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You will need:
- Teacup and saucer
- Ruler and marking pen
- Drill and masonry drill bit
- Sandpaper (fine-grit)
- Acrylic paints in colours of your choice
- Artist's brushes: flat brush / liner brush
- Flat sponge (to make stamp, if desired)
- Buttons (if desired)
- Threaded metal rod
- Copper tubing plus 3 stainless-steel nuts and washers
- Crafts foam (for spacer)
- Hole punch
- Polyurethane clear exterior spray finish
- No More Nails adhesive
Here's how:
Click here to download the pattern
1. To prepare cup and saucer - using ruler and marking pen, measure and mark centre of cup and saucer. Carefully drill a hole in centre of both pieces. Sand surfaces to roughen the finish, and wipe off all the dust. Using the flat brush, base-coat each piece with acrylic paint; let dry. Repeat with a second coat, if necessary.
2. Paint the designs
Rose and Swirl: Using the pattern and images as a guide, paint free-form shapes in colours of your choice. Add details or outline each flower with a contrasting colour and liner brush. Paint the leaves as above; let dry. Spray all surfaces with two coats of clear spray finish.
Button Flower: Cut a flower shape from a flat kitchen sponge to make repetitive flower shapes. Wet sponge and squeeze dry; brush one surface with paint. Press the sponge onto base-coated surfaces of cup and saucer to create the design. Add outlines and details with a liner brush; let dry. Paint the leaves as above.
3. Glue buttons to the centres of the flowers and spray with two coats of polyurethane clear finish.
4. To assemble the bird feeder make spacers by cutting circles from crafts foam and punching holes in the centre. See pattern for the order of assembly. Insert the threaded metal rod through the copper tubing. Place a nut at one end of the metal rod but do not tighten it until all pieces are assembled. At the other end of the rod, place a nut and a washer, then a foam spacer. Place the drilled saucer, then a large circle of crafts foam cut to the same diameter as the bottom of the cup. Place the teacup on the threaded rod, then a foam spacer, a metal washer, and finally, the metal nut. Carefully tighten the nuts on the end to create a firm fit. Push the rod into the soil and fill the teacup with birdseed.
Bumble Bee
You will need:
- Beads: for body, head, and antennae
- 20-gauge copper beading wire
- Aluminium screen wire
- Silver hobby enamel
- No More Nails adhesive
- Needle-nose pliers
- Heavy-duty scissors
Here's how:
1. Cut two 5cm long pieces of wire - reserving the remainder. Thread both pieces through the two large beads to make a body and head; separate the wires, adding small beads for the antennae, and then curl all four ends with the needle-nose pliers.
2. Cut two wings from aluminium screen wire. Outline the curve of each wing with silver fabric paint to form raised edges; let dry. Bend the cut edges of the wings toward the underside and glue them to the body.
3. Thread small beads onto the remaining wire curl one end, coil the wire around a pencil to make a spiral, and insert the other end into the body; glue it in place.
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