Arts and Crafts
Helpful Tips & Tricks!

• Determine the dimensions of the birdhouse. Most wild birds require different sizes of birdhouses as well as entrance holes. Check on-line for information about this.

• When selecting the wood to use, use plain, untreated lumber. Plastic and metal often overheat in the hot summer sun.

• Never use paint or stain inside the birdhouse. If you want to paint the exterior, do so only after the whole house is built. Use non-toxic exterior paint that does not contain lead. Light colors are preferable so that the house is kept cool. The southwestern Sonora Desert sun can be nrutal – and the occupants of your new house will be grateful!

• Birdhouses can be attached to wood or metal fence posts, trees, or their own wood or metal posts. Bluebird boxes seem to attract more predators when on trees. Again, check on line to find out any altitude requirements for the bird types you want to attract and provide homes for.

• Be sure the birdhouse has holes on the opposite side of the entry hole, near the roof, for ventilation purposes. Two 5/8" ventilation holes near the top of each side of the house will also aid in ventilation. In the desert, the air flow for the birds will be critical..

• Install drain holes or slots in the bottom of the box for drainage. Drill or cut at least four ¼" drain holes or slots in the bottom of every house.

Each bird house:
— Should have an access door on the roof or on the side wall so that the birdhouse can easily be cleaned properly.

— Should be placed at locations inaccessible to natural predators. The opening should face away from the prevailing wind, and if possible, the houses should be situated in partial sunlight.

— Should be spaced from the next bird house, at least 25 feet apart (300 feet for bluebird houses) to reduce terrirotrial conflicts. Most birds are territorial and protect the areas around their nests. Note that the Golden Eye, Mergansers and Wood Ducks are not territorial, so you can place their houses closer together. Purple martins live in colonies and prefer adjoining "apartment houses" to single-family houses. Martins are great mosquito catchers!

Do not use tin cans, plastic milk cartons, or metal for nest boxes. They can overheat and kill eggs and young birds. The only exception to this are the commercially available aluminum martin houses.

Scrap Booking
Scrap booking isn't just a collection of photos and memorabilia, it's a place to store memories. And by combining caring ideas with creativity, your result can be a stunning scrapbook that touches those you share it with.

Here are few helpful tips for beginners:
• Pads of foam papers can be found easily at any stationary store in the supermarket or retailers shop. These are also available at many places n the Internet. These are durable, and can be used for making covers.

• If you want it to have a spiral binding for the convenience of turning pages, you can use nails for making holes, and a colored reel of plastics or steel, in the color of you choice.

• Use foam pad or any padding of your choice (or even a cutting board) while pricking down the nail into the cover or card stock. This way leaves a more consistent hole, and is much safer for furniture and fingers.

• You can buy a three-ring binder with plastic baseball card protector sheets to use with your scrap booking. This can be used for storing small stickers, tabs, and die cuts.

• Place extra protector sheets in the back of your scrapbook while working on your project – use them to help organize small pieces of oyur project.

Card Making
Many people start out making their own cards as a hobby or in order to save money. But what happens is that a lot of people end up spending more money on materials for making the cards than they would have actually spent if they’d bought a card from the store. To avoid this financial mishap, try some of these materials – some of them cost a few bucks or nothing:

• Old wallpaper books, which are no longer in use, can be collected or found at paint and home decorating stores. These are often free, or dirt cheap.

• Off-cuts and sample papers from your local printer.

• Bits of attractive paper culled from junk mail.

• Pictures from old magazines, calendars and greeting cards.

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Well, I hope this short piece helped a little, and I hope you have not taken up crafting during an illness or recovery, but rather to have fun and express yourself creatively. Crafting is becoming more popular every day, and Tucson is keeping pace with the trend. But no matter – now go get crafting.

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