Shabby Chic Designs

I had to show off my newest creation! I was bored one Saturday so I decided to get creative. I picked up this bird cage at a yard sale sometime back in the summer and it has been sitting in my craft closet waiting for me to do something with it. I figure since I am into Shabby Chic/Victorian things I would create a Shabby Chic bird cage decoration for my bedroom. For this project I used the following things:

Supplies:

1 glue gun

1-2 glue sticks

1 roll of floral wire

1 pair of small piers

1 bag of Spanish Moss

3-4 sprigs of beaded twigs

1 bunch of undecorated plain twigs

1 faux decorative bird

1 faux decorative birds nest with eggs

1 roll of decorative ribbon of your choice

** You can find most or all of the craft supplies at places like AC Moore, Michaels or your local craft store. Instructions: I gathered a few branches of my beaded twigs and a few branches of my plain twigs and I took a piece of my floral wire and I wrapped it around the twigs tightly. This helps hold the twigs in place more securely. Once that was done, I arranged the tops of the twigs so that it looked like a tree. Next, I opened the top of my bird cage. Once the dome top was removed I took my glue gun and squeezed a fair amount of glue right on the bottom of the cage, directly in the middle. I gathered my little twig tree and I anchored the bottom into the glue and held it there for a moment. (Note: The glue hardens quickly) Next, I applied glue all over the bottom around the twig tree once I did that, I took my spanish moss and laid it down on the glue to cover the bottom of the bird cage. Once I was finished applying the spanish moss, I took my bird and my birds nest and positioned them in the twig tree and attached them using the glue gun. Afterwards, I attached the dome top back over the cage and secured it with the clips. Please

Note:

Depending on the size of your cage you may have to cut some of the twigs back so that the top will fit flush to the cage. As you will see in my picture above some of the twigs are sticking out from the sides of the cage. This gives the cage a bit more character. However, the tops of the twigs were a bit too long for the dome cover to fit down securely. So I trimmed them back using a small pair of piers. Last but not least, I attached a beautiful decorative ribbon to the top just below the ring and I tied a bow. I then took a small thin half an inch in width white ribbon and ran it through the ring of the bird cage and tied a double knot in the ribbon and hung it in the corner from the ceiling in my bedroom.