of course this can be done without a cutting machine. Are you planning on making a wall hanging? or do you want to make a quilt? If I were to make something like this, It probably would be a wall hanging and I would make it raw edge applique where you put a fusible on the wrong side of the fabric and trace the design, cut it out, and stick to the background fabric, then I would probably do a bit of stitching around the shapes to make them adhere good to the background....there are a lot of tutorials on raw edge applique....The steams and leaves you may even be able to cut out free hand once you got the fusible stuck on the fabric. If you are really talented, you could also make your own bird shapes...I am not that talented so I would probably get a coloring book of birds to trace. If you want to do needle turn applique....that is a skill to practice....I never mastered that. You would want to look at real tutorial though to make sure you got the steps right.