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.

DIY Tropical Parrot Paper Craft

The colours with this parrot decor are so vibrant and gorgeous they brighten up my mantle. I love vintage bird illustrations; 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 framed as prints.

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.

We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

What You Need To For Parrot Decor Cloche

• Tall glass dome/cloche – such as IKEA BEGÅVNING.
• Bamboo skewers
• Wood slice to fit into the base of the glass dome
• Craft Glue
• Parrot clip art print out – download here
• Matte photo paper
• Hot Glue Gun
• Papercutting knife
• Cutting mat
• Scrap piece of foam or polystyrene

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 entered 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. It is much thicker than regular printer paper, which is suitable for this parrot decor craft.

Step 2: Carefully cut out each parrot using a cutting mat and a paper craft cutting knife. 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.

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

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

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

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).

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

Conclusions and Other Ideas

Another way to use the vintage parrot images is in a DIY shadow box, Joseph Cornell style. These parrots would also look great printed onto rocks and used as paperweights.

A stunning collection of vintage hummingbird prints and exotic bird art on the site 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 an 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.

Check out the following posts for more ideas for crafting with the wonderful vintage images on Pictureboxblue.

• Vintage Seed Packet Arts
• Still Flower Decoupage Tray Table
• Cheese Labels On Wood
• Printable Easter Favor boxes

For more paper cutting crafts visit allfreepapercrafts.