Plastic Bottle Birdfeeder
Show the kids how to make a feeding station for one of our feathered friends by recycling a soda bottle into a Plastic Bottle Birdfeeder. A great craft for teaching recycling and encouraging kids to interact with nature.
Supplies
Aleene’s® Super Thick Tacky Glue™
9” x 16” piece of lightweight cardboard
2-liter plastic soda bottle with cap, washed and dried
Spray paint: black, brown
Acrylic paint, burnt umber, black, beige
Small sponge piece
Craft knife
3/16” diameter hole punch
3” square white shrink plastic
Paintbrushes: fine-tip ½” flat shader
Drill with 18” and 1/16” bits
16” length of braided cord (for hanger)
2-1/2” length 1/16” diameter wood dowel
Clothespins
Aleene’s® OK to Wash it Glue®
Pine bark pieces
Wooden craft stick
Fine-tip permanent black marker
26-gauge florist wire
Bamboo skewer
Window Pattern
Roof Pattern
Instructions
Transfer roof pattern to cardboard and cut out roof. Spray-paint both sides of roof and bottle cap black. Let dry. Spray paint bottle brown. Let dry. Working with 1 paint color at a time, dip dampened sponge into burnt umber and black and sponge-paint the bottle. Let dry. With craft knife, cut 1 (1-3/4” diameter) circle about 3” up from bottom of bottle for door. Punch 1 hole about ¼” below door.
Measure approximately 1-1/4” to left and right of door and transfer window pattern onto bottle. Paint design beige. Paint outline details in black paint using liner brush on each window. Paint beige wavy line around door. Let dry. Push dowel halfway into hole below door and glue to secure. Let dry.
Center and drill 1 (1/8” diameter) hole in bottle cap. Fold cord in half to form loop. Working from outside of bottle cap, thread cord ends through hole in cap. Knot cord ends. Pull knot up to cap and glue knot to cap. Let dry. Screw cap onto bottle.
Curve roof into cone shape, overlapping straight edges and glue. Hold edges in place with clothespins until glue is dry. Snip off tip of roof to leave hole for hanger. To help weatherproof the roof, brush with coat of OK to Wash-It glue on each side of roof. Let dry. Glue pine bark pieces to cover outside of roof (with Tacky glue). Let dry.
For sign, cut 1 (2-1/2”) length and 1 (1-3/4”) length from craft stick. With shorter piece centered along longer piece, glue craft stick lengths side by side. Drill 1 (1/6” diameter) hole in each end of longer piece of sign at top edge.
Write “Welcome Home” on sign with marker. Cut 1 (5”) length of wire. Wrap center of wire around bamboo skewer to coil. Remove skewer. Insert 1 end of wire through each hole at top of sign, working from back to front. Bend up ends. Cut 1 (1-1/2”) length of wire. Bend wire in half to form hanger. Slip bent wire hanger onto coiled wire on sign. Working from outside, poke hanger wire ends through bottle about 1-3/4” above door. Bend wire ends to inside of bottle to secure hanger. Thread braided cord hanger through hole in roof, working from inside roof.
Heidi’s Designer Tip: If you don’t have the time to create your own “Welcome Home” sign, there are lots of cute ready-made “signs” with cute messages available in the scrapbooking section of your local craft store. If it’s made from paper, be sure to weatherproof it before adding to your birdfeeder.
Patterns, Templates and Printables
Click on a pattern to open it in a new window
Contributor
Heidi Borchers hails from the first family of crafting. As daughter of Aleene Jackson, inventor of Aleene’s Tacky Glue, Heidi's creative design projects have delighted worldwide crafters for over 30 years. Heidi’s specialty is eco-crafting and she is the author of hundreds of craft books. She is co-host of Inspired at Home Radio, a live weekly talk-radio show featuring ideas for living a creative life. www.inspiredathome.com
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