Have you been lucky enough to spot a cardinal this winter? We haven’t yet, but we’ve definitely got our eyes peeled! The bright red birds always make us think of winter, nestled cozily on a snow-covered branch. Today we’re paying homage to the beautiful cardinal with these DIY glittery bird decorations.

They’re so cute and you can use the finished birds in so many ways – stick them into a potted house plant, add them into a floral arrangement, or glue them onto little paper houses like we did. They sure add some cheer to the house!

• Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Craft Paint
• Folk Art Glitterific
• Paintbrushes
• Foam eggs
• Pencil
• Black marker
• Red cardstock
• Scissors
• Craft knife
• Wooden skewers

Step 1
Pierce a wooden skewer into a foam egg – this will help you easily paint all sides of the egg and allow for drying. Paint the egg with a coat of red and set into a cup to dry completely.

Step 2
Apply a coat of red Glitterific all over the egg. We like using a round stencil brush, or foam applicator for this step. Set aside to dry completely.

Step 3
Sketch out simple shapes onto red cardstock for the cardinal’s tail feather, wings, and head. Look at images of cardinals for reference and don’t forget to leave a little bit extra to insert into the foam egg. If you’re using differently sized foam eggs like we did, you’ll want to slightly adjust the sizes of the shapes to match. And if you’re making multiples, simply trace the shapes and cut those out instead of redrawing them from scratch every time! Finally, use a black marker to draw an eye on each side of the cardinal’s head.

Step 4
Use the craft knife to carefully cut a small slot into the side of the foam egg. You’ll make a vertical cut on the big side of the egg for the head, a smaller horizontal slot opposite that, and two short horizontal slots on either side of the egg for the wings. Carefully insert the paper pieces – they should stay snugly in place without any glue.

Step 5
Repeat this process for the remaining birds. When done, you can leave them on the skewers and stick them into house plants or floral arrangements. Alternately, you can remove the skewer and attach some wire or a small clip to instead clamp them onto whatever you like. We used small dabs of hot glue to attach ours onto these decorative paper houses.

Happy crafting!