Heather in Florida

This birdhouse is based on a pattern from Nichole Heady's blog. I made an SVG out of it and made a couple of improvements. At least they're improvements for me because I couldn't figure out how to close it without closing it permanently. And then the recipient would have to ruin it to get what's inside. I'm sure there's something I missed, but I made it work for me.

I added a couple of notches in the bottom to thread the ribbon through so it would stay in place. Likewise, I cut notches at the sides of the roof to hold it in place, and I included my holes at the top in my SVG file so I could use my Crop-A-Dile gromlets and not have to cut the center out by myself.

Then I cut the house pattern and roof using SCAL and my Expression. I won't be able to share my pattern (it's not mine to share -- you can go to the blog entry to get it), but it was a PDF, so that's how I was able to make it. It didn't import to Inkscape perfectly, but it's still a shortcut to designing it myself! (Not that I'd come up with the idea.)

I used Papertrey stamps for everything: Polka Dot Basics for the polka dots on the sides and back, Faux Ribbon for the background design on the front, Wishing You for the flowers, dragonfly and sentiment, and Background Basics: Retro for the "tiles" on the roof. I used Colorbox and Versamark chalk inks, Memento (for the sentiment and dragonfly), and Versamark for the roof tiles.

I thought it came out cute! We have new neighbors, and this will be a "welcome" gift to them. I'm debating on whether to put birdseed in a baggie to enclose, or whether to do chocolates or something. Not knowing whether they have a bird feeder, I'm leaning toward the candy. :-)

Thanks for looking!