Easter Table Decorations: DIY Birdhouse Place Cards

Easter is just around the corner and somehow it didn’t hit me until early this week that I’m totally unprepared for it. For most Easters, we don’t have any of our extended family in town so we are recurrent Easter dinner guests at the home of some close friends. My Easter dinner duties are typically limited to making a dessert and helping with clean-up after dinner – nice, right?! This year, my husband’s parents are coming to visit over Easter weekend and I’ll be cooking Easter dinner, which is great except for the fact that I have NO Easter table decorations. So yesterday, I took some small wood birdhouses that I found at Michaels and turned them into Easter place cards:

I started with these unfinished wood birdhouses that are only $1 each at Michaels – a great find!

Some of them were in the dollar bin section and others were shelved on the aisles with other unfinished wood projects. Along with the birdhouses, I bought several sheets of scrapbook paper in bright spring colors and some matte Modge Podge. To start the project, cut off the rope or wire at the top of each birdhouse and give each house a quick sanding with some fine grit sandpaper. The next step is to figure out the size and shape of paper that you need to cover your birdhouses. For the cylindrical and rectangular birdhouses, this involves taking just a few measurements.

For the two pentagon shaped birdhouses, simply lay them down on the scrapbook paper and trace their shape. Once you know what sizes of paper you need, use a paper trimmer to cut the scrapbook paper down to the correct shapes and sizes. If you don’t have a paper trimmer, you can certainly do the same thing with a ruler and scissors.

Now measure the location of the birdhouse perch and use a hold puncher to create a hole that the perch will pass through.

Place your cut scrapbook paper on the front of the birdhouse with the perch protruding through the hole that you just punched. Use a pencil to mark the location of the circular birdhouse opening:

Then cut out a 1″ circle in whatever way is easiest for you. I used a circle cutter from my scrapbooking supplies but you could also use a 1″ round hole punch (in scrapbooking section of Michaels) to make perfect circles or you can cut them by hand.

After making sure that the circles cut out of your scrapbook paper match up with the perch and the opening on the front of your birdhouse, use a small paintbrush to spread Modge Podge on the front of your birdhouse and then smooth the paper down over it.

For the cylindrical birdhouse, apply Modge Podge all the way around the birdhouse and wrap the paper around it, cutting off any excess paper where the two sides meet in the back. For the other birdhouses, measure the sides (and the backs and/or roofs of the birdhouses if you want them covered), cut the scrapbook paper to the appropriate size, and glue the paper on with Modge Podge. Once all of your birdhouses are covered in paper, brush Modge Podge over top of all of the paper-covered surfaces to seal and protect them.

For the place card names, simply print the names out from your computer in a great color and font. Then cut them into small rectangles (leaving some extra space above the name) and hole punch the paper so it can slip onto the birdhouse perch. Voila – birdhouse place cards!

It took me about 15-20 minutes to make each birdhouse except for the ones with the metal flower on the front – those took forever because you have to cut the paper for the front of the house into two halves and wedge each half under the flower to meet in the middle – I recommend sticking with the other three birdhouse designs!

My daughters were off of school yesterday and they LOVE to craft so while I was making the birdhouse place cards, they were busy working on a craft of their own – DIY Easter napkin rings. You can find this kid-friendly DIY napkin ring project {here}!