Tiny Steampunk Bird House for Mother's Day! - Lost Coast Designs

Howzit Everyone!
Do you need some inspiration for Mom's Day projects?  I created the cutest tiny bird house in the Steampunk style!  Check it out - even the little birdie has a monocle ;0)

 

I used the small bird from the Vintage Bird Illustrations set and the Happy Mother's Day sentiment which can be found on the Daisies set.  Both are Blockheads exclusives and the Measuring Tape border stamp by Lost Coast Designs is also available at Blockheads Paper Arts!

Vintage Bird Illustrations

Daisies

Measuring Tape Border Stamp - Lost Coast Designs

Supplies for the Tiny Steampunk Bird House 

Tiny wooden bird house
Tiny resin bird
Tim Holtz Idea-ology:  Sprocket Gears and Game Spinners
Ranger Inkssentials Silver Memory Foil Tape
Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante Collection 12 x 12 paper
Distress Stains:  Tea Dye, Stormy Sky
Distress Inks:  Tea Dye, Black Soot
Black Acrylic Paint
Memento Ink Pads:  Tuxedo Black, Rhubarb Red, London Fog, Rich Cocoa
Adirondack Alcohol Inks:  Ginger, Stream, Espresso, Caramel
Alcohol Ink Blending Solution 
Alcohol Ink Applicator Tool
Stamp positioner tool
Judikins Diamond Glaze
Chipboard tag - Michaels
Silver Jump Rings and fine silver wire
Black Sharpie Marker
Copper marbalized die
Embellishments:  Assorted watch parts and a metal flower with a topaz jewel center
White cardstock and a scrap of grungy blue/green paper
Craft glue
Black square pop dots
Low tack tape
and don't forget the stamps available from Blockheads Paper Arts! 

 
 Before I tell you all about the bird house I want to continue on from where my last project left off.  I gave you a sneak peek at the basket weave background I stamped up just with Lost Coast Designs' Measuring Tape border stamp.  Blockheads is doing a featuring in their upcoming newsletter on 'Creating with Border Stamps' so keep a look out for it!  So lets get started with how I created this really cool weave pattern.

Draw a faint grid in pencil with the spaces just slightly larger than the actual border stamp which you can then erase when you're done.  You can also eyeball the spacing if you prefer.

Tape off alternating horizontal spaces and stamp the border in Memento Tuxedo Black ink vertically.  Remove the tape and turn the cardstock anti-clockwise - just make one turn!  Mask the black border just stamped and stamp the next border in Memento London Fog.  Remove the tape and turn the cardstock anti-clockwise again.  Mask off the grey border and stamp with Rhubarb Red.  Turn the cardstock again and mask off the red border and stamp with Rich Cocoa.

It's that easy!  You can't go wrong if you just remember to mask alternate stripes, stamp, turn and mask off what you just stamped!  But if you do make a mistake, don't throw it away coz you can just make another kind of border pattern background with it!

Now for my super cute Steampunk bird house!  I found this really tiny wooden bird house at either Michaels or Target in the $1 section.  It's only about 2" tall and 3" at the widest part.  Apply Stormy Sky Distress Stain with a paint brush to the front, sides and back of the house.  Appy Tea Dye Distress Stain to the top of the base and to the underside of the roof.  Paint the house hole and the perch with black acrylic paint.  Cut two sections out of the Measuring Tape border cardstock to fit the top of the house roof.  Apply Tea Dye Distress ink to the panels with a foam ink applicator tool.  Adhere the Measuring Tape panels to the roof with craft glue.

Adhere Inkssenstials silver foil tape around all the edges of the roof and the base of the bird house.
Burnish the foil tape with a bone folder or your finger nail and apply Alcohol Inks to the tape with a felt applicator tool.  I applied Ginger, Caramel, Espresso and Stream all onto the same felt piece and added a dash of Blending Solution to dilute the inks and just randomly dabbed it carefully onto the tape.

Make a template of the back of the house on a piece of scrap paper and cut out the Steampunk girl from the Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante Collection 12 x 12 sheet.  Adhere it to the back of the house with glue.  Embellish with an assortment of real watch parts and adhere in place with Judikins Diamond Glaze.

Adhere a copper cog to the hole and embellish the roof point with an antique brass cog and a game spinner from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology range.  Also embellish the front of the house with some more real watch parts too.   To make the monocle - Attach a piece of very fine silver wire to a silver jump ring and adhere it over the eye of the bird with Diamond Glaze.  Loop the wire and adhere it to the breast of the bird then adhere the bird to the house.  I used Judikins Diamond Glaze to adhere all the embelllishments!  Cut a piece of grungy blue/green paper the same size as a decorative chipboard tag I found in Michaels, now $1.50 bins...it came in a bag with a bunch of other shapes.   Stamp the Happy Mother's Day sentiment onto the paper tag with Tuxedo Black Memento ink.  I used a stamp positioner to break up the sentiment so it would fit the tag.  Stamp the Blockheads' bird with Memento Rich Cocoa, colour the eye with a black Sharpie marker and adhere another silver jump ring over the eye so the birdie also has a steampunk flair ;0)  Embellish the tag with more watch parts and a metal flower with a topaz jewel center.  Everything was adhered with Diamond Glaze.  Adhere the tag to the roof of the house with a touch of white glue along the back bottom edge and prop it up with two small square pop dots.  Finish off by adhering the bird house to a copper marbleized die and you're done!

Isn't it the cutest thing ever, I totally love it and hope you do too ;0)

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!  I hope you enjoy my project tutorials and will become a follower of my Creative Adventures :0)

Now for some challenges....

•  Anything Goes Challenge - #65 Tick Tock Goes The Clock-Time or Steampunk
• Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes
• Just Keep on Creating - #1 Anything Goes  
• Creative Inspirations Paint - Inspired by Tags Challenge - I don't have any CI paint and sure would love to win some ;0)
• Let's Ink It Up - Challenge #22 - Distressing
• Craft Your Days Away - Challenge #43 - Metal

Happy Stamping!

 THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents