PB Nest Knock Off

When I saw a Pottery Barn nest decoration in their catalog, I was reminded that I still had an old Robin’s nest out in the garage from last Spring and decided to make my version of this.  The first thing you want to do if using a real bird’s nest is bag it and then put it in your freezer for a few days.  This will kill any little “creatures” that may be hiding in it!  I went out in the yard to find some sticks and I decided to combine a red branch and a gray branch.  I laid them out on the table and once I had them arranged the way I wanted, I used twine to secure them together.

 

For the little moss-covered balls, I used foam balls from the Dollar Store (I got 6 of nice, varying sizes in one bag).  I got out my bag of sheet moss and dumped all of the “dregs” onto a piece of cardboard and spread them out.  (This is a great way to use up all of those little pieces that aren’t in a sheet anymore!)  I applied Elmer’s Glue in sections and then rolled the balls into the moss pieces, adding more glue and rolling some more.  

After they dried for just a few minutes, I rolled and pressed them with my hands to get a nice, round shape.  It’s messy but the results are worth it I think!

Next I needed to secure the nest to the branches.  Now real nests can be tricky because they usually have hard, dried mud in them but if you remove too much, the nest will fall apart.  So I pulled some of the mud away from the bottom and then using butcher’s twine and a large needle, I “sewed” the nest to make it more solid. 

Then using the same string and needle, I “sewed” the nest to the branches until it was nice and secure. 

The eggs were old wooden eggs I already had so I spray painted them gray and then using a little craft mister, speckled them and using hot glue put them and the moss-covered balls into the nest.  I added a little sheet moss with hot glue to parts of the nest and the branches.  I have a lot of dried roses so I decided to also add one to the piece.  I also wedged a few pieces of twine it to give it a more ‘natural’ look.

 

The last thing I did was add a few cardboard circles, covered with decorative paper to the back.  This was mainly to protect the furniture from the scratchy sticks and nest.

 

 The Pottery Barn Version:  $24.00

 

 

My Version:  $1.00 (that was for the foam balls which I didn’t already have)