Craft-D-ness: Spring Decorating with Nature..twigs, raffia & wood

I strive to keep my seasonal expressions in line with my day-to-day home decor. In other words, since I don't have pastels in my home, my spring decorating will lack pastels (unless it's a wreath for the door). I love using natural elements and taking inspiration from nature, which inspires my projects much of the time. That said, today, I'm sharing how I created my Spring Nest with Pyrographic Eggs.

Spring Decorating with Nature..twigs, raffia & wood

Spring is all about the birds around our house. We have 3-4 bird houses and a couple of feeders so you can always see birds somewhere close by. This led to the idea of doing a nest with wood eggs embellished with the wood burning tool. I am still a beginner with the wood burner, truthfully, I'm still overcoming a mild fear since it's much hotter than a glue gun and we all know how that smarts! However, I must say I am tickled with the results and it's harmonious with my existing decor. I am placing my nest and eggs under the bell jar (cloche) I received at Christmas but it would be just as pretty sitting on a mantel or tabletop on its own.

Bell Jar with Pyrography Eggs in Raffia Nest

Here's how I created my Spring Nest with Pyrographic Eggs. Obviously, you can make the same things without using a wood burner. Paints, inks, and stamping are options that would bring a similar look to your wood eggs.

Supplies:

twigs
raffia
Wood eggs
Wood burner or paints, inks, and stamping supplies
black paint
hot glue
scissors

[it took 2 days to complete the project. One day to do the pyrography and the 2nd day to complete everything else]

First, I painted the wood eggs white. I did one coat and wasn't overly concerned with coverage. I simply didn't want the color of the plain wood.

Wood Eggs one natural & one painted white

Then I found twigs that would fit under my bell jar and allow for a nest in the branches. I worked two branches together until I could get them to stand as a unit then I hot glued the joints just to make sure when I added the nest and eggs they wouldn't collapse.

My next step was adorning the eggs. I had no real plan or pattern. I just used the existing wood burner tips I have to do the work. In a few instances, I used the tips to create icons like hearts, zig-zags and flowers. If you decide you want to pursue pyrography check out my tips and cautions to help get you started. Each side of each egg has a different pattern. I wanted to practice with the burner so now I have a bunch of different looks just by turning the eggs over!

Once I had the eggs decorated, I built the nest. I took an empty box and cut out a circle and painted it black. This will be the base of the nest where I can attach raffia using hot glue and it is the resting place for the wood eggs. I took a handful of the raffia tied it on each end and wound it around on itself and hot glued it to create a fairly tight circle. I attached the raffia to the cardboard using hot glue. I trimmed and glued until I got the shape and appearance I wanted.

I didn't like the starkness of the raffia (it just didn't look natural) so I dry brushed some black paint on it to tone it down some.

Finally, I placed the nest in the twig branches and added the eggs to the nest. Unfortunately, I could only fit 3 of the 4 eggs I had decorated but as with all decorating learning to edit is essential so I went with 3 eggs.