Painting Craft for Kids: Spring Birdhouse

When the days are just starting to warm up around here, I like to start thinking spring. This is the time to start looking at seed catalogs and thinking about how I’m going to fill up my gardens. This cute spring painting craft for kids takes one of those little craft birdhouses and turns it into a work of art.

If you have older kids and want a more in-depth project, you could even make the birdhouse yourself. But these painted birdhouses were simple, fun and something I’ll bring out for decor each spring. I absolutely love crafts for kids that are usable or something I display long-term.

Getting Started: Birdhouse Craft Supplies

I have all kinds of acrylic paint on hand. The craft or artist grade stuff works best because it isn’t really thin and runny. I really don’t like kids’ grade paint, so I don’t even buy it. The only downside is–this “real” paint is not washable at all if you get it on clothing or let it dry on surfaces.

You will also need brushes, the craft birdhouses and paper plates (or paint palettes). You can either paint the birdhouses a solid color and let them dry completely or just work with the plain wood. The nice thing about paining on a first layer of color or white means there aren’t any blank spaces without paint on the birdhouse.

Painting the Birdhouses

To start, I didn’t give them a lot of direction. I picked out a select color palette and told them we were going to be doing flowers. I find with projects it is good to set parameters of some kind. Those parameters may be about what they can/can’t paint, how much has to be covered, what colors they use, etc. So, for example, when doing a craft for kids, I might give instructions like:

“You can paint whatever you want.” or “We are only painting flowers today.”
“What colors would you like?” or “Here are 5 colors for you to work with.”
“Start with _____ color.” or “Do a background first and we will add ____ on top.”
“Pick a brush.” or “Start with this (big, small, medium) one first.”

While it might seem like the rules limit their creativity, I find it usually pushes them to be more creative–especially if I change those rules every time. When it is a free-for-all (which I also do with them), they tend to create in a certain way that feels comfortable for them. Providing some (or a lot of) structure when doing crafts for kids will push them to think outside of their own box and try something new.

Adding the Details

One of the rules was adding flowers on top of their color patches. A lot of times I will tell the kids to stop working on a certain part. Kids don’t always know when they are done and they can go from something awesome to something overworked. I know that may sound bad, but they do their art based off of their feelings. If they are bored, they will either do more or quit. If they are into it, they might keep going just because they are having fun.

During free-for-all projects, they are free to work as long as they want. During these projects that are more structured, we work on recognizing when something is really good and should be left alone and when something needs a bit more.

I helped Kamden a lot with his. Since he is only 2, I wanted to help him get something that could be displayed with the others. I know this probably sounds terrible, but I honestly do not save or display artwork just because my kid did it. We have way too much to do that. It’s all about how good they did for their level and how aesthetically beautiful it is if I’m going to display it longer than a brief stay on the fridge.

So, I let him do his thing and then I helped him add some flowers and did some details myself when he got bored. Then when he got interested again, I helped him make some fingerprint bees.

After finishing the houses, we let them dry and signed the bottoms. How cute are these when it comes to a craft for kids? I know I will love having them out each spring.

Pin one of these to do your own later and then check out another great spring craft for kids here: Easter Bunny Footprints.