Spring Decor: Burlap and Birdies Wreath

I made a spring wreath today for my front door.  Want to see?

It was pretty easy, once I worked out a few details.  These were the basic supplies:

1 large styrofoam wreath form

Burlap 

Fabric Quarters

I started by cutting out strips of burlap, roughly 1-1/2 inches wide.  There was no need to be precise, so I just eyeballed it as I cut.

 Then, I wrapped my burlap strips tightly around the wreath form.  Since I had been warned that hot glue would melt the styrofoam, I just used small pins to pin my burlap on, at the beginning and end of each strip.

 When I was done wrapping the strips of burlap around the form, my wreath looked like this:

 Next, I made a pattern for my birds.  I wanted to have a fairly stiff pattern for easy tracing, so I just did a little recycler's trick and opened up an empty box from my pantry.

 I drew the little birdy shape that I wanted on the other side of the cracker box, and cut it out.  (Sorry, I free-handed this shape, so I can't tell you where to find one like it online.  I can tell you if you do a search on "bird crafts" you will find some printable patterns.)

 At this point, I used my pattern to cut out a bunch of fabric birds, which I fully intended to sew together and stuff.  Um, that was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  My first attempt was so pathetic that I went back to the drawing board, and found an easier way to make the 3-dimmensional birds I was trying for.  The second attempt was much, much better.  Here is what I did:

I cut out several cardboard birds and flipped them over, so the colorful side of the cardboard was facing up.

 Then, I squiggled a little hot glue across the birds, and spread some batting on top.

 The birdies looked like this, when I turned them over.

I put each bird on a scrap of fabric, and trimmed the fabric so it was a similar shape, but still had plenty of fabric around the edges.

Then, using my glue gun, I pulled the fabric around onto the back of the cardboard, and glued it down.

I basically upholstered those cardboard birds.  Crazy, huh?  Here's what they looked like, all glued up:

(Note: before I glued the entire bird, I made sure there was enough stuffing inside, so that it would be generously puffed.  If necessary, I pushed additional stuffing in with a pencil, before I glued the last bit.)

The final touch on each bird was gluing on a small burlap wing.

Next, I hot glued the birds onto the burlap wreath.

Along with this little nest, which I found on the ground near my mailbox, last fall.  It's the real deal!

I didn't want the nest to be empty, so I scrunched up some fabric scraps to make little "eggs" inside of it.

I used some burlap ribbon to tie my wreath onto the wreath hanger on my door.

At that point, I was pretty pleased with what I'd made...but it did seem like something was missing.

So I added a few small buttons with my trusty glue gun.

Buttons seemed to do the trick.

For this project, I specifically looked for fabrics that would be bright and cheerful for Spring, but would not be pastel.  There isn't anything pastel in my house, but there is lots of red.  I like the bright pops of color against the earthy burlap.

What do you think?  Do the birds make it feel springy, even without the traditional spring pastels?

I'm linking this post to the following parties:

Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap-Up

Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special

I {heart} Naptime Sundae Scoop

Under the Table and Dreaming Sunday Showcase

Sugar Bee Crafts Take-a-Look Tuesday

The CSI Project Wreath Challenge

Whipperberry's Friday Flair

Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple

And I'm entering this contest: