Easy Christmas Craft- Glitter Birds

This is a picture of the intermediate step. The completed picture is below.

Take a piece of cardboard (or a bit of whiteboard or a chalkboard if you like) and draw a very simple shape on the board. You might do an angel, a bell, or these little birds. I have a couple cute little pigs in process just now, just over on the t.v. tray behind me. These birds will be completed next.

Cover your drawing with clear plastic wrap. I tape mine down in the back in a futile attempt to eliminate wrinkles. You could also paperclip the edges or use clothespins. You need the plastic to remain in place for the next steps.

Take a regular bottle of glue (I don't like school glue) and trace a thick glue outline all over your drawing. Let this get very tacky, but not dry.

Cut a length of cord or yarn (we've done both and both work) and press it down in the glue all the way around. That's the step pictured above.

Allow this to dry (Usually overnight).

Next take one of the following two steps:

* 1. Fill in the outline with glue- you need the glue
to go all the way to every edge of yarn or cord you've outined- no gaps. You
need the glue to be fairly thick, too. If it's so thin you can see the plastic
beneath, that's too thin. Sprinkle glitter liberally all over the glue- you
don't want any skimpy spots. Let it dry.

OR-

* 2. If you don't have or don't like glitter, mix
up some glue with food coloring and pour it in as above- no gaps or places where
it's too thin. It doesn't have to be quite as thick with this method. Allow it
to dry- We usually make fall leaves to put in our windows with this method. If
you make the glue yellow and then take a cotton swab and trace red or orange
through it, it makes a lovely fall leaf. For Christmas you could do, perhaps, a
tree, or a candle with red and yellow flames. These look something like stained
glass crafts you can get at the craft store.

It takes at least 24 hours for these to dry, sometimes longer. It depends on how thick your glue is and the humidity level in your house.

They keep a very long time, and even if they do crack and bits of dried glue and glitter fall out, you can repair them just by adding more glue and glitter. You can glue glitter to the other side if you like, but the glue dries clear so it isn't always necessary.

The picture below is of a glitter bird several years old that I just repaired this week. If you look closely (or have the right monitor) you can see the different shade of glitter in the center of the back, where I had a hanger. To scan it I put saran wrap down on the scanner first so that I didn't get any loose glitter on the scanner surface.

To hang these on the tree glue a bit of ribbon to them or poke a hole in the middle and insert an ornament hanger.