Tweedy Bird Christmas Decoration

 Make a Christmas Tweedy Bird Tree

Want to make a cute Tweed Bird Christmas Decoration? You'll need the items on the list below to put this crafty DIY project together for the holidays.

Materials

  • terra cotta pot
  • iridescent bronze acrylic paint
  • 1 yard wired Christmas ribbon, 1.5 - 2 inches wide
  • 2 yards double-faced satin ribbon, 1/4 inch wide
  • floral foam
  • small piece of gold tissue paper
  • branch 
  • 9" x 12" red felt
  • 9" x 12" scrap of tweed fabric (with some red in the tweed)
  • black Sharpie
  • brown Sharpie
  • Tweedy Bird template (click here to download)

Instructions

You'll also need some sharp scissors, a paint brush, craft glue, clear tape, and a tapestry needle or needle and thread to match your ribbon.

The first step is to paint the outside of your terra cotta pot with the iridescent bronze paint. This will give it a nice, subtle holiday glow.

Next, paint the upper part of the inside of the pot. It's not necessary to paint it all the way to the bottom because the bottom inside will not show when the project is complete.

Here's the painted pot, which now has a slight glow, thanks to the iridescent paint.

Find a branch that has some smaller branches going out to the side so that you'll have several places to hang your birds. Remove any leaves, and dust it off with a paint brush.

Paint the branch with the iridescent bronze paint, making sure to paint all sides.

Cut a piece of floral foam to fit into the pot, apply some glue to the bottom of the pot, and glue the floral foam in place.

If the floral foam doesn't cover the entire space, put some packing material around it.

 
 
Cut a square of gold tissue paper, and place it over the foam. It does not need to be glued.

 Place your branch in the center and push it down into the foam all the way to the bottom of the pot.

Wrap the wired Christmas ribbon around the pot and tie a bow. Trim the ends so that the wires are not sticking out.

Apply a light coat of glue all over the felt and press it onto the tweed fabric. Tweed ravels quite a bit, so the felt helps to stabilize it when you're cutting the birds out.

Download and print the template for the bird and wing. Tape the template to the felt side with clear tape; then cut right through both the tape and the glued felt and tweed. Cut six birds, one at a time, and twelve wings, one at a time, as shown on the template. After you cut out each bird, cut around the outside with sharp scissors to clip any frayed edges on the tweed. Make four or five cuts (the template shows five, but either four or five is OK) as indicated to make the tail feathers.

Draw an eye with the black Sharpie, and color the beak with the brown Sharpie.

 
Glue the wing to the bird, using felt side up for the tweed side of the bird.
Turn the bird over and make the eye with a black Sharpie and color the beak with the brown Sharpie.

 
Glue a tweed wing to the felt side of the bird.

Cut the satin ribbon into twelve-inch pieces, one to hang each bird. Cut the ends of the ribbon diagonally. Thread a tapestry needle with the ribbon, and pull it through both layers of fabric. This is the method I used, but it can be a bit difficult (I really had to tug to work the tapestry needle through the bird), so, if you prefer, thread a needle with thread to match your satin ribbon and simply sew the center of the ribbon to the top of each bird.

If you used the tapestry needle method, slide the needle off the ribbon. Tie a square knot or two overhand knots in the top of the ribbon. You may need to trim the ends, depending on how far down you want your bird to hand on the branch.

Arrange the birds on the branches, and your Christmas Tweedy Bird Tree is all ready for the holidays!















Halloween Felt Table Runner - Easy DIY Project

 

Here's a quick and easy project for Halloween decorating. We're going to use craft felt to make an orange and black table runner and decorate it with black felt bats. Click HERE to download the bat template so that you can print it.

In addition to the bat template, you'll need one piece of 8" by 36" orange craft felt, one piece of 8" by 36" black craft felt, a few straight pins, scissors, a rotary cutter and a mat (optional), and craft glue. I machine-stitched the runner together, but if you don't have a sewing machine, you could overlap the seams and glue it. The first step is to cut the orange felt in half so that you have two pieces, each 8" by 18".

Next, cut an 8" by 12" section from the black felt.

Pin each orange section to the longer black felt piece, which will be in the center of the table runner.

Use a half-inch seam to sew the orange felt pieces to the black felt center piece. Backstitch to begin if you're machine sewing. (If you're gluing, overlap the seam half an inch with the black felt on the top.)

Sew the seam and backstitch at the end. Clip threads.

Here's the stitched seam. You could use either black or orange thread. I used black so that it would show up in the picture. Sew the other orange felt piece to the black felt center piece in the same manner.


Pin or tape the bat template to the 8" by 12" black felt. If you fold the felt, you can cut two bats at a time. Hold the felt and template firmly as you cut out the bats. Small, sharp scissors work best.

Cut out eight bats.

Arrange the bats on the orange felt any way you like. I put four on each side and made it symmetrical, but you could have more on one side than the other. Below is the left side of the runner I made.

Here's the right side.

This is the completed runner on my dining room table. The light was so bright in the room (you can see its reflection on the table) that it washed out the color in the photo, but it's orange on the sides as shown above.

Here it is on my coffee table. It's longer than the table so the ends droop down, but it looks cute with the vintage ceramic Halloween decorations set in the middle.

More Halloween Ideas









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