Button Decorated Birdhouse

I think birdhouses with little buttons are oh so cute. This DIY birdhouse was my creative entry in a birdhouse design challenge – oh how I love a little extra motivation to get the creative juices flowing. It seems when there is competition involved, it's easier for me to think up creative ideas. Although I did start with a blank, unpainted birdhouse. For this project I decided to focus primarily on the buttons. So I didn't do any fancy painting and fancy extras – not even glitter! Instead, I spent a lot of time playing with layers of color on blank white craft shapes that you stamp and color on. What do you think of the white on white look?

Materials I used to decorate my birdhouse:

• Blank Craft Shape Flowers from Buttons Galore and More
• Tiny round buttons
• White DecoArt Americana paint
• Cotton twine
• Brown twine
• ClearSnap Smooch in a variety of colors
• ClearSnap green crafters ink

How I decorated my button embellished birdhouse:

1. Start off by lightly painting the birdhouse with white paint, allow to thoroughly dry.
2. Decorate the blank craft shape flowers by spraying ClearSnap Smooch Spritz, dabbing with a tissue and repeating until you get the coloring you'd like. I also used a Q-tip to apply some pink Crafters ink in the middle of each flower. Again I spritzed and dabbed to blend the colors. Use a heat gun to set the ink.
3. Using a black Micron pen, I doodled lines around on each flower. Set the ink with the head gun again.
4. Adhere micro buttons to the center of each flower using your favorite craft glue.
5. Wrap twine around the base of the birdhouse, glue in place.
6. Glue twine as flower stems to the front and back of the birdhouse. Color with green Crafter's ink.
7. Decoupage twine in a swirly pattern on the roof.
8. Finally I applied dots around the entire birdhouse using a pearl colored Smooch and applicator.

I love the pop of color on white and how this birdhouse turned out. The different textures and individual spaces make me really happy. Usually I want to doodle everywhere and add art all over the place. However, sometimes it's ok to just add spots of art and let the whole piece shine together. I'd love to hear what you think!