Decorative Birdhouses – A Recycled Greeting Card Craft

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.

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 faux birds

Supplies To Make A Birdhouse Stand (optional)

• A small hand-saw
• A vice grip
• wood glue
• A wood dowel
• A 3.5 to 4-inch wood slice
• A drill and drill bit (more on this below)
• A hot glue gun

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.

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.

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…

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.

Paint a coat of Mod Podge over the front of 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.

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.

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.

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MORE DIYS TO TRY:

• Frying Pan Planter Upcycle With A Patina Finish
• How to Make Marbled Solar Mason Jar Lights
• 10 Upcycled Home Decor Ideas & Easy DIYs
• Three Patriotic Crafts made from One Laundry Basket

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