My son is 9 years old and has big ideas for his drawings and paintings. Unfortunately, this can translate to frustration when he draws or paints something that doesn't look "real" enough. When we began planning how we would paint wood birdhouses, I worried he would be disappointed with his work when we were finished. With Fiskars stamps and a solvent based permanent stamping ink we were able to create simple images, akin to a coloring book, that he was easily able to fill in with a small paintbrush. The end result? Little "paintings" that he was excited about!

Begin with unfinished wooden birdhouses.

Have the child begin painting!

My son wanted a circle with a frame around it on the back of his first birdhouse. We punched circles from paper using the Fiskars Round and Round Squeeze punches to create stencils and drew them directly onto the wood with a pencil.

After the base of the birdhouse was painted to my son's satisfaction, we began stamping. We used the Fiskars Outdoor Fun and Flower Garden Repositionable Stamps.

If your birdhouse will be displayed outdoors, be sure to use a permanent stamping ink. If you're trying to stamp in an area that is too small to lie the acrylic block flat, adhere the stamp to the edge of the block rather than the flat surface.

Continue stamping and painting in the open areas of the images until the child is content.

Here is how the back of the house with the circle stencils turned out.

And here are the fronts of all the houses.

We even stamped, stenciled, and painted on the roofs.

When we were finished, I had a boy who was very pleased with his paintings!

Finished birdhouses can be attached to a wooden fence using screws and a power drill.