Bird nests; one of nature’s most abidingly beautiful things, evocative of spring & new life. This natural DIY bird nest makes me happy every time I see it. It’s very simple, yet so beautiful. It looks like it was plucked right out of a tree and placed inside my home, which I love. This DIY bird nest can be customized to the exact size that you would like, and you can also add more items to make it your own.

You will need:

Angel hair vine filler or seagrass (or raffia, etc)
Spanish moss
Any cardboard ( it will be used as a base)
Feathers
Eggs
Hot Glue Gun

Salim, or seagrass, is perfect. You can buy it from your local garden centre / florist for a few pounds. Raffia is very widely available and comes in many different colours. It’s great for kids to work with and also good for building nests that will house chocolate or candy eggs Handfuls of reeds, creepers, living willow or other garden plantstuff also work well; you want a good thick handful of whatever you choose. Green willow will become brown and stiff as it dries out, but is very malleable when freshly cut.

Now, we begin..!

Find a cardboard that is about the same size as you want your nest to be. Start by cutting a small circle on the cardboard you are using. Take a thick handful of your seagrass (or raffia, etc), and apply a very generous amount of hot glue to the cardboard. Wrap it around the cardboard to form a nest. You can trim away any excess that you don’t need. You should end up with a messy but firm hoop like this below; don’t worry that it has cardboard ‘bottom’; we’ll fill this in later. The nest will keep its’ form, but you can also move things around a bit if you need to get a nice round nest shape.

Now you can start to accessorise your nest. Apply some hot glue to the inside of the nest and add natural and green Spanish moss to the glue. Use a stick or a hot pad to press down on the moss to make sure that it adheres to the nest, do NOT use your hand, or you might burn it! Then tuck feathers in around the sides and top edges. Duck feathers are particularly beautiful as they tend to be very small and speckled, sometimes with hints of blue and green which look gorgeous when you add in eggs to the finished nest.

Your nest is now ready for eggs!

Now you have a gorgeous homemade spring and Easter decoration that looks lovely and natural. You could make a tiny little nest this way, or a huge next to hold lots of eggs and to really make a statement. Any size you make is sure to make a statement and invite a bit of the outdoors inside this spring. Have a lovely weekend!