Camp craft: painting birdhouses

I learned my lesson last year at girls camp. I spent the entire week teaching step-by-step instructions for most of the crafts, which left me exhausted and sick of my own voice. So this year I chose a few crafts that didn’t require constant instruction from me. Birdhouses was one easy solution. And I even had time to paint my own birdhouse (above) at camp.

The essentials for this project were paint, creativity, and unfinished wooden birdhouses. Then I let the girls loose. And boy did they let loose. I’ve never seen so many bright-colored, creative, and unique birdhouses.

Two girls sit among dozens of birdhouses.

Two girls chatting in the midst of drying birdhouses. That discarded wooden pallet came in handy.

I bought 100 birdhouses in myriad styles when they were on sale for $4 each at Michael’s last May. I practically cleaned out two stores. We must have had about 15 different models — all of them as cute as the next.

I stocked up on bottles of acrylic craft paint, also from Michael’s. One popular color that I wish I bought more of was metallic copper (just a tip if you want to try this craft with a group of youth).

Painting goes faster — and is more fun — with two. We used plastic table cloths with a roll of paper over it to protect the work surfaces. And buckets of water for rinsing brushes.