Stand-Up Spring Birdies

We had a lovely Easter--no houseguests, no parties, just a quiet rainy day inside, stuffing ourselves with chocolates.  Of course, a rainy day calls for crafty goodness, so we came up with these silly little birds that stand up by themselves, but are a piece of cake to put together.

 

Materials:

-paper (white or patterned, copy-weight or cardstock)

-paperclips

-googly eyes (optional)

  

Instructions:

-Acquire an image of a bird.  You can draw one up, print out a silhouette from the web, or trace an image from a bird book, as we did (ours is a thrush!).

-Fold your choice of paper in half, transfer your design, and cut the bird out (you'll get two).  I just held my tracing paper on top of my folded paper and cut through all three layers. 

-On a bit of your folded paper, cut out a wing shape.  Unfold into a double wing.  Decorate the bird and his/her wings however you like.

-Unfold your paperclip a bit into a 'foot' for the bird.  This picture shows you how, since I'm not quite sure how to explain:

 

-Glue the top part of the paperclip between the two layers of paper so that it's in the right spot to make it stand. 

-After the bird shape is mostly dry you can cut a slit to slip the wing shape through and adjust the paperclip foot a bit to get it to stand up just the way you want.  

 

-Lather, rinse, repeat!  We put together a little chick and a, um, sparrow?