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Decorative Gourd Birdhouses are fun, easy and a unique project to do. This is a project that both adults and children will enjoy doing. Whether you are making the birdhouse as a practical and usable birdhouse or just for decoration inside, or outside your home, there are many ways to decorate these cute birdhouses.
You can grow your own gourds over a trellis or sturdy support, or buy the gourd in a local supermarket. The long bottle gourds that look like a yellow squash, but with a fat bottom and long neck are the most popular to use for this project. The first thing to do when you have the gourd of your choice is to hang it up in a dry, cool place and let it dry out completely. This can take from 30 to 60 days depending on your climate.
Place the gourd in an upright position in a holding vise grips. It's a good idea to pad the gourd where it comes in contact with the vise, so that no damage occurs to the outside of the gourd. With a drill and small bit make a hole in the very top of the gourd neck. Go all the way through the gourd as this is where the hanger will be placed. If you aren't going to hang the finished birdhouse, you may skip this part. They look very pretty standing up and placed on a coffee table, or book-shelf, or in the kitchen.
You will need a hole saw attachment for your drill, one that will make the opening between 1 and 2 inches in diameter. The gourds outer shell is hard, and you want to be sure to have a good grip with your vise on it, making sure to protect the outside against damage again with some kind of padding. The hole itself should be made to your eye approximately the middle of the fat round portion of the gourd. Or just under the neck stem. Scrape the seeds from inside the gourd, and you can save these seeds to plant for the next growing season. Just spread them out, and let them dry out before packaging and labeling.
Next you have the option of placing a perch on the outside of the gourd birdhouse. This is easily done by drilling a hole and putting in a small section of wood dowel. This is a step you may also skip, depending on what you prefer. You could decorate the gourd first and decide later if you would like to add the perch.
The various decorations for the gourds are only limited by your imagination. The kids especially will let loose with paint, and markers and come up with some unique designs. Regular acrylic craft paint works fine, permanent markers also. Whatever you decide to use, the gourds will need several coats of varnish, or all weather
varathane.
Besides using paints, or markers, you can use a wood burner to burn into the gourd your design, and either leave it plain without color, or use some colour to paint inside the design is a very pretty and unique way to decorate these bird-houses. Indian designs such as eagles, and totem poles with turquoise color added are exceptionally pretty. Be imaginative, you can't go wrong with this simple project.
You may also just leave the gourd unembellished and either using a matte or glossy varathane give it several coats over the whole gourd. If you plan on hanging it up outside take a an appropriate length of sturdy string, or wire and place it throught the hole in the top of the gourd that you made earlier.
One last note, if you don't have a drill, or vise of your own, you may be able to request that part of the work be done at your local hardware store, for a small fee they will usually do this for you. This is especially a good idea if you are doing a group project with children, and need more than one gourd done.
These gourd birdhouses make wonderful gifts, for holidays, or birthdays. You could place a packet of the seeds that came from the gourd along with instructions on how to do their own birdhouse next season. Packing it along with any of the decoration supplies of your choice. Unique and a lot of fun, something that never goes out of style.
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