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How To Make A Fun Parrot Decor For An IKEA Glass Cloche

I love the tropical trend in home interiors at the moment. I shared some gorgeous vintage palm tree prints a couple of weeks ago. This time I thought I would share a crafted parrot decor idea using some of the beautiful vintage bird illustrations on Pictureboxblue.

When I think of tropical birds, I immediately think of parrots, toucans and cockatoos. With this in mind, I decided to use the beautiful vintage parrot paintings of Edward Lear for this parrot-themed papercraft.

A couple of weeks ago, whilst shopping in IKEA, I spotted their affordable BEGÅVNING glass domes/cloches and instantly snapped one up for this parrot decor craft. Any other glass domes/cloches of a similar size will work just as well with this DIY.

Vintage parrot clip art.

DIY Tropical Parrot Paper Craft

The colours with this parrot decor are so vibrant and gorgeous it brightens up my mantle. I love vintage bird illustrations, and this is a fun and alternative way of displaying them.

I have created incredible gallery wall displays with vintage images on Pictureboxblue, like this butterfly specimen wall art. I can also display them on the mantle with this beautiful DIY paper parrot decor.

This papercraft gives the images a bit more of a 3D feel and brings them to life than when simply framed as prints.

There are many other collections of vintage images on Pictureboxblue such as flower illustrations, fish paintings and zoological animals that would also look great as these tropical parrots in a glass cloche.

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What You Need To For Parrot Decor Cloche

IKEA glass dome wood slice and bamboo skewers

How To Make The Parrot Decor Cloche

Step 1: Print off the vintage parrot clip art. I printed the sheet onto matte photo paper on my home inkjet printer. Before printing, I went into my computer’s advanced print option settings and ticked the box for “best quality” print.

If you print the images at the highest quality and use matte photo paper, you should get bright, vibrant parrots for this craft.

Using premium photo paper improves the quality of the images. The paper will be much thicker than regular printer paper, which is suitable for this parrot decor craft.

Parrot clip art for parrot decor

Step 2: Using a cutting mat and a paper craft cutting knife, carefully cut out each parrot. Go around the outline of each parrot with the craft knife. As long as your cutting blade is sharp, the images should be straightforward to cut out.

Cutting out the parrots
Parrot cutouts

Step 3: Draw some tree trunks and branches for the parrots to perch on. These can be superficial branches drawn with black pen on white paper (I used the same matte photo paper). Cut out these branches using the craft knife.

Step 4: Next, stick one of the branches to a bamboo skewer using craft glue. Then glue a parrot so that it is perched on the branch.

Sticking paper parrots on branches

Step 5: For the best results, it’s good to have parrots on branches of different heights in the glass dome. With each parrot prepared, I stuck the bamboo skewer into a scrap piece of foam to get an idea of how the final arrangement would look.

Parrot in foam
Making a paper parrot decor for your mantle

Step 6: Carry on cutting out the parrots and arranging them until you have enough for the glass dome. Make sure that all the paper parrots will fit inside the glass dome.

parrot decor arrangement

Step 7: Finally, once you are happy with the parrot decor design, glue each parrot onto the wood slice base. Use a hot glue gun; hold each paper parrot while the glue dries (about 30 seconds).

gluing paper parrots to the wood slice base
tropical parrot decor paper craft

Step 8: All that is left to do is to place the wood slice inside the glass dome and display it on your mantle.

DIY Parrot paper craft
Tropical parrot cloche
DIY Parrot paper craft for cloche

Another way to use the vintage parrot images is in a DIY shadow box, Joseph Cornell style.

There is a stunning collection of vintage hummingbird prints on the site that I also think would look fabulous in a cloche design. There is a butterfly craft version of this cloche in this collection.

I’ve made a similar paper scene in a old fish tin can to make a vintage circus diorama.

I’ve even made a whimsical fabric mushroom garden with the vintage mushroom illustrations on Pictureboxblue. I think something similar could be made with these same Parrot images.

The parrot images would also look great on some decoupage placemats.

Yield: Paper parrot decor for a glass dome/cloche

DIY Parrot Decor Cloche

DIY Parrot Decor Cloche

This is a wonderful alternative way to display the vintage parrot illustrations of Edward Lear. It is a free printable paper craft to create a wonderful tropical parrot display for a glass dome/cloche.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Active Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Difficulty Easy

Materials

  • Matte Photo paper
  • Vintage Parrot Clip art (free to download on the blog)
  • IKEA glass dome/cloche
  • Wood slice
  • Bamboo Skewers
  • Craft glue

Tools

  • Craft knife
  • Cutting mat
  • Hot glue gun

Instructions

  1. Print off the parrot clip art onto matte photo paper. Make sure you select the highest quality print option available on your printer settings.
  2. Cut out each parrot image with a sharp paper craft knife.
  3. Draw simple tree trunks and branches on white paper.
  4. Cut out the trees and glue them to a bamboo skewers.
  5. Glue the one parrot to each tree.
  6. Arrange the parrots into an attractive display of varying heights on a temporary foam base.
  7. Once you are happy with the display and are sure it fits within the glass dome, glue the bamboo sticks to the wood slice base. Use a hot glue gun to attach the sticks, holding them in place as the glue dries.

If you want more ideas for crafting with the wonderful vintage images on Pictureboxblue, then check out the following posts.

For more paper cutting crafts visit allfreepapercrafts.

Ernesztina

Thursday 19th of August 2021

Fabulous list of great crafts and ideas. I totally agree that crafting or making something with your hands is therapeutic for these times. Thanks for sharing each week at #HomeMattersParty. I look forward to your post next week.

claire

Sunday 22nd of August 2021

Thank you so much I'm glad you enjoyed the craft.

Kaz

Thursday 13th of August 2020

Amazing...so beautiful and colourful. Thanku so much 😆

claire

Wednesday 19th of August 2020

Thank you so much glad you like them.

Ann

Monday 30th of March 2020

Very creative! Thank you for sharing at Party In Your PJ's.

claire

Monday 30th of March 2020

Thank you so much and thanks for hosting.

Julie

Sunday 29th of March 2020

This are so lovely Claire, they will be one of the features at Handmade Monday laster today :-)

claire

Monday 30th of March 2020

Thank you, Julie. I look forward to seeing it. I hope you are keeping safe during this crazy time.

Home Matters Linky Party #275 - Modern on Monticello

Friday 27th of March 2020

[…] Fun Parrot Decor from Claire @ Pillar Box Blue […]

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