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Painted Flower Garden Birdhouse Tutorial – DIY Talent Mural Maker

How was your weekend everyone? I had a truly fabulous weekend surrounded by some seriously creative and talented bloggers. I was in Salt Lake City, Utah attending the SNAP 2012 conference. Sadly, there was one blogger who is equally as creative and talented that couldn’t make it this year. (But, we’re going to have to tie her up and make her come next year!) This fabulously talented lady is none other than Colleen also known to the blog world as Mural Maker.

head shot

Colleen and I have never met, but we’ve bonded online because we have similar fine art backgrounds. Colleen is equally willing to share her talents and help empower others to paint just like she does (with step by step photographic tutorials.)

Ooo, ooo, ooo, I think I see her marching up the parade path right now. She has a paint brushes in hand and WOW, look at her toss that spinning artist’s palette in the air like a pizza pie. Now that takes talent! The crowd is excited. The colorful paints are beginning to fly. So, settle back and enjoy the show.

Oh my goodness! I’ve never been in a parade before! Does this mean I get to toot my own horn? Well, alrighty then! I blog over at Mural Maker & More. I’m Colleen, aka MuralMaker, and as you might guess, I paint. A lot. I’ve been painting on walls, and anything else that doesn’t move, for nearly 20 years.

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I think my favorite paintings are for little ones, like this Safari Mural.

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No, actually I think my favorite paintings are pet portraits.

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No, wait! My really-truly favorite painting is a tutorial!

Maybe I have a hard time deciding, but I do know I love sharing painting tips and tutorials.

How about you join the parade with me today for these super easy, FOOLPROOF dipdot flowers. Yep. I said it. “Foolproof”. As in No-Experience-Required-Easy. 

I chose a birdhouse to paint dipdot flowers on, but they’ll work on nearly anything that happens to be on sale at the craft store. Winking smile

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I cheated just a bit and Mod Podged some cute scrapbook paper on the birdhouse roof. Just a little quicker than painting different colored lines.

Once the birdhouse is painted and mod podged, you’re ready to start painting your dipdot flower garden.

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Dipdot Flowers Supply List:

  • Birdhouse (or any other paintable surface)
  • 3/4 flat paintbrush for basecoating
  • Round or liner brush for ‘dipping’
  • Stylus or anything else with small point
  • Round foam pouncer
  • Assorted paint colors

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First, dip your foam pouncer in some green paint. I dipped just one part of the circle. And you don’t need a ton of paint. In fact, start with less paint than you think you’ll need. It’s easier to add paint than it is to take some away.

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Then just pounce (tap, tap, tap) onto your surface. See how the pouncer makes it look like little bushes?

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Now for the fun part – the flowers! You only need a drop of each color.

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Just dip and dot, dip and dot. (More tap, tap, tap.) The hardest part of the whole thing is waiting for the dots to dry! Once they’re dry you can dot a different color in the middle if you want.

Now, on this birdhouse I painted the roof trim green, not turquoise. Which meant I had a few “oops” spots of green on the turquoise walls.

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Rather than try to get a crisp line between the green and turquoise, I decided to run with it and pounce some more green along the roof lines.

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By dotting purple and lavender, I wound up with some ‘wisteria’.

Sometimes mistakes wind up leading to a better result than first anticipated. Have you had that happen on one of your projects?

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What do you think? Pretty cute for just a bunch of dots, huh?

If birdhouses aren’t your thing, you can also snag a glass votive from the dollar store. Really, just about anything will work. You know . . . Mother’s Day is right around the corner. Wouldn’t this be a fun gift for you the kids to make?

I want to thank Brittany for letting me join the DIY Talent Parade today! And thank you for letting me hang out here on one of the best DIY blogs in Blogland. I really hope you’ll hop off the sidelines, join PHG’s DIY parade and dipdot some flowers!

Oh my gosh! Seriously, is that not the cutest birdhouse EVER?!! Colleen is so talented, and I love how easy her tutorials are to follow. Be sure to check out some of her other fabulous flower tutorials. May Day is right around the corner.

Also, if you are still in the I REALLY don’t want to join Google+ boat, Colleen has a great series all about how to embrace and make Google+ work for you!

In the meantime, I’m off to look for a cute unpainted birdhouse. I think this would make a really special gift for my Mom for Mother’s Day. Shhhh! Don’t tell her. Oh wait — I forgot — she reads my blog. In that case, “Mom, this is not what you are getting for Mother’s Day.” 😉

Tomorrow we have another inspiring gal with a very cool magic trick! See how Madigan Made a coffee table into an upholstered bench.

8 replies
  1. Doni
    Doni says:

    I always enjoy Colleen’s blog because she is so real and makes me feel like I really can do anything she shows me how to do. I am so NOT a painter, but I love this little birdhouse project and I think I can actually pull this off. For a $1 birdhouse and supplies I already have on hand what do I have to lose? Haha. This will make the perfect little house for the the Mother’s Day Fairy Garden I am working on. If it wasn’t 1 a.m. I would probably go grab some paint and start right now! Thanks for this fantastic tutorial!

    Reply
  2. Ann/alba
    Ann/alba says:

    I love Colleens work , Her tut’s are so easy to follow even I can appear to be an Artist (LOL)
    I am so going to make that Birdhouse…..
    Have a good one ann/alba

    Reply
  3. Alice
    Alice says:

    Thanks so much for sharing Colleen’s talent with us. I think it is amazing how wonderful the birdhouse looks and how easy it is to do after seeing her method of painting those darling little flowers. Love how she took a mistake and turned it into another group of flowers.

    Reply

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] want some pretty flowers and landscaping on your home, check out Mural Maker’s tutorial for painting a flower garden using the dip dot technique. Super fun and […]

  2. […] Since I’ve been in a dipdot frame o’ mind, I painted a flower garden on this little birdhouse. You can check out the entire tutorial at Pretty Handy Girl. […]

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