I like to save the shells from my pistachio nuts to craft with. Here, I've turned them into birds on a tree I painted. Sometimes bare winter trees are nice in the way that you can see all the animals that perch on the branches without leaves getting in the way. This painting is dedicated to my father who loves to birdwatch and absolutely adores pistachios!
Total Time: 70 minutes plus dry time
Yield: 1 painting
Supplies:
- 1 canvas
- cleaned pistachio shells
- acrylic paints (any colours including blue, black, and copper)
- paintbrushes (wide, medium, and fine point)
- hot glue gun with glue
Steps:
- Paint the outsides of the pistachio shells in whatever colour you'd like your birds to be. Allow to dry.
- Use a wide brush to paint your canvas blue. Allow to dry.
- Near the bottom of your canvas, paint some black lines to create your ground.
- Draw some medium width lines in black shooting upwards to create the tree trunk. Start adding branches going outward.
- Add more branches inside going up and out to fill out the tree. Allow to dry.
- Add some highlights to the tree by painting short lines in copper paint. Allow to dry.
- Place the painted pistachio shells around the tree to get an idea of where you'd like the birds to sit.
- Lift each shell and paint a small beak in black. Add a blob of hot glue to the inside of the shell and affix to the painting.
- Add a tiny dot of black paint near the beak to create the eyes.
suz1230
Silver Feedback Medal for All Time! 451 Feedbacks February 23, 20190 found this helpful
Oh my goodness, this is so cute I can hardly wait to try and make one too.
Attosa, you are SO incredibly talented!!!
The tree is really beautiful that you painted, and the birds are so cute, I'm giddy over them :)
Thank you so much for sharing how to do this. :)
