Kelly S

'Where Happy Little Bluebirds Fly' Altered Oz Birdhouse

OK so here it is and I couldnt be happier! I got the 'Magic of Oz' Graphic 45 paper from the haud vault and finally bought myself to cut into those beautiful papers.

I started with the 3D birdhouse kit from Tando Creative and painted the pieces with acrylic paint. I then started adhering my paper to each side. The idea I had was to make the birdhouse into 4 'scenes'.

I used Tim Holtz distress in in: Black Soot, Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Weathered Wood & Dusty Concord. It was quite time consuming to paper all the sides and I even papered the inside bottom of each compartment as you could see inside them. (A little note here - you are probably best of assembling the piece before adding the paper if you are going to use wet glue - or make sure they dry completely flat as a few of my pieces warped slightly).

I used the back of each piece of paper that I used to do the 'roof's' of each compartment so that they would coordinate. Whilst all the paper was drying I took my brick make and texture pasted 3 sides for 'the yellow brick road' I did not do the fourth side as that was the 'still in kansas' scene'. Once dried I painted the bricks with yellow acrylic paint and added a hint of glitter.

Once everything was dry I assembled it. I decided that for the last scene I liked the idea of the hot air balloon 'escaping' so I did not adhere the roof at the very top. I had fun decorating the piece with lots and lots of fussy cuts - each one to fit each theme.

Once all the themes were in place I made an airballoon to come out of the top - I printed an image from the internet and used that as a guide for my shape. To adhere it in the centre I used a wooden dowl and made a small hold in the bottom of the birdhouse to stick it though and then adhered it in place. Once side of the top roof I then adhered slightly to one side as if it had slid off and the other I cut into 2 pieces and distressed as if it had been 'blown' off. One half was placed in the centre whole and the other within the emerald city scene.

Once all the pieces and fussy cuts were in place I sprayed some flowers from WOC and IAR for the finishing touches. I used Lindy's colours: Gossamer Gold, Wicked With Purple, Ruby Bed Slippers, Rhododendrion Red Rose, Toto's Tornado Black, Gossimer Gold & Oz's Emerald City.

I also used several embellishment pieces from my stash! Here is how it turned out:

'Still in Kansas'