Supplies:
- Paint brushes. I believe I bought a set similar to this one years ago.
- Dollar tree bird house or other bird house you like
- Card board cereal box
- Scissors, exacto knife, and/or cutting pliers. I used all three, but you could probably get away with just one if you want. This is the exacto knife I have, and it works very well. I know dollar tree has an exacto knife pack you can buy, but I am not sure how good it is.
- A ruler
- This cutting board from dollar tree comes in handy for this project.
- A pen
- Elmer’s glue
I started out by painting my bird house. I used these three colors. For the brown I just applied it to the Purch and wiped it off with a paper towel so it was not so dark of a brown. It kind of gives it a wood look when you wipe off some of the brown paint. I needed to do about 2 layers of paint to insure a nice covering. I only did one layer for the brown however.
The roof of the bird house will be covered so you do not have to paint the top portion of it. I just painted around the edges in case anything showed. Also do not forget to paint the inside edges of the opening (heart).
I was then going to use popsicle sticks to make the roof, but my popsicle sticks were too thick and created a weird gap. So, I turned to google to find how others were doing it without getting the gaps. That is when I found this YouTube video of a guy making the roof out of a cereal box. So, I decided to go with this method instead. I will post the video at the bottom of the page to help you follow along. Just note that some of my measurements are different from his.
For the roof I started out by cutting off a big section of the cereal box with my scissors. Then I used my cutting board, which I got from dollar tree, to help me square everything off and cut even edges all the way around. I used the exacto knife to even up my edges. Next, I put the cardboard up against my bird house roof to see how wide the pieces needed to be and made a mark with a pen.
Now that you know how wide it needs to be, it is time to mark off the height. I measured 1 inch high. I then marked off the center of that 1 inch, which would be a ½ inch. The bottom ½ inch will be the shingles and the top half will be what is attached to the roof. This is similar to how actual roof shingles are.
Now we will be marking the shingles to be cut. Going horizontally (length wise) I marked every half inch. To offset your shingles for the second row you may want to start your marks offset a bit. So, for my second row I lined up the corner of my cardboard at the one quarter mark instead of starting at the 0, and still marked every ½ inch.
Next, I used the exato knife to cut out my entire shingle strip. Then I used the scissors to cut the shingles. This is the ½ inch marks you just made length wise down the card board. Make sure to only cut these lines to the center line we made not all the way to the top, otherwise you will need to glue every shingle individually.
Finally, use the cutting pliers to cut the little corners off of the tips of your shingles. This adds some nice character to the shingles. I found it was easier to make these cuts when you lifted the shingles up, so you did not hit the shingle next to the one you were cutting.
Now repeat this process till you have 10 shingle strips. If you use a different birdhouse you will want to lay the shingle strips on your birdhouse roof to determine how many strips you will need for yours. If you have a big bird house you may also want to adjust your measurements, for example you may want your shingles to be 2 inches in height in total instead of just one. You will also need to cut one strip of cardboard. For the dollar tree birdhouse my strip was one inch tall and I used the birdhouse to measure how long to make it. This piece will go on the very top to cover where the shingles come together.
I painted my shingle strips and the one strip of cardboard before gluing them onto the bird house. I thought it would be easier doing this first. You only need to paint one side, but you can paint both if you choice. I would recommend painting the edges however. You will need to apply a few layers of paint.
Once everything is dry, glue your first shingle strip to the roof. I recommend having the shingles hang off the edge of the roof just a little. You will also only apply glue to the none cut top portion. Hold that in place for a few seconds till it dries. Now, place your second layer of shingles. I placed my shingle portion over the flat section of the last set of shingle strip (the section that was glued down to the bird house). Continue doing this till you reach the top. Now repeat this for the other side. Once everything is in place and dry it is time to place the one-inch strip at the very top. Bend it at its center point. So, if it is one inch tall, then you will want to bend it at ½ an inch. Then glue this to the very top of the birdhouse roof where the two sides of the roof come together.
I absolutely love how this came out. It took a while to make, but was relatively inexpensive to make. The roof adds a lot of character to it. I would love to see your bird houses you made and what colors you decided to go with.
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