French quail

I love dollar store crafting...transforming a plain (or plain ugly) item into something funky or beautiful is a fun challenge. I bought this little guy at Dollar Tree and decided to give him a makeover to fit in with my black and white French collection.

First up was two coats of acrylic paint...I chose Delta Ceramcoat Oyster White. Because the bird is resin, it took longer than usual for the paint to dry. I used a sponge brush because the surface is rough and I didn't want to ruin my good brushes (been there, done that). Thin coats are always better than thick. To paint around the eyes and legs, I used a cheap paintbrush from a children's set. Looking at my painted bird, something seemed "off." It was the beak...I should've left it unpainted. Oh, well, nothing a little black paint won't fix.

I wanted to add a light, curlicue-type of design using black cardstock, so I searched through my Cricut cartridges and found this leaf on the Stretch Your Imagination cart (*see Cricut cutting details at the end of this post). You also could freehand a design on cardstock and cut with an X-acto blade, use patterned paper and cut a wing shape, or use stickers. Rub-on transfers won't work as the surface is too uneven. After trimming off the stems of my leaves, I brushed some Mod Podge on the back of the cardstock and pressed the elements in place. They bonded almost instantly, so I didn't have to hold them down forever. My bird needed a little something extra, so I gave him a crest feather like a quail, cut from black cardstock and attached with Mod Podge.

For more dollar store bird projects, check out Dollar Store Crafts.

*Cricut cutting info: Stretch Your Imagination cart, low speed, pressure 4, blade depth 4. Wings cut from 'leaf-s' with Silhouette feature on (push flip button for one wing), size 2 inches. Tail cut from 'leaf' with Silhouette feature, 1-1/2 inches.