BIRD HOUSE BLING AND A GARDEN PARTY THEME...

Welcome to Karla and Beth's What Do You LOVE About Your Birdie's Home? also known as, Bling Your Bird House!, and Miss Sandy's Garden Themed Party!

I very much wanted to attend Karla and Beth's Bling Your Birdhouse event as they throw THE best parties! However, as circumstances beyond my control would have it, I was late! I have felt very much like the White Rabbit in Alice In Wonderland, late for a very important date, over due, in a rabbit stew, hello, goodbye, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!!! A funny thing happened on the way to the party, I was mobbed, hit upon the head, and locked up all before 8:00 A.M. on the morning of the event! Seriously, these things can only happen to me! (The following pictures are a few of favorite bird and bird house decor items in my family room.)On the morning in question, I had a grand plan. I'd finish putting away my Easter decor and replace it with a little bit of birds, spring, and garden themed bling. I'd kill two birds with one stone so to speak, have a theme and decor for a small gathering I was having and attend Karla and Beth's event! This is where all my plans went awry.I finished packing everything away and carried the containers out to the storage building. As I lifted the last container onto the shelf I felt an odd prickly sensation on my hair, sleeve, and back. Then I heard a very familiar buzzing sound and I froze! I moved my eyeballs as far as they could go to the left and quit breathing! I was covered in red wasps!!! How in heavens name they got into our sealed storage building I didn't know but they were there none the less and I had become their landing strip! I unfroze as fast as I froze and shot out of there like rocket, slip-slappin', screechin', and flappin'! I think they were as relieved to be rid of me as I was of them. Miraculously, I was not stung. So, this is how I was mobbed!That ordeal over, I decided that decorating would be much safer. I couldn't have been more wrong! I decided to start with the dish niche in the dinning nook. I was in the process of switching out the china when I was hit upon the head, with my very own china! I had just placed the last two plates on their perches and turned to walk away when down came a plate, clipped my head and plopped onto gorgeous grandson's high chair tray. I was baffled at how it even fell as this had never happened before but thankful that both I and the plate came out unscathed. I thought I'd better use a little museum wax on the back to hold it in place so I went to get some when a plate on the other end fell, conked me on the head, bounced off, hit the floor, and smashed to smithereens! I saw stars for a second and stood surveying the damage, to my head that is, the plate was beyond help, only to find I had an extra piece of decor for my party. A goose egg on my head!!!After cleaning up the shattered shards I thought I'd take a break from that project and go out to what was formerly our tack room to get a couple of small architectural pieces I have stored there as I might use them in my decorating. I thought the fresh air and sunlight might be a nice break and clear my head. Wrong again! I get all the way to the back of the tack room, which, by the way, has no lighting save the open door, when a powerful gust of wind blows in from the south and slams the door shut. I am standing in total darkness clutching my treasures to my chest when an awful sinking feeling comes over me. How many times have I been warned to use the latch to hold the door open because sometimes the inside door knob sticks and you can get locked in? Why has handy hubby neglected to fix it? (Probably because we don't go in there very much.) Why don't I ever listen? Remembering the run in with the mob earlier, I wonder who is hanging out in there with me and will they respect my personal boundaries?I inch forward until I clunk into the door, grope for the knob, heart thudding as I turn it and nothing happens! I stood stock still trying to think my way out of this predicament. At this point most people would have dropped their trashy treasure and beat on the door until they were senseless, not me, I clutched them tighter and broke out into a fit of laughter. This is my thought process, "Uh oh, I'm stuck! (try the door again) It's not quite 8:00 A.M., husband is at work, probably won't be home for lunch today and darling daughter is in the house sleeping in on her day off. She won't look for me until sometime after noonish.(try the door again) It sure is dark in here. The only neighbor within hearing distance is not home this morning, where did they go this early anyway? Wish that darn rooster outside the door could pick a lock! Should I try again? Maybe it's not really stuck.(try the door again, it really is stuck) I hope there aren't any spiders in here.(really try the door again) Yep, it's stuck alright and so am I. No one is going to look for me in here, we never go in here!" (Below is a sneak peek of my blinged up birdhouse, more below!)
I nervously laugh some more and then did the only thing I can think of, pray. I tell God that it's me again and I messed up again, I didn't listen to the warning I was given and I was suffering the consequences. I got the big picture, it only took a plague of wasps, a clunk on the head, and to be locked up in the dark, but I got it and could He please open the door and let me out? (He has a way of teaching little life lessons in the most unconventional of circumstance.) I grasp the knob again and it opened! Freedom never felt so good! I trotted to the house with treasures in hand and decided decorating was definitely dangerous and maybe I'd just sit quietly in my studio and bling my bird house, after all how much trouble can you get into with glitter and glue? (Knowing me that can be a pretty sticky situation too!)

Anyway, here is what I began my project with: (CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE FOR BETTER VIEWING!)
This was an old faded birdhouse I was no longer using so I decided to challenge myself to only use what I had on hand to turn this faded beauty into a blinged out cutie! I decided that this would be the center piece for my garden party table so I ran with that idea and came up with a fanciful little barn shaped potting shed.Which I placed upon a foil and plastic lined tray of real moss.
I decorated the tray like a mini landscaped garden.
Tucking in lots of tiny surprises!
I began by painting all the exposed wood in a bright green and then covering the house portion with some decorative three toned paper using gel medium. The bottom of the paper looks like burlap, the center stripe looks like wood, and the upper portion looks like a faded handwritten page from a garden book.I extended the perch by using an old door hinge pin, cutting it in half, drilling into the existing wooden perch, and securing it with heavy duty glue. I twined some fresh honeysuckle vines into a small wreath and secured with copper wire to make an opening cover. Using a strong glue I adhered some metal letters spelling out, welcome, to the top of the wreath, adding a bit of moss, a glittered mini egg and feather. I glittered up a pink vintage bird and wired him to the perch.
Who wouldn't want a potting shed with a vintage seed packet door? I used a vintage seed packet image, small strips of red card stock, black brads, a pin back, and a small piece of twisted wire to create a door that really opens to reveal a surprise! The inside is covered in a copy of a children's song where a sweet little Goldfinch is serenading the cute Cardinal couple that live in this house! The door is held closed by magnets and attached to the house with old rusty tacks.
Every proper potting shed needs a few gardening accessories and this little beauty is chock full of them! I adhered large scale flower prints from magazines on the bottom of both sides and the back of the shed, then added mini accessories, rub ons (bunny, seed packets, wheel barrow, watering can, hat, & hand tools), and stickers (garden gloves and clay pots). The tools hang from old rusty tacks, even the rub ons, and the tin roof has been "patched" with seed packets. White pearl paint dresses up the roof with little stitch lines.
The back of the shed is truly magical indeed! It is where the fairy folks live, work, and play! Under the place where Peter Rabbit lost his bright blue coat with the brass buttons and his tiny shiny shoes lives a wee little sprite with glittery wings who gardens with delight and creates marvelous fairy things!
Gardening under a drooping daisy tree is a darling pink clad fairy! This fairy scene was cut from a magazine. I embellished the scene with a tiny moss nest and pink glittered egg, mini silk flowers and moss. A rub on bunny lives in the rose bramble out by the picket fence. Around the corner is a tiny garden gander!Mistress Fairy, bright and cheery, How does your garden grow? With wild violets and purple grape hyacinth all in a row! I used some mini clay pots and dug up a clump of wild violets and a purple grape hyacinth and potted them for the the fairy garden.
Where else but in a fairy garden can a pretty peach bird bathe in a pool of blue glass stones or make a tiny clay pot his home?Tiny pebbles dot the landscape, a stone path leads to the seed packet door, honeysuckle vines climb the corners of the shed and a magical flowering tree graces the entrance, and silk daisies dot the rich textured moss carpet to complete this bit of birdie bling! I think I'll keep this cutie awhile, I'd truly be scared to send it off anywhere the way I literally sip-slapped it together, it might pop apart!

So as not to detract from the the center piece I chose plain off white dishes, clear goblets with an etched grapevine design around the rim, and simple everyday silverware. Paper napkins were in order as the picnic style menu of Southern Fried Chicken was the main dish and Miss Sandy did not want to add soaking grease soiled napkins to her clean up routine! So I dressed them up with a fancy fold and a pink rubber stamped nest image!To make this super simple napkin fold you lay your napkin on an angle in front of you with the loose ends pointing away from you like this:Fold down the top layer of the napkin toward you, making a triangle, leaving the back layer flat, like this: (The fold line is a bit hard to see but hopefully by looking at the bottom edges you will see it!)Turn the napkin over, and fold sides to the center, slightly over lapping, like this:Turn over and stamp image on front of pocket, (make sure to use permanent ink or your guests will have ink all over their hands and faces), like this:Slide the silverware into the pocket, there won't be an actual pocket bottom so just slide the cutlery in so it doesn't peek out the bottom end, like this:Each place setting came with a little potted treat that you could eat! Well, please don't eat the daisies, but the dirt tastes really good! To make these little potted plants I used some mini stick on silk scrapbook daisies, green toothpicks, a mini silk leaf, a mini marshmallow, mini Hershey's Kisses, and tiny tin buckets that I got a flea market for seventy-five cents for a set of six! I stuck the flower to end of the toothpick and hot glued the leaf in place, poking the toothpick in a mini marshmallow. I put a few mini kisses in the bucket, set in the flower, and covered with more kisses. The marshmallow helped the flower to stand upright. Not pictured are the place cards that read, "Please don't eat the daisies!", with a vintage daisy print and name on each card. I made these on the computer and printed them out on card stock.Every party needs some guests and since this is all about birdie bling I needed some guests with wings! You might remember these blingy birds from the Easter Parade, they continued to hang out and party ever since! They are all glammed up with my grandmothers jewels!The rest of the feathered guests are sitting pretty among the posy patterned china and twining ivy waiting for the feast to begin and the crumbs to fall! These sweet little birds are from my mother's collection. She gave them to me a few years ago and I have never displayed them until now. Why you ask? I don't know!

These three beautiful bird plaques were also given to me by my mother. They always hung in a diagonal line on our half bath wall when I was growing up and I have always loved them, they are familiar friends.
I had a few blank spots that needed filling is so I thought maybe some eggs would fit the bill. I used two little ready made nests and birds placing a couple of opalescent eggs from my Easter tree in their nests.I used a set of four clear glass dessert cups for nests, filling them with shreds of sheet music, manilla paper, and a tan tissue paper. I cut these using two different decorative scissors. I mixed and crumpled all the paper strips and filled each cup, topping it off with a bit of green moss and tying a green organza bow on the stem of the dessert cup.
For eggs I did a spin off of Karla's Easter Egg Tutorial. Using plastic Easter eggs, torn bits of sheet music, modge podge, and tissue paper blue bird cut outs, I made musical eggs for my nests! Karla made hers to open up for treats to be placed inside, I just wanted mine to be eggs, so I glued right over the seams. I chose modge podge because it glues and leaves a shiny finish when it dries. My little blue birds of happiness are singing sweet songs of praise from the hymnal pages!For a final touch I added two real bird eggs that I found at a flea market, they have been blinged with decals, gold filigree, and jewels, the perfect touch of birdie bling decor! Well, folks, that's all there is, there isn't any more! I hope you enjoyed this little bit of bird bling with a garden party theme! Miss Sandy has partied for the last two weeks and is taking a very needed rest! I am going to indulge in the the three "R's" ~ Relaxing, Resting, and Reading and I'll catch up with all of you in Blogland next week!

Have a blessed weekend,
Miss Sandy