Book Birdhouses

By now everyone has seen a book wreath. Probably you’ve seen a book bundle (especially the ones with the covers ripped off). I personally haven’t made the former, but I have several of the latter. My husband thinks it’s a shameful way to treat perfectly good books, but I haven’t seen him actually trying to read any of the books I have brought home!

A couple of months ago I saw my first book birdhouse, and I was smitten. I couldn’t figure out how it was created by just looking at it, so I began an Internet search! Second time lucky; I found the instructions at Country Business. So I promptly dismantled a couple of my book bundles, and made some birdhouses instead! A couple of you noticed them in my pictures of my French Café Table:

…and I promised instructions were forthcoming! So here they are.

First you need an old book, minus the cover. Around 200 pages will give a very nice, fat, birdhouse. If your book is longer than that, you might end up using some of the end pages for another project.

Fold the first page in half toward the spine.

Then fold the top corner down to meet the spine, making a triangle. Flip that page over; you’re done with it now.

On the second page, fold the bottom corner in to meet the spine, making a triangle.

Then fold the top corner in to meet the spine.

Alternate pages one and two, and you’ll be making a book birdhouse like the middle-sized one in the picture above (the bottom edge of the roof is slanted, rather than horizontal).

The other two birdhouses are slightly different. The first page is the same, but on the second page, fold the top corner in to meet the spine first.

Then fold the bottom corner in to meet the spine.

Next, carefully tear the page away from the binding from the bottom half-way up. Fold it up to make a triangle.

This is what method number two looks like when you’re about half-way done.

When you’ve finished folding all of your pages, glue the first and the last pages together, and you’ve got a birdhouse!

I did have a problem with some of the pages wanting to come completely free of the binding. I generously glued them back in place.

My three birdhouses have taken up residence on my French chocolate coffee table. As you can see, I used a little brown craft paint to paint pseudo-openings on them. So those paper birds have a way in, you know!

These are probably going with me to Bella’s Vintage Market next Saturday. I’d like to try tying some twine around the spine and suspending them from my tent! Hope it works!

Confession: My husband may have a bit of a point. I had no problems turning an old math text into a book birdhouse. But for one of the other books, I kept catching glimpses of the story, and I thought to myself, “I might have liked to have read this book!”

Thanks to Craft Gossip for featuring this project here.

***************************************************************

Linking to these great parties, Too Much Time on My Hands, and