12 Days of Christmas ~ Two Turtle Doves

...in the form of napkin rings!

What you need:

Note that you can get the birds and nest in the floral department at most craft stores - I got mine at Michael's. Sometimes you can even get the birds already in the nest!

- A napkin ring

- A small bird nest- small enough so it doesn't look funny on the napkin ring.

- Two any-color birds, preferably with brown wings

- A hot glue gun

- Bleach

- A couple Q-tips

Step 1: Glue your birds into the nest. I did this first; in retrospect it might have been smarter to do step two first!

Step 2: Now, obviously we don't want orange birds for our turtle doves. In fact, until I actually looked it up I thought they should be white! Then I saw this picture:

I was pretty happy, because I wasn't able to find solid white birds at the craft store and the only ones they had had brown wings made out of pinecone pieces, which would be hard to bleach or paint!

SO, dip your Q-tip into some bleach and dab it along the birds. You should see the color start to fade almost immediately. Keep dabbing and rubbing until all the color has faded (you might need to wait a couple minutes to see the complete results).

This is what they looked like partway through:

Step 4: Grab your napkin rings. I would personally use skinnier, more organic looking ones, but there were all we had in the drawer so I used them.

Now, hot glue the bottom of your bird nest to the napkin ring. Pull your fancy napkins through (once again, I would probably use a more organic cloth for this, but purple damask was all I had on hand!) and voila, two turtle doves and a holiday napkin holder.

Check back tomorrow for 3 French Hens - I'm really excited about this one!