How to make a decorative wallpaper birdhouse

• Small boxes – e.g. tissue, tea bag, popcorn, laundry powder boxes
• Scissors
• PVA glue
• Cardboard
• Milk bottle lid
• Pen
• Craft knife
• Sticks
• Hot glue gun
• Resene wallpaper in your choice of designs, or you can use Resene wallpaper left over from your last project, Fleur used:

  • House 1 – Resene Wallpaper Collection AT7094 (green leaves on blue background), 69736629 (blue with white circles), G8851 (flowers on purple background) and 519846 (retro white, yellow grey geometric);

  • House 2 (main house) – Resene Wallpaper Collection 434057 (blue geometric), 69802112 (yellow circles), GP5917 (orange damask) and GP5908 (pink, blue, green speckled);

  • House 3 – Resene Wallpaper Collection GP5908 (pink, blue, green speckled), 34216-9 (brick red), GP5917 (orange damask) and 69802112 (yellow circles);

  • House 4 – Resene Wallpaper Collection 34216-9 (brick red), 69736629 (blue with white circles), AT7094 (green leaves on blue background) and GP5917 (orange damask);

  • House 5 – Resene Wallpaper Collection Smi169816705 (white leaves on yellow background), AT7094 (green leaves on blue background), G8851 (flowers on purple background) and 69736629 (blue with white circles)

Instructions

Step 1:  Start by collecting up your Resene wallpaper and finding some boxes. Fleur used tissue, tea bag, popcorn and laundry powder boxes for her birdhouses. Make sure the boxes are clean and empty.

Step 2:  Cover the front, bottom and two sides of the box with wallpaper. Use PVA glue to stick the wallpaper to the box.

Step 3:  Use a pen to trace around a milk bottle lid to make a hole in the front of the box. Carefully cut this out with a craft knife.

Step 4:  Under the hole, use the craft knife to make a cut shaped like an X. Push a stick into this. If the stick is wobbly, you can use a bit of hot glue to hold it in place.

Step 5:  For the roof, cut out a piece of cardboard and fold it in half. Cut out some Resene wallpaper into two strips and use scissors to cut some scallops along one side.

Step 6:  Glue the scalloped strips to the front of the roof.

Step 7:  Cut out another piece of wallpaper and glue this to the top of the roof. Attach the roof to the top of your box with some hot glue.

Top tip:  Combine paint and wallpaper into the houses. Try wallpapering the front with Resene wallpaper then paint the roofs in complementary Resene colours.

Styling and images by Fleur Thorpe. Aug 2021.