this project!  It has been really fun so far and I have lots more to do!  

XOXO ~Laurie