Painted Bird House Tree Topper

Welcome to the first day of Très Frugal! I’m excited to share with you 30 days of DIY Gift idea. Handmade gifts are a rarity these days. Receiving something that someone else has taken the time to create is such a wonderful gift! I hope you’ll find one or two ideas of gifts you can make for your friends or family members this year.

Today’s DIY gift idea has several uses. I created this little painted birdhouse to function as a tree topper, but you could slip a little battery powered candle inside and have an instant luminary. Or forgo drilling a hole in the bottom at all and add a hook to have a fully functional birdhouse for those bird watchers on your list.

Materials:

• Unpainted birdhouse (mine was $4.99 from Michaels)
• Spray primer
• Pencil
• Drill
• 5/8 inch drill bit
• 1/8″ drill bit
• Plastic dropcloth
• Red craft paint
• Gold craft paint
• White paint pen
• Paint brushes

Optional: Screw eye hook for hanging, Outdoor polyurethane sealant

Instructions:

Spray prime the unfinished birdhouse and allow it to dry thoroughly.

Sketch a star shape on the sides of the birdhouse. Mark the location where you wish to drill holes.

If your birdhouse is a double decker, you will probably want to drill holes through the sides at angle and down into the first floor roof. This will allow some of the light to come through the top story holes as well.

Mark the center location on the bottom and drill a 5/8″ hole through the bottom of the birdhouse. (Skip this step if you want a functional birdhouse.)

Dump any wood shavings out of the birdhouse. Set up the birdhouse on the drop cloth for painting.

Paint the sides of the birdhouse red (or any color you like.)

Paint the roof, steeple, and perches gold. Paint a star and tree shape on the sides to accentuate the drilled hole patterns.

After the gold and red paint has dried completely, use the white paint pen to doodle all over the house.

There is no rhyme or reason to the doodles, just make lots of little curly q’s and outline structures. But, most importantly, have fun! I used the same technique on the chalkboard ornaments on my Feathered Nest Christmas Tree.

When the paint pen lines have dried, feed the top branch(es) into the hole on the bottom of the birdhouse. Tuck a few christmas tree strand lights into the birdhouse to illuminate it from within.

Enjoy your unique birdhouse luminary tree topper.

If you wanted to use the birdhouse as décor, simply set a little battery powered light inside the hole in the bottom and enjoy a homey birdhouse on your mantle.

To use the painted birdhouse outside for your feathered friends, add a screw eye to the center top of the roof. Then seal the birdhouse with an outdoor polyurethane or other sealer. You can see how I created this little Christmas painted birdhouse here.

Painted birdhouses are adorable gifts and very frugal. Stay tuned each day this month for a new DIY Gift Idea!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for Michaels® Arts & Craft Stores. I was provided with a gift card to spend at Michaels. I was not told what to buy. I was not told what to write or what project to complete.