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Tag Archives: homemade bird feeders

Bird Seed Cookies {for the birds, obviously}

1 / 6 / 141 / 7 / 14

Bird Seed Cookies | Mama Papa Bubba

It’s become somewhat of a yearly tradition for Miss G and I to make fun homemade bird feeders for our feathered friends each winter.  As much as I’m {admittedly} not a huge bird lover, I certainly don’t want them to go hungry while their usual food sources are scarce or unavailable.  Plus, our little lady adores them and that’s enough for me.

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Cranberry Popcorn Garland for the Birds

12 / 4 / 131 / 6 / 14

Cranberry Popcorn Garland  for the birds | Mama Papa Bubba

When I spotted fresh cranberries at our local grocery store here in Kuwait, I grabbed a bag immediately, knowing just how we’d put them to good use.  Cranberry popcorn garlands are just one of those things – a craft so classic that it’s a shame to not try at least once.   

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Citrus Cup Bird Feeders

4 / 25 / 134 / 28 / 13

Citrus Cup Bird Feeders | Mama Papa BubbaI swear, I’m not a hoarder.  In fact, with something like 49 moves under my belt in my 31 years, it’s quite the opposite.  I’d much rather toss/recycle/give something away than have to lug it to a new location.  Buuuuuuut, the other day after juicing a bunch of citrus fruit, I couldn’t help but think that there might be something we could do will all of the empty rinds (please tell me some of you do this too).  Not knowing what it was at the moment, I tossed them all into a container in the fridge and decided I’d figure it out later.  Sure enough, a couple of days later as I was grabbing something from the fridge, I remembered the very unique bird feeders I’d seen on Happy Hooligans a few months back.  Gracen loves birds and we love to keep our backyard feather friends well fed, so I decided we’d make our own version of the project.

IMG 8651First, we gathered a few things from around the house… The rinds, some baker’s twine (Greenmunch is a great place to buy it, plus everything party, mason jar, and crafting related!), an large embroidery needle, and a pushpin.

IMG 8669After threading our needle and tying a knot at the end, we pushed our embroidery needle through one side of our citrus cup, straight through the other side.  I thought we may need the tack to start our holes, but we totally didn’t (though you might if you had a particularly tough rind).  I did the poking, and Miss G did the pulling through part.

IMG 8670With the twine pulled all the way through, we pulled up the centre to create a long loop for hanging.

IMG 8672Next, we did a quarter turn and fed the needle straight through the rind again, this time perpendicular to the first set of holes.

IMG 8673Then we pulled the second centre string up to meet the first and tied a knot on the outside of the citrus cup in order to secure everything.

IMG 8663While she helped me ‘sew’ the first couple of rinds, Gracen discovered that she could make some pretty interesting creations with the extra citrus cups and pushpins, so that’s what she did.

IMG 8664This little lemon went from having ‘pokey hair’ to being an octopus, to being a porcupine, and many other things along the way.

IMG 8675When our citrus rind cups were complete, we focused on the food portion of the process.  

IMG 8680All we did was take some bird seed (we used a wild bird variety), and mixed in a tablespoon of all-natural peanut butter for every half cup of seed in order to give it some ‘stick’.

IMG 8693Then Grae carefully filled the cups with the sticky seed mixture one scoop at a time.

IMG 8694We used 1 1/2 cups of seed with 3 tablespoons of peanut butter and it filled 2 grapefruit cups and 2 lemon cups until heaping.

IMG 8697With that, it was off to hang the new feeders in the backyard.  

IMG 8707Gracen was very specific and knew she wanted one in our apple-pear tree, one in our fig tree, and one in our plum tree… And the other one got hung in our rose bush.  

Now let’s bring on the hungry birdies!

See our other bird feeders here and here.

♥ 

For extra fun, like us on Facebook here and find us on Instagram here.

 
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Homemade Bird Feeders

3 / 1 / 121 / 6 / 14

Despite the incident we had at Granville Island a couple of months back, our little lady remains a dedicated bird lover (unlike her mama).  So today we headed out into our sunshiny backyard, supplies in hand, to make a couple of simple, toddler-friendly bird feeders.  Here’s what we did…

Seedy Bagel Rings:

IMG 6785

For this project, we used wild bird seed mix, some wholewheat bakery bagels, some ‘just peanuts’ peanut butter, some jute (it’s biodegradable and can be repurposed by birds when building their nests), a spatula, and some scissors.

IMG 6788

First things first, cover one side of the bagel with peanut butter.

IMG 6791

You want it nice and thick so that the seeds really stick.

IMG 6792

Then plop it, peanut butter side down, into the seed mixture.

IMG 6805

Really push it down into the seeds to collect as many as possible.

IMG 6796

It should look something like this.

IMG 6797

Next, spread peanut butter on the other side.

IMG 6799

And cover it completely with seeds.

IMG 6800

Almost done!  While you tie a loop of jute through the middle of the bagel, have your little one wash the gobs of peanut butter off of her hands.

IMG 6803

Tada!  Here’s the finished product.

IMG 6810

Now tie them up in a tree and wait for hungry birds to flock your way.

 

Toasted O Loops:

IMG 6816

For this feeder, we used jute, scotch tape, low-sugar toasted O cereal, and some scissors.

IMG 6826

First thing, cut a piece of jute, tie a triple knot at one end, and wrap a small bit of tape around the other end so that it doesn’t fray.

IMG 6822

Next, string the o’s onto the jute, one by one.

IMG 6824

It’s a slow process… Especially if your munchkin eats five o’s for every one she strings!

IMG 6831

When you’ve got a nice long string, make a loop and tie it at the top.

IMG 6836

Then knot it onto a tree branch.  It doesn’t get any easier than that!

I’m sure we’re inviting all kinds of scary crows and seagulls into our yard with these tempting treats swinging from our trees, but if it provides some entertainment for our little bird watcher, it’ll be worth it.

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