How to Turn Vintage Tart Pans into Valentine Bird Cages

Hi there! I hope you had a good week. I want to thank you again, dear friends, for keeping me in your prayers. We are expecting some news today that will at least let us know where we stand.

Thank you for sticking with me and following along, even though I’m not operating at top speed. I do think today’s project is pretty darn cute, though. I do hope you enjoy my vintage tart pan birdcages 🙂

You can find the materials you need for this (and other) projects in my Blog Shop under Craft Supplies.

You’ll need some tart pans (vintage or new), wire, and hot glue to get started.

Cut 6 10″ pieces of 20 gauge wire and lightly bend them into U-shapes. You’re going to connect them with some of the finer paddle wire right at the point where they intersect when you put them into a bird cage shape. Then apply some hot glue over the fine wire to secure it.

To “hide” the hot glue, I wrapped it with some more wire. But you don’t have to worry too much about hiding the glue because it will end up pretty much covered by ribbon later on.

Next you’re going to secure the wire cage to the tart pan bottom using hot glue. I didn’t get to partiular about how I did this since you’ll be covering the glue splotches later on with Spanish or green moss. Make sure to evenly space the six wires around the inside of your tart pan.

To create a hanging loop and a swing for your birds, cut a 12″ piece of fine wire. Fold it in half and make a loop in the center by wrapping it around a pencil or a dowel. Secure it to the top of your cage by twisting the wire underneath your wire-wrapped hot glue blob.

You should have two pieces of wire hanging down for your swing.

To create the perch for your love birds, cut a 2″ piece of a small dowel or shish kabob skewer and wrap the wire around each end. Hot glue your birds (I bought mine at Michael’s) onto their perch and cover the bottom of the tart pan with some moss.

Add some vintage button flowers if you like. I hot glued the buttons onto small pieces of the 20 gauge wire and tucked them into the moss.

Add some ribbon and a tag with a “love” sentiment and your bird cage is complete.

Ready to display for Valentine’s Day.

They look nice with the ironstone back-drop.

An alternative way to secure your three bird cage wires together and create a hanging loop is to lightly fold the wire in half, and then twist them together (at the bend) into a loop. Spread the wires out a bit and then glue them to the inside of your tart pan.

That’s how I made this one with the blue love birds.

I make the paper tags by printing the phrases on manila card stock, cutting them out, and punching a small hole in the end.

A little bit of ribbon adds some color.

For this red version, I used a vintage square tart pan and made the edge more festive by attaching some pretty red and white trim.

The front of the pan look vacant, so I added “happy valentine’s.”

I added a few button flowers as well.

They’re adding some holiday cheer to my ironstone cupboard right now.

I think some of my younger nieces and nephews will find them fascinating, as they do most things that come in miniature sizes.

I hope you enjoyed today’s vintage-y project; they’re the very best kind, aren’t they?

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