My "Bird Lantern" Made Easy

Yep...you read that right, "bird lantern".  This is what my kid has been calling it for the past four days!  LOL  It didn't take long to put together, that was the easy part...I just needed to perfect the modifications I made to the lid with the extra pieces of vellum.  WAIT!  I'm putting the cart before the horse.  Let me start at the beginning.  Today I'm sharing my project using the new Caged template from MTME!  This is a paper birdcage folks...and it's STURDY!  Creating an actual cage and filling it with a nest and eggs is the obvious thought, so I went for a different idea.  I envisioned one of those old fashioned lanterns when I saw the cage assembled, so my wheels started turning. 

I printed one of my new sheets from the Cheerful Chirps collection on vellum, and used it to line the interior of the main piece of the cage, and then went to work on the lid.  That was a bit trickier and I'm certain there's an easier way that I'm not thinking of yet :]  I basically cut the lid panels out of the printed vellum and adhered them so that they would lay between the black "bars".  It left a few empty spots so I cut some extra inividuals pieces by hand from the vellum remaining.  My brad wouldn't hold all of the cs pieces along with the vellum pieces, so I only used it to hold the cs.  I then added a glue dot to each vellum piece as I adhered them to the folded prongs of the brad.  It's not perfect, but it certainly isn't awful and it's totally worth it in the end :]  Check out this shot of my lantern in the dark with my LED flickering candle.  Isn't it pretty?!  I love it!  It totally goes with my decor also so I can USE this in my house! 

You may have noticed that I sponged some copper pigment ink randomly to give the black cs kind of a burnished wood look (if that's the right description).  My dark wood has lighter streaks that pop out...that was the look I was going for.  I added some black sewing trim, a matching double bow with roses, two gun metal butterflies and a coordinating gun metal sentiment frame.  My sentiment is from MTME So Sentimental. 



That's really all there was to it!  Simple yet stunning project that is usable!  I LOVE how it turned out!  It's so me :]  LOL

Okay, friends.  Be sure to swing by our other gals' blogs for some more inspiration!!

Lauren
Kathryn

Monique

Pam

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back on Saturday to host the JUGS sketch challenge...if not before then :]