Christmas bird feeders

I survived the Nutcracker!  It was a wonderful weekend of shows.  The kids were fantastic and I was so happy with how everything looked.  And now that the show is rapped I can do crafts of my own choosing!  Yay!

This week I had my little friend Christina over at the house since she is out of school for the holiday.  We use to spend four days a week together so I was super pumped to have hang out time with her.  We decided to make some treats for the birds to decorate my house.  This is my yearly tradition and I am glad I got to share it with my Little Miss C.  We made three types of treats for our feathered friends.

1-  I popped some plain popcorn on the stove and strung in on a plain string.  It makes for a great garland and and perch for the birds to snack away.

2- We went in to my yard and picked up some pine cones.  I tied a string to the base of the cone and then Christina covered them in creamy peanut butter and rolled them in bird seed.  It is a little messy but  we had a good time with it.

We are a little silly

3-  My new addition to my bird feeders this year:

- I combined a package of unflavored gelatin with 1/4 cup of water in a pot on the stove.  I heated it while stirring until the gelatin was dissolved.

-Then I removed it from the heat and let it cool for a minute.

-Next I added about 3/4 cup bird seed.  I used a little more because there was still liquid on the bottom so I added more feed until it was all mixed in.  

-I laid out cookie cutters on a piece of wax paper and we filled them part way with the bird seed mixture.  I added a loop of twine and pushed it to the the mixture and then filled the cookie cutter to the top with remaining mixture.  

-This made about 5 feeders (depending on the size of your cookie cutter)

-The mixture needs to harden so let them set up overnight.  It is good to flip them so both sides can air out.  

- After they have dried just push them out of the cookie cutters and hang them outside.

 

Merry Christmas Birdies!