was at Mr Smaggle’s parents place just before Christmas and I noticed his mum had a sweet little string of folded birds in her lounge room. I snapped a picture of them and reverse engineered a pattern so I could make them myself and create a how to make paper birds DIY. I thought they’d look gorgeous in my office or hanging on a door knob. I think it’s very important that everyone learn how to make paper birds.
Why? This is why.
PUT A BIRD ON IT! All joking aside, I actually freaking love bird motifs and these little guys are super easy to make and can be done in front of the TV. How cute are they? They’d make lovely decorations for a wedding or a baby shower and they look heaps fancier than they actually are. Here are the instructions.
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What you need
* Downloaded paper bird template (click on the image or here to get the full-sized version!)
* A printer
* Thick paper that’s patterned on both sides (I just bought some fancy paper and stuck them together with glue)
* Scissors
* Glue stick
* Needle and thread to tie them together
* A heavy bead or decoration to weight them down so they’ll sit straight (I used a pile of decorative paperclips!)
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What you do
* Pop your patterned paper in the printer and print the template on to your paper.
* Cut out your bird pieces like this.
* Like in the photo above, concertina fold the wings and tail – the tail is longer and the wings are shorter.
* Insert the wings through the hole in the middle of the bird and the tail through the hole at the end of the bird folding them so the bend in the correct direction.
* Bring the two edges of the tail around to meet each other and glue together with a glue stick.
* Pierce a small hole at the top and bottom of each bird and string them together in a row. I just used a needle and thread! Make sure to attach a heavy decoration to the bottom bird to weigh it down so they sit straight.
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Done! You’re now free to go and put lots of birds on things and you should do it with GUSTO. Perhaps you could make a few strands and distribute them to your colleagues at work? Be a little joy spreading paper bird fairy?
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Do you watch Portlandia? Do you totes want to put birds on things?
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P.S – If you want more cute things to read every day make sure you follow Smaggle around on the ol’interwebs – Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin, Instagram, YouTube and the Smaggle weekly newsletter. Sometimes I swear though… arse pelican.