Doily Bird Nest

Hi Everyone! I wanted to share this cute little project I made with you today! I was in a Valentine swap with CoyoteKim and part of the swap was that we were to use the Theme of birds and nests in our handmade goodies for each other So.........I found this tutorial on how to make a bird nest from a small doily and decided to give it a try, although I did alter the instructions a bit. This is the final product.....Isn't it cute?

I started with a small white doily.

Then I steeped a tea bag in a cup of boiling water to make my tea dye. Submerged the doily in the dye and left it for approx 1 hour. Then rinsed in cold water to set. Laundered and dried.

Next I gathered up my supplies: Stiffy fabric stiffener, two glass bowls, a metal bowl  and wax paper.

Following the instructions on the bottle of "Stiffy".....I placed the doily into the metal bowl and then slowly added the fabric stiffener......you want to work the stiffener into the doily until it is good and saturated. Gently squeeze out the excess liquid.

I then formed the doilies over the glass bowls and placed them onto a wax paper covered pan. Let them dry for at least 24 hours before removing them from the bowls

The following day after they were good and dry I hot glued shredded paper into the center of the doily

to form the bird nest.(You could crimp & shred book pages, Kraft paper or anything you like for this step) Added a few feathers and three handmade eggs.

For the eggs I simply formed an egg shape with aluminum foil........covered with Fimo clay and baked.

When they were cooled I splattered the eggs with brown acrylic paint! This little project was very easy and turned out super cute! Give it a try!