Are you looking for an eco-friendly project? How about something to do with the kids on a rainy day? Want to attract your winged feathery backyard friends? Well grab your empty milk or juice carton and glue gun, we’re making a bird feeder! You likely have all the supplies already but if not, pick some of this stuff up the next time you’re out shopping or use the amazon links I provided below so you can be ready! This post contains a few affiliate links, if you click on a link and make a purchase we will get a small kickback. It will not increase the cost of the product to you.
Supplies Needed:
Milk carton or juice carton
Exacto knife/box cutter/scissors – something to cut your hole with
DIYSELF Exacto Knife Upgrade Cutting Mat Carving Craft Knife Hobby Knife Exacto Knife Kit
beads, twig, stick – something to create your ledge
Darice Big Value Plastic, 9mm, 1000 piece Opaque Color, Pony Beads, Multicolor
spraypaint
Rust-Oleum 249085 Painter’s Touch 2X Ultra Cover, 12 Oz, Satin Aqua
hot glue gun and glue – I like this kit I listed below because it’s similar to mine which I purchased over 10 years ago, I love having a case and a space for everything!
PROkleber Hot Melt Glue Gun Kit Full Size 100 Watt with Carry Bag and 12 pcs Glue Sticks, for DIY, Arts & Crafts Projects, Sealing, Quick Repairs, Light and Heavy Duty, Home, Office (White/Blue)
twine or yarn to hang your bird feeder
Begin by cutting out a hole in your birdfeeder, making sure to leave an inch or two at the bottom for bird seed to sit in. As you see I strived for the perfect rectangle HAHAHA – I didn’t.
Then I spray painted my carton with the rustoleum 2x cover paint that literally adheres to everything. I did try painting this with some leftover household paint – maybe latex – before spray painting and I was very unsuccessful with that. Acrylic paint might work as it was kind of working for me but the spray paint worked best so it’s what I recommend. You could spray paint it white and then color it with acrylic paints, crayons, markers etc! The base wouldn’t have to be white either, you could chose any light color. I thought about decorating mine more but I went the simplistic route. The paint color I had was Aqua.
After the paint has dried and hopefully you spray painted light and not super close up so it dried pretty fast… you’ll want to gather your beads, a twig from the yard, or a stick of some sort to create a ledge for the birds to land on!
Next you’ll want to knot a bead on each end of your string if you’re using yarn. If you’re using twine a knot without a bead should be fine. It just helps to create a little something for the hot glue to grab onto. Take your knotted bead, or knot and stick it underneath the top of the carton (where you see string coming out of mine) Repeat this for both sides.
Next step is to put some bird seed in and hang it up! You can even throw some on the ground near the bird feeder to encourage birds to come!
How will you decorate your bird feeder? Which birds do you hope to spot?
xoxo
-Robin
