Watercolor Bird Garland Tutorial - Created by Sarah Anderson

Watercolor Bird Garland

Supplies Needed:

-Watercolor Paper

-Watercolors (video features the Every Little Seed On-the-Go Watercolor Kit)

-Watercolor Brush and clean water

-Scissors

-Glue Stick

-ELS Bird Template OR make your own

-Twine, Yarn, or String

-Small Hole Punch

-Pencil with eraser

*Every Little Seed is not paid or sponsored by any of the brands listed or shown in the video.

 

Step by Step:

-Step 1: Begin laying watercolor on your paper. You can choose any palette you like and adding multiple layers of color will darken or blend the color. Play around until you're happy with the results. Try and get your color as close to the edge of the paper as possible.

-Step 2: Let your watercolor paper dry all the way. You can speed up this process with a hairdryer if you want. Cut out your bird template (body and wing).

-Step 3: After your watercolor paper is dry, trace the template (both pieces) onto the paper multiple times until the entire paper is filled with the bird outlines. You might have to puzzle piece the wings and turn the template around to make everything fit.

-Step 4: Cut out all the bird bodies and wings so that there is an equal ratio.

-Step 5: Take your template again and line it up with one of the cut out bird bodies. Use your hole punch to punch three small holes (over the circles shown) on each bird body.

-Step 6: Glue one wing onto each bird. You can play around with contrasting colors as you like. After the glue has dried, it's time to make the bird's legs and feet using our twine, yarn or string.

-Step 7: Begin by cutting a length of string (your preference how long but make sure it's long enough to tie a loop on one end and also be able to tie small knots for the feet).

-Fold the string in half and tie a knot in the looped end. Then stick both ends of the string through the backside of the bird (through the bottom hole). You'll then tie small knots on each of the twine's cut ends and you can cut off any extra if you like the look).

-Step 8: Last step is to string all the birds on a long length of twine and you're done! 

One tip that we didn't mention in the video is that you might want to tape the end of the twine to make it easier to string through all the birds (otherwise it will continue to fray).

Other ideas:

-This tutorial is for a bird, but you can make your own template at home and cut out any shape you want (hearts, stars, flowers, Christmas trees, shamrocks, other animals, etc!

If you share your work on social media, tag us @everylittleseed so we can see what you've made! We want to thank our friend Sarah Anderson from Alpinecho for creating our template and helping us make this tutorial. 

HAVE FUN!!!