A Fine Feathered Bird Ornament

       This feathered, pudgy bird would sit perfectly on a pine bough or hang easily from the most delicate branches of a fir tree, for it is as light as a feather! I chose to use undyed feathers in a variety of browns for my project because I have a woodland themed ornament collection. However, this little bird would look just as sweet with brightly colored feathers in blues, reds, or yellows sitting inside of a white Christmas tree or hanging from a fragile twig tree if you prefer.

Supply List:

• hot glue and hot glue gun
• paper mache pulp or a bit of air dry paper clay
• one styrofoam ball
• a bag of feathers (your choice in color and texture)
• acrylic paints ( I used black, white, grey and yellow)
• an ordinary pencil
• white tacky glue as well 
• scrap tissue paper
• masking tape
• wire for hanging

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1.  Crumple the tissue and form a second "half" ball on top of the styrofoam ball. Tape this down with masking tape, covering all of the tissue paper with the masking tape.
2. With either paper mache pulp (water added according to directions on the wrapper) or with air dry paper clay, shape the eyeballs, eyelids and beak and attach to the masked head with hot glue. 
3. Take your sharpened pencil and push into the lower styrofoam ball approximately half an inch and remove it from the tail area of the bird. 
4. Now fill this cavity with white glue, plus the feathers that you have selected for the tail of your bird. Prop this tailside up against a couple of books on a table and let it dry for a while to keep the glue from running.
5. Now layer and glue feathers to the lower half of the bird's body.
6. Paint the eyes and beak of the bird using acrylic paints and let the painted clay or mache parts dry. If you use paper mache for these features, you will need to wait for them to dry solid before painting them.
7. Glue the head feathers of the bird on last, smoothing them down a bit with white glue away from the eyes and beak.
8. Push a wire into the head of your bird along with a bit of white glue, to create a loop for hanging it from the tree. 

More links to bird crafts:

• Red cardinal craft for kids
• Yarn bird craft for kids 
• Yarn wrapped blue jay craft