Cardboard Collage Birds

I recently created these cardboard collage birds for an art workshop I was hosting in our local community. I love using up-cycled materials, so all the birds were cut from old cardboard boxes.

We used oil pastel and paper collage to decorate our birds as we needed a relatively mess free process in space we were using for the workshop but you could definitely use paints if you're not worried about mess.

It took a while to cut 40 bird body parts for the workshop using a craft knife, but it was worth it. I'm afraid I don't have a template for the birds, but if you are looking for inspiration for Australian bird shapes, check out my Australian Native Bird colouring pages.

MATERIALS:

• Old cardboard boxes
• PVA glue and brush
• Colouring materials like oil pastels, paint pens or paints
• Colourful paper for collage
• Other collage materials like feathers or yarn (optional)
• Craft knife and scissors

HOW TO:

Sketch your bird body shapes onto thick corrugated cardboard and cut them out with a craft knife. If you need to cut multiples, just draw around your first bird a few times. I created 4 different bird shapes and then cut out 10 of each bird.

Cut a variety of wing and tail shapes; enough for each bird body. Finally you can cut some fun crests for your birds.

Arrange all the bird body parts on a table with paints, oil pastels, glue and other collage materials like paper scraps, yarn or feathers.

Start creating your birds by gluing the body part together and then adding colour and collage materials.

I love seeing how differently all the birds turn out!