For the last few years I have been making homemade gifts with Mr. A for the grandmothers for Mother’s Day. I can’t put my finger on it but there’s just something about Mother’s Day that begs for craftiness. Maybe it’s because Moms do so much for us that I kinda feel like for Mother’s Day the least we can do is put an effort in and “do” something for them.
The last couple of years we have gone to our local paint your own pottery place and created coffee mugs, gardening stakes, and the like. All well received by the way. Grandmas love anything their grandsons paint. This year we are changing it up a bit. With everything I’ve been pinning on Pinterest I figured I could probably find something among my boards. We decided on these. I’ve had the idea pinned for awhile and Mother’s Day seemed like the perfect reason to make these bird seed feeders. We love to feed the birds at our house. So do the Grandmoms. This couldn’t be a more appropriate gift. There are a few different recipes out there . Here’s how we made ours.
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Bird Seed Feeders
- 2 packets of unflavored gelatin (the boxes usually one in a four pack so you can get two batches out of one box)
- 2/3 c water
- 2 c bird seed mix (like THIS )
- twine or string
- cookie cutters in your favorite shapes
- straws
- cookie sheet or something to set them on for drying
- parchment paper or wax paper (we use parchment)
To Make the Bird Seed Feeders
First mix gelatin and water together in a pot and stirring constantly bring to a simmer over medium heat. Once it starts to simmer, remove it from the heat and stir in the bird seed.
Alternative method using microwave: Measure out birdseed and set aside in a large mixing bowl. Heat the water to boiling in a microwave safe container. (I find in our microwave this takes about 90seconds. Then stir in gelatin until dissolved. Once all the gelatin has dissolved pour the mixture into the birdseed and stir until thoroughly combined.
Let the birdseed mixture cool while you set up a tray/cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper and spray your cookie cutters with cooking spray.
Spoon the birdseed mixture into the cookie cutters, all the way to the top, and pack it very tightly (imagine packing brown sugar into a measuring cup). I can’t stress this enough. It will not hold together if it’s not packed tight enough. To make the holes for the string all you need to do is insert a straw, chop stick, pencil (you get the idea) and make the hole. If you have a straw you can cut it up, and just stick pieces of straw into the feeder where you want the hole to be. Leave them there until it’s dried. I will do that next time. We tried making a hole in one and then moving onto the next and we kinda had to fiddle with it a bit to be sure the seed didn’t fall back into the hole when we took it out. Either way works…just make a hole that stays a hole!
Mr A thought maybe he could sculpt something out of the birdseed. It was a great idea and he had fun trying for awhile, but we found out it doesn’t hold together unless it’s packed really tight. Birdseed sculptures were a good try, but a miss.
Let them sit until they are completely dry. We left ours overnight just to be safe. Then gently pop them out of the cookie cutters and tie some twine or yarn through the holes.
We had to try hanging a couple on our crabapple tree just to see what they would look like.
Pretty!
I know apples for teachers is very cliche but doesn’t this apple feeder just scream end of the year teachers gifts? 
PS. I have noticed I am not the only one with birds on the brain right now. A few of my blogging friends have been up to the same thing. Juggling With Kids also made some Cookie Cutter Bird Feeders. Hers even got some visitors. I’m so jealous! I was very much looking forward to getting pictures of our fine feathered friends eating on these adorable feeders, but I’m pretty sure the ones we hung up got hauled off by the squirrels :( You should check out Triple T Mum too! She did a cute version of these feeders with her toddlers with a different twist for molding them. You can read about it here.
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