Bee, Bug, and Seed Gourd House Roof Decorations
Begin this free, online dried craft gourd art project with our Basic Constructions step-by-step page. Then enjoy how to create your roof accents on our Bee House Roof Accents page, and the Bee House Gallery page.
This project began as an experiment and practice piece in creating a large, roofed bird house gourd. I wanted to work out how to add a wooden roof before I began the cutting steps on my large kettle gourd. As I worked I became more and more delighted with the nest egg and small bottle gourd houses that I used as my practice pieces. Adding a few dried, natural accents was logical next step to change them from just experiments into Bee, Bug, and Seed Houses that I could use for my fall decorations and in my autumn flower gardens.
A walk through your own backyard or neighbors can provide the dried natural accents that we will be using to decorate these little Bee, Bug, and Seed Gourd Houses. I have a large yard, over 3 acres, much of which I have allowed to go wild and native after joining Maryland’s Wild Acres program. So after I had several bee houses constructed I grabbed my hand pruners and my gathering basket and headed outdoors. Below is a listing of what I found in my own yard and kitchen.
Suggested Natural Accents Supplies:
Day lily leaves
Yucca leaves
Bamboo leaves and small branches
Golden Chain tree pods
Dried hydrangea flowers
Pine cones and long pine needles
Wild grapevine
Dried Chinese kousa dogwood seed pods
Crepe Myrtle pods
Acorns and dried oak leaves
Pampas grass leaves
Viable Garden Seeds for Seed Houses:
Barberry – variegated and red
Royal Standard Hosta
Pine
Dogwoods – native wild and Chinese
Tulip Poplar
Red and White Oak
Golden Chain tree
Common orange day lilies
Craft Supplies:
Craft knife, bench knife, or exacto knife
Hot glue and hot glue gun
Twine or craft string
Scrap paper bag colored scrapbook paper
16-gauge copper wire
Wire cutters
Round-nose pliers
Pine Cone Roof: This sample Bee House has an easy, quick pine cone petal roof with a bamboo leaf ridge line.
Pine Cone Petals: Before you begin this step be sure that your pine cones is thoroughly dry and open. Slide your bench knife under one of the stem petals of the pine cone. Gently lift and pull with the flat of the knife to remove the petal. Move your knife to the next petal and repeat. As you remove each petal you will reveal the base of the petal below it and where that petal connects to a central stem. The more your remove the easier each row becomes to free from the central stem.
Pine cone petals vary in size, shape, and condition. Sort your petals into several piles based on size. We will be using the largest, longest petals first, along the bottom edge of the roof line. As we work up the side of the roof you can use the medium and small sized petals. The pine cone petals at the top of the cone are often extra long and tightly curved. These are excellent to use along the edge of your roof to curve over and hide your scrapbook paper roof base.
First Roof Line Row: With hot glue adhere a large pine cone petal at the center bottom edge of your roof. Allow about 1/4″ of the petal to extend over and beyond the roof paper. Continue adding pine cone petals to the bottom row, working from the center towards the side edges.
Second Pine Petal Row: The second row is adhered in the same manner as the first. Offset the first petal of this row so that it overlaps the joint line of two petals in the first row. Continue adding rows of pine cone petals until the top edge of your last row touches the center fold line of the roof paper.
Add a Dried Leaf Ridge Line: To hide the joint line of the roof side pine cone petals where they meet at the center fold of the roof, I used two dried bamboo leaves. These leaves have a central vein that made folding the leaves over the roof fold easy. Hot glue into place and trim the ends of the leaves with your scissors or bench knife. For this step you can also use Pampas Grass leaves, dried Day Lily leaves, or a scrap of your paper bag colored scrapbook paper.
Completed Pine Cone Petal Roof: The finished roof has the delightful appearance of a wood shingled roof. Note in the photo, below, how the top, tightly curved petals of the pine cone roll over the paper roof side edges.
Adding a Hanging Wire: Cut an 6″ length of 16-gauge copper wire. Bend the wire over the tip of your round-nose pliers at the center point. Bend the ends of the wire over your round-nose pliers at the ends to fold back 1/2″.
Attaching the Hanging Wire: Slip the folder ends of the wire under the top corners of the roof. Hot glue into place. Hold the wire until the hot glue is well cooled and set.
Completed Roof: Where I used copper wire, you could also use garden twine, waxed linen cord, and even braided sea grass as your hanger.
Adding Dried Natural Accents: With my hot glue I have added a small branch of dried grapevine to the front side edge of my roof line. To strengthen the fine twists of the grapevine I hot glued the vine twist once next to the perch and again where it touched the bottom section of the bottle gourd.
Dried Flowers: These dried flowers are from my white Snowball Hydrangea. I cut small branched sections from the larger hydrangea flower and hot glue set the stems along the underside of the front roof edge.
Barberry Branches: A few pieces of Barberry branch with its natural deep red seeds adds the final touches to my Bee House. Its ready to become an accent on an autumn wreath, a Christmas present, or the go out into my garden as a winter roost for wild bees. This entire project from the basic construction to the ready-to-hang Bee House took less than one-half hour.
Please go to our Bee House Gallery for more ideas on how to decorate your Bee, Bug, and Seed Gourd Houses.
