Decorative Birdhouses – A Recycled Greeting Card Craft

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Square feature image of three finished decorative birdhouse decorated with fronts decorated with recycled floral greeting cards.

Make these beautiful decorative birdhouses for Spring!

I found three unfinished wooden birdhouses at Dollar Tree and decided to fancy them up by adding floral greeting card cutouts to the fronts.

I’ve collected so many greeting cards over the years. Some were sent to me by different charities and others I kept because they were too pretty to throw out.

Horzontal feature image of three finished birdhouses on wood stands decorated with flowers and birds.

I made three decorative birdhouses and stands to perch them on. In this tutorial, I’ll step you through how to reuse greeting cards to decorate unfinished wooden birdhouses and show you how to make a wood pedestal stand.

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Supplies To Make Decorative Birdhouses

  • Wooden craft birdhouses (mine are from Dollar Tree)
  • Floral greeting cards
  • Pastel acrylic or chalk paint
  • A paintbrush
  • Mod Podge
  • Clear scotch tape
  • Paper
  • Scissors
  • X-Acto (precision knife)
  • Other decorations: silk flowers and miniature birds

Supplies To Make A Birdhouse Stand (optional)

How to Make Decorative Birdhouses – 3 Easy Steps

STEP 1:

Start by painting your wooden birdhouses in any color you like. I used white chalk paint mixed with acrylic paint to make pastel colors.

Horizontal photo of a craft wood birdhouse being paintied a light peach to make a birdhouse wreath.
Paint birdhouses any color you like.

STEP 2:

Make a paper template of the front of your birdhouse. I used an X-Acto knife to cut the holes and added and cut away the paper until I got the right shape. Once you have a template that works, use it to cut a section of the greeting.

Horizontal photo of how to make a template to cut out a decorative greeting card front for a birdhouse.
Make a paper template first. Then use it to cut your final panel.

Another way to figure out where to cut the holes is to press your template into the holes to make an indent. I did this on the last birdhouse with two holes. See the photo below…

Horizontal photo of the back of a greeting card that was press onto a birdhouse to make an impression where holes should be cut.
Press your paper template into the holes to make an indent.

STEP 3:

Use Mod Podge to glue the greeting card panel to the front of the birdhouse. To do this, coat the front of the birdhouse with Mod Podge and place your card panel. Make sure you coat the entire birdhouse front well, right to the edges.

Photo of Mod Podge being applied with a paintbrush to glue greeting card panels to the front of decorative birdhouses.
Coat the front of the birdhouse with Mod Podge.

Paint a coat of Mod Podge over the front of the card panels.

Photo of how to use Mod Podge to glue hand cut card panels to the front of three birdhouses.
Use Mod Podge to decoupage over the card panels.

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How to Make a Wood Pedestal Stand (optional)

To make a stand, use a hand saw to cut your dowel down to size. Since I made three, I decided to vary the heights of my birdhouse perches and cut my dowels 3, 4, and 5 inches long.

Photo of a handsaw used to cut dowels down to make a base for a decorative birdhouse.
Cut a dowel to the height you want.

Drill a hole into the center of a wood slice that is just slightly larger than the dowel. Your dowel should fit snuggly into the hole.

Photo of a hole drilled into a wood slice to make a base or stand for a decorative birdhouse.
Drill a hole into a wood slice.

Use hot glue to glue the birdhouse to the center of the dowel. Apply wood glue to the other end of the dowel and push it into the hole in the wood slice.

Photo of hot glue and wood glue and a closeup of attaching a dowel a birdhouse and wood slice to make a base or stand.
Glue the dowel to the wood slice and bottom of the birdhouse.

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MORE DIYS TO TRY:

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