Rusty Lantern Bird Nest Decor And A New Hot Glue Pen!

I hope you like my new (made from old junk) rusty lantern bird nest decor as much as you liked the metal flowers and cabinet door decor from yesterday. It’s hard to believe I have new projects two days in a row. It’s been a while. I have a new tool to use too, a hot glue pen.

Now that I seem to be back in the swing of things Spring is speaking to me and I look around for things to work on that fit the season. I’m really happy with this project. The best thing is it was very inexpensive and super easy to make too.

I started out with this rusty crusty vintage lantern. It has certainly seen better days but I like the character it has now.

If you’ve been around here very much you might remember when I got the bunch of lanterns and buckets at an auction. In figuring the price of each piece I think the lantern was a grand total of $1. Can’t beat that.

But I didn’t stop with the lantern. I grabbed a small terra cotta pot (from the Salvation Army store) to work with too.

See, I had two fake bird nests and eggs left over from an early bird nest project so I needed two birds nest display pieces.

And I have a glue pen to try out! The Xyron folks sent me the Pen Style Hot Glue Gun several months ago and I haven’t had a chance to try it out until now. You guys know how I love using hot glue. It makes projects like these so easy.

The glue pen uses mini-size glue sticks and I got two big bags of those.

I very seldom read directions on stuff but I did open them up and the gun is a pretty simple piece.

The glue pen has a stand on the end near the cord and yes, it is sitting on the concrete floor of the workshop. That’s where I do most of my work. I usually have the tables and counters loaded down with my junk. Come organize me, please.

The pen took about half a minute to heat up. I applied a bit of glue to each egg then set them on the nest. Three eggs to each nest.

Then I turned the nest upside down and applied glue to the bottom then set the nest on the inside portion of the lantern.

Project number one went well so on to the terra cotta pot.

I used the glue pen to apply hot glue to the rim of the pot. The pen works just like you would think. Just squeeze the lever on the side to dispense the glue.

The plugin box for the glue pen has a red light on the front so you know it’s working. When I unplugged the pen I picked it up and ran my hand over the entire surface. It is cool to the touch, with no hot spots except for the blue area around the tip. My regular glue gun has a lot of hot spots on the body. I have burnt myself so many times.

This was another quick project. The lantern and the pot nest displays were finished up in less than 5 minutes.

The new nest decor is decorating my front porch. I redid the whole porch decor and you get to see it later this week!

Another peek at the porch decorations. I can’t give away the whole thing today. But I do love that bunny, the purple flowers, and the birds nest in pot display.

Leave a note if you have time. I really enjoyed reading all of the comments from yesterday’s post about the metal flower decor. Thanks guys, Kathy

Kathy Owen

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Author: Kathy Owen
Kathy Owen is the founder of the home decor blog Petticoat Junktion where she shares tutorials on painting furniture and upcycling thrifty finds into unique home décor. Her DIY projects have been featured on the Home Depot Blog, Plaid Crafts, Behr Designer Series, and in numerous magazines. Kathy’s newest website is HappyHomeDIY.com