Hi friends! I’m Kirsten from One Tough Mother, and I am so excited to be visiting Meredith and all of you today! One Tough Mother is my little piece of the world wide web where I spill my guts about life after divorce (and an awesome second marriage!), raising a tween daughter, and having fun and being creative along the way! I love to combine my passion for creating fun crafts with my obsessive-compulsiveness to maintain organization, and sprinkle it all with a bit of wit and sarcasm. Think you can handle it? Pop over and say hello!
My family and I moved into our new home last June and my favorite part has got to be the nature that surrounds our home. We frequently see bunnies and the occasional turtle, and we even have chickens down the street! I especially love all the different kinds of birds that live in the woods by our home. Their songs echo down our chimney into our livingroom and warm my heart!
I wanted to give our little feathered friends a place to rest and eat, so I made some very simple little bird feeders, and I can’t wait to show you how to make some of your own!
These colorful bird feeders are made using plastic pony beads that you can find at most stores. Ready to get started?
Supplies:
Round cake pan or pie plate
Pony beads (I pack makes one feeder, but mix & match the colors any way you like)
Aluminum foil
Bowl (not shown)
Ribbon or string (not shown)
Hot glue gun (not shown)
First you need to cover your pan in aluminum foil completely.
Once your pan is covered, lay out a single flat layer of pony beads and arrange until you are satisfied with the design. *Be sure to pack them in as tightly as possible to prevent holes in your bird feeder.
Bake at 350° for about 20 minutes. (It may stink a bit – that lovely smell of melting plastic. Bleh.)
Allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes then pop them out.
This is what you’ll have initially. But we’re not done!
Now, grab an oven-safe bowl, flip it upside-down, and cover it in aluminum foil.
Place the flat beaded circle on the bowl and place back in the oven at 350° for about 5 minutes. You can watch the flat circle soften and begin to melt down the sides of the bowl. When you are satisfied with the shape, take it out of the oven.
Are you starting to see it all come together now?! Grab your ribbon or string and cut 2 really long pieces for each feeder. You’ll need to allow enough to hang your feeders.
Use your hot glue gun to attach the string or ribbon to the bottom of each feeder in an “X” pattern. (I added more hot glue on top of the ribbon as well to give it extra hold.
Fill with bird seed then hang! Your feathered friends will be delighted with their new place to dine!
Thanks for having me today! I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy craft! I’d love to connect with you so come say hello! You can find me on my blog, One Tough Mother, or any of these places:
Kirsten is awesome, and this is a great project!
Yes she is!!
LOVE THIS PROJECT! We are so making this for my dad who is a super gardener/birder. His entire yard is filled with bird houses, and now he could have one the boys made.
Could you also use it for a bird bath?
Thanks for sharing!
Hey Emily! So glad you like this project! My only concerns with doing a birdbath out of pony beads are – it’s very lightweight and somewhat delicate because it’s made out of lightweight plastic, so the weight of the water might be a bit much unless you make it small.
And, if you don’t pack the beads as tightly as possible, there will be tiny holes. (You can’t tell up there, but I used clear packaging tape in a couple spots to keep seed from falling through the cracks.) 🙂
Hope your dad loves these!
I have so many of these around here- what a GREAT IDEA!!!
Thanks for the great idea! Tip: Take your small toaster oven outside so the melted beads don’t stink up the house!
GREAT idea!!