Collage Birdhouses {Tutorial}

I know that almost everyone has made a milk carton birdhouse at one time or another, but have you ever made one that was this bright and cheerful!?!

We started with empty milk and juice cartons, and I gave them a quick light coat of white spray paint just so that the lettering wouldn't bleed through later.

We gathered our supplies: glue, lots and lots of colored tissue paper squares and the freshly painted cartons. We were going to use the glue pictured here, but then I realized that it had a fine tip (I thought it was the dauber-type tip), so we switched to watered down white glue and sponge brushes.

Coat the sides of the carton with the glue mixture and let the kids start to apply the tissue paper however they'd like. The boys got a huge kick of out of overlapping colors to see what new color it would create (fun and educational...awesome!). After awhile you might want to quickly intervene and gently use the sponge brush to make sure that all the edges are glued down and secure.

While the boys were collaging the cartons, I covered a piece of tag board for us to cut up and use as the roofs. Set the pieces aside and let them dry for awhile.

With a utility or Xacto knife, carefully remove the plastic pouring spout and remove some of the excess cardboard from the top of the carton.

Cut an opening for the door - we've had problems in the past with small circular openings being too small for the huge birds that frequent our backyard, so we went ahead and made extra large doorways this time. About an inch below the door, cut an X shape with two small slits, and insert a wooden spoon for your perch. You can obviously use anything you'd like, but we happened to have two too-small-to-use-for-anything-else wooden spoons laying around. Before you push it all the way to the back of the carton, add a generous gob of hot glue to securely attach the end of the spoon/perch to the interior back of the carton.

On your roof piece, cut two more small slits about 2" apart, and thread through the ends of your string (whatever you'll be using to use to hang your birdhouse) and tie a knot securely on the underneath side so it won't show. Using more hot glue, attach the roof to your carton. Make sure you go back and fill in all the gaps you possibly can with even more hot glue since this is what is going to keep your birdhouse from falling off the tree when a bird decides to make it his home!


Hang the houses outside and give them a couple of coats of spray varnish. Alternately, you could use Mod Podge and cover the whole thing, but spray varnish is quicker, and we're impatient :)


Fill the bottom up with bird seed, hang from a tree and wait for your feathered friends to find their new home!

Posted in: Kids, Recycling, Tutorial