Book Birdhouse

While I was up visiting Chicago, I came across some wonderful birdhouses that had a hardback book as the roof and pages glued to the sides.  You can see an example here, but retailing around $120 I decided to make one myself.  The upside to making it yourself is that you get to pick the book.  I made the birdhouse for my sister's upcoming birthday and one of her favorite books is Anne of Green Gables.  Happy Birthday Annie! You are getting a sneak preview of your birthday present.
Here is how I made it.  I was planning to buy a prefab birdhouse from the craft store, but they are on the small side, so I had my husband put one together for me.  The dimensions were figured out by the size of the book.

Once the birdhouse was put together, I got started on gluing the pages to the sides. I used a spray adhesive and it worked perfectly.  Once this was complete I did some decorative painting on the base of the birdhouse.  Then I had to come up with a bird perch and decided that a carrot would make a good one since they say Anne's hair is as red as carrots a few times in the book.  I used Sculpey to make it.  I  loved using this stuff.  It is so easy to sculpt with and then you bake it in the oven for 30 minutes and paint it.

I had so much fun making the carrot that I wanted to make a little bird that would hang off the ribbon bookmark in the book.

Cute, right?