Bird House to Fairy House

I gave my mom a terrarium this year for her Christmas gift and decided to make her a fairy house to put in it. I already had this 4 inch tall birdhouse that my son had previously painted and decided to re-purpose it for this project. (It already served its purpose by occupying my son for 20 minutes)

Materials

•  Bird house
• Hot glue gun
• Scissors
• Balsa wood
• Pine cones
• Grout
• Acrylic Paint
• Q-tips
• Paper towels.

I started off by cutting the perch off the birdhouse with the scissors. I also used the scissors to cut the balsa wood into window and door frames. It just looks better when a door is set into a frame instead of laying on top because that is the way your home actually looks. I hot glued stones around the door frame to look as though it was part of the house. Then hot glued the window frames on the house so that the windows would look set in to the stone. I used a hot glue gun to affix flat shiny stone that I ordered off  the internet. 

I didn't want to use white grout on the house so I mixed a little brown acrylic paint so the contrast of the grout wouldn't be so pronounced. I also used that same brown acrylic paint to paint the window and door frame. 

Sometimes working with grout can be a real pain, but this project is small enough that it isn't so bad. You apply the grout by smoothing it on to get in between the stones, you wait a few minutes, then wipe it off. 

Later, after the grout has completely dried, like to I go back and clean it up a little more by rubbing wet and dry Q-tips on the rocks to make them shine. 

The messiest part  of the project was the pine cones. What a mess. Cutting the pieces off the pine cone was like ripping out teeth and I was getting sap all over my hands, which I just happen to be allergic to. My hands were bright red and I itched for days. The problem was, my pine cone was too fresh, and if I had given them a little time to dry out, the pieces of the pine cone would have fallen right off. 

Whats nice about the pine cone is that it looks just like shingles and you don't need to grout in between, like you would stone. So after you get that sucker piece off, you hot glue it on the house and there is no more steps.

I almost forgot, I just hot glued a small bead for the door nob!

I'm not sure if this house could sustain the elements outside but it sure will look cute in a tiny indoor terrarium. 

Grade: A

Skill Level: Low (This is a good project to practice grouting. Fairy houses look better messy than perfect.)
Difficulty Level: Low(If you use dried pine cones.)
Frustration Level: Low(Again, if you use dried pine cones.)
Cost: $-$$ (I had all this material at home so it actually cost me nothing.)