On an October afternoon walk around the neighborhood, big brother and I spotted some lovely pine cones. I instantly knew we should grab a few for a fun project - bird feeders! So into baby sister's stroller basket they went.
A few days later we just happened to be stuck indoors due to rain. I found some spare ribbon in my craft stash and tied loops to the tops of our pine cone treasures. Then I newspapered the dining room table and filled a shallow bowl with bird food. After grabbing the jar of peanut butter for the shot above, I decided to spoon out a glob of it into a separate dish to avoid double dipping the spatula back in the jar. (Good thinking mommie!) Once the sticky layer was complete, it was time for big brother to cover the cones in bird seed.
Once he got over the initial prickles of the pine cones, he had tons of fun smashing lots of seeds into the peanut butter. He was so tickled and excited to make these for the birds that frequent our yard.
Once our feeders were complete, I stored them in a resealable bag. A few days later once the sun returned, we headed out to hang our creations and spy on our birdie friends.
We watched our pine code feeders often, but I wasn't able to capture an action shot. Oh well, such is the life of this busy mommie bird! We have proof that our efforts were enjoyed tho - the backyard feeder was knocked down and devoured by pesky squirrels, and the front one is still hanging just as bare as the now leafless tree!
Since this easy project was such a hit, I plan to do it again and again. If we don't have the good fortune of accessible pine cones, there are tons of ideas online (pinterest anyone?!), including stacked cheerios on pipe cleaner stems or this adorable inverted sugar cone - genius!
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| via www.BettyCrocker.com |
