Hello friends! I have already received lots and lots of questions about how I made my bird wall art that is hanging in my recently revealed home office/craft room {you can check out the full reveal here}.
I ADORE my bird wall art. It's exactly what I wanted and it was fun to make. Today, I am going to show you how I made the three bird prints. If you are looking for the tutorial how to create the fourth one, that has text and a bird, you can check it out here. This post contains some affiliate links. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
Materials Needed to Make DIY Bird Wall Art:
- A bird image to work with–I purchase these fabulous digital prints from theinknest Esty shop for only $8.50.
- Silhouette CAMEO
{you could use a craft knife and cutting mat if you don't have a cutting machine} - 12 x 12 Card stock in 6 different colors {I purchased this Brights Cardstock Stack 12″–needless to say, I have tons left over for other projects}
- 12 x 12 card stock in a neutral color to apply your birds to
- Elmer's Craftbond Spray Glue
- Frames for your finished prints. I purchased mine from Amazon: 12×12 Scrapbook Frame
{you could use a craft knife and cutting mat if you don't have a 
–needless to say, I have tons left over for other projects}
Steps to Make DIY Bird Wall Art:
1) Open your selected image in the Silhouette Studio software. Use the trace function to trace your images. This will set the cut lines for your project. You will have to tweak the settings until you get the cut lines exactly how you want them. You can see the image that I started with and what it looked like once I traced it. You can find an excellent tutorial for how to use the trace function for external images on the Silhouette America website–check it out by clicking here. There's also a fantastic YouTube video on the tracing feature here.
2) Once your image is traced, select the media you are using. In this case, I selected card stock and adjusted my blade according to the recommended settings. I placed my first color of card stock on my cutting mat and let my Silhouette CAMEO work its cutting magic. Then, I removed all of the cut pieces from the cutting mat. You will repeat this step for as many colors as you plan to use. I used 6 colors, so I did this 6 times. Since the machine does the work for you, this is quick and easy!
3) After all of your pieces are cut, you are ready to start “assembling” your bird wall art. For this step, you need your 12 x 12 neural card stock {I chose a light grey/silver paper} and your Elmer's Craftbond Spray Glue
.
Cover your entire piece of paper with the spray glue. Then, place the main body of your bird on the paper. It should stick well because of the glue, but not so well that you can't reposition it if you make a mistake. Then, start filling in the rest of the bird with all of your “mosaic” pieces that were cut out from all of your card stock colors. I did not follow any rhyme or reason in terms of picking my colors or following a certain color pattern–I wanted it to be fairly random.
You will repeat this step for as many birds as you want to complete. I made three. And I still have all the pieces to make 3 more if I ever want to :)
That's it! Honestly, the most time consuming part is selecting an image that you want to use and getting it traced in Silhouette Studio. This was my first time tracing a detailed image, and there was a learning curve. But the cutting and assembling took less than 10 minutes per bird! I just love how they turned out.
What do you think? Have you ever seen anything like this? I haven't, so was feeling pretty proud of myself for what I think is an original idea!
Interested in getting your own Silhouette?! Click the link to check out the amazing Black Friday deals going on through December 8th, 2014!
If you enjoyed this art project, you may also want to check out how I create my own DIY photo canvases {with REAL texture} and how I created DIY art for my powder room. You can also see how I painted that gorgeous geometric dresser here.
And if you love this idea and want to save the idea for later, why not pin it?!
Disclosure: I am excited to partner with Silhouette to bring you reviews and inspiration. While I did receive product from Silhouette, all opinions, thoughts and ideas are 100% my own.
Most Popular Projects
Oh my cuteness! I love how colorful these art and that you made them. Great tutorial!
I’d love for you to share this project at my Show-Licious Craft & Recipe Party {we are live now}!
~ Ashley
Thanks so much, Ashley! And thanks for letting me know about your link party! I have taken a couple of months off from link parties, but really need to start up again! What day/time is your party?