DIY Shower: Bird Nest Pin

Remember the crazy gorgeous sweetest tweet shower that Christy Steadman captured for us a few weeks ago?  Well, if you look closely in some of her photographs you'll see the sweetest little bird's nests popping up everywhere.  (We were particularly smitten with the ones on the table near the breath-taking maternity photographs).  So, when we stumbled upon Cathe Holden's adorable homemade bird nest pins on her blog (Just Something I Made) we felt like we had struck baby shower DIY favor gold!  Cathe's pins would not only make AMAZING keepsakes for the Mom-to-be, but we're also dreaming of attaching them to a ribbon napkin ring, or on the invitation -- oh my gosh, how much time do you have because we want every woman at the shower to walk away with one of these!  After all, a little sparkle on the outside, a little sparkle on the inside!  Enjoy.  :)





From Cathe Holden... Sweet tiny wire nests! So pretty added to product, collage, or even hanging from a delicate chain or ribbon and worn around your neck. Nests to me always represent motherhood, so I am especially fond of them. Above are photos of a couple on my Nest and Home bottles that were sold through my Etsy shop. 

Materials:

24 guage wire (brass, silvertone or sterling silver) 

Little cultured pearls or pearly-looking beads. (You can find the little pearls through most jewelry/bead suppliers. I also have several different colors I found on jewelry from a thrift store.)

Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. Thread the beads onto the wire.
2. Turn, bend the wire around the beads threading back through itself here and there. You can’t mess this up, the more kinks the better. You can wrap bands of wire tightly around gathered rings of the nests for additional reinforcement a good idea when making nests for jewelry.
3. Using round-nose jewelry pliers or needle-nose pliers, bend, kink and twirl the wire further. I had a gold-tone leaf charm that I sanded down to the silver colored base and attached it with another small piece of wire.
4. You can patina your eggs with a golden-brown permant marker dabbed here and there as I did with the ones attached to the bottles.



 To view the complete tutorial and other craft ideas, please visit Just Something I Made.