We made colorful tissue paper bird nests last week, partly just to try it, and partly to hold some of our Easter eggs. This is a simple Easter or spring craft for kids or adults inspired by the many shredded paper bird nests I've seen on blogs this past year. I don't own a shredder, so decided to try this quick variation with materials that we had on hand.
Our bird nests are rather bright, but you can make yours as subtle or as colorful as you like, depending on the tissue paper you use.
Here's how we made these nests:
Tissue Paper Bird Nest
Materials:
- Small bowl
- Plastic wrap
- White school glue mixed with an equal amount of water
- Colored tissue paper
Instructions:
1. Turn your small bowl upside down and cover the outside with plastic wrap, tucking it up inside. Set the plastic-covered bowl over some more plastic wrap or over another non-stick surface (we used plastic placemats).
2. Tear off a piece of tissue paper and scrunch it up.
3. Dip the crumpled tissue paper into the glue/water mixture, then stick it to the plastic-covered bowl.
4. Repeat until the bowl is completely covered.
This was a good project for Maia—very similar to the papier mache bowls we've made—and she was easily able to make a bird nest by herself.
Daphne enjoyed making a bird nest, too, but mostly piled her tissue paper pieces on top of the bowl as you can see in the photo above. Perhaps I should have left it as is, but I actually helped her cover the sides so she'd have a completed nest as well.
5. Let dry. It took a couple of days for our nests to dry completely. The white nests are made from kleenex rather than craft tissue paper. It worked surprisingly well.
6. Once the bird nest is completely dry, pull the bowl out of the nest, then pull out the plastic wrap.
Here's what the interior of the nest looks like.
And the exterior.
Use the nest to hold a few Easter eggs—great for a dining table centerpiece or a Spring nature table!
Or, if you're like us, you could go crazy with this and have a whole series of bird nests lined up along the center of the table....
