DIY Bird Feeder – Earth Day Craft Sticks Craft for Kids
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Last year my husband and kids picked out THE BEST Mother’s Day present that I’ve ever had – a beautiful set up of bird feeders
! When it’s cold outside or when I’m working indoors I love glancing out and seeing all the birds on our deck out back! So I thought it would fun for Earth Day to make our own bird feeders with an earthy design to them! These DIY feeders are easy to create and much cheaper than buying your own bird feeders! (Although secretly I’m dying to get this panoramic bird feeder even though it’s pricey!) Here are the materials we used:
DIY Bird Feeder Materials:
*Craft Sticks
(61Â total per feeder)
*Acrylic Paint (or colored craft sticks
)
*Hot Glue
*Twine
*Optional – clear sealant
*Optional – moss or twigs
Because I wanted to create an Earth Day themed bird feeder we chose 3 colors – all earthy tones – and made a pile of 16 craft sticks then painted them in each color. So 16 brown craft sticks, 16 blue craft sticks, and 16 green craft sticks. It didn’t take too long to paint both sides of each stick. I also paint the last 13 craft sticks brown for the base of our bird feeder.
Once your paint has completely dried begin glueing your craft sticks to form a square in any color pattern desired. You only need a tiny dab of hot glue at the corner of each craft stick before alternating to add a new layer.
To form the base simply lay 9 of the craft sticks side by side (don’t worry if there’s some small gaps – it will help rain water to drain) and hot glue two sticks perpendicular to them across the top like shown above.
You can then glue your base onto one one of your feeder.
To reinforce the sturdiness of our Earth Day bird feeder I added in a squeeze of hot glue at all of the joints as shown above. Leaving the slats open between craft stick layers is OK – it will hold in most of the seeds! If you’re concerned you can break a few craft sticks up and glue them around the edges or glue moss and twigs around the outside to give it a more camouflaged nature appeal.
Once everything had been painted and glue I simply threaded some twine through the bottom and sides and hung our feeder up outside on my suet hanger! If you’re doing this project with kids of course supervise the hot glue gun use with younger ones. You can break up the painting of craft sticks into separate days if your child won’t sit long enough to finish it in one evening. Get creative and design a roof for your bird feeder or a second story! And don’t forget to buy this fantastic Bird Guide to help identify the feathers that fly to your feeder!
