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Last Updated on March 10, 2018 by Chris Butler

Easter just may be my favorite season to make crafts.  After a long dreary winter (this one has been rough hasn’t it?) I love working with nice warm and bright colors.  It instills a hope that warm sunshine isn’t so far off.

And I imagine the little birdies are feeling the same about Spring coming!  After a long winter scrounging for food and warmth, they are eagerly waiting too.

We like putting food out for them all Winter long.  Of course the best part is watching all the different birds eating what we made for them!

Since Easter is coming, we decided to make some Easter eggs and bunny cutouts.

 

DIY Bird Feeder Easter Craft Supplies

• Products are linked to Amazon for your convenience to check pricing and availability
  • Bird Seed
  • Unflavored Gelatin
  • Plastic Easter Eggs
  • Bunny Cookie Cutter
  • Straws or Skewers
  • Wax Paper
  • Ribbon
  • Printable Recipe and Instructions (found in my Resource Library -get access at the bottom of this post.)

 

Mixing the Bird Seed

Follow the directions for mixing your gelatin on the box.  My box gave directions for all four packets instead of one packet at a time.  So I thought what the heck let’s make a lot of bird feeders.  Be warned I ended up with about 23 bird feeders.

I was filling silicone molds (works great by the way) and even Christmas Cookie Cutters when I ran out of Easter Eggs.

If you don’t want that many, just do one packet. If you also get the box that only gives directions for all four, one packet should be about 2 TBS of cold water and 1/3 C of boiling water.

Once your gelatin is mixed add 2 cups of bird seed for every packet of gelatin you used.  So one packet gelatin = 2 cups of bird seed.  Four packets of gelatin = 8 cups of bird seed. (now you see why I ended up with so many!)

After your bird seed is mixed well and all coated in gelatin, place it in the refrigerator to firm up.  15-30 minutes should work depending on how much you made.  (I waited 30 minutes)

Making the Bird Feeders

Next spray your cookie cutters and eggs with non-stick cooking spray, so they are easy to remove.  Place them on a baking sheet covered in wax paper.  Then fill your cookie cutters and eggs with the bird seed mixture.

You want to really pack it in there firmly so it keeps its shape.  Especially the eggs.  I made six eggs and four broke in half on opening because I didn’t have enough seed in there.  (but I found a solution for that farther down)

Yes it’s a bit sticky.

Some of the eggs will not want to stay closed, I simply taped them shut.

Once your cookie cutters are full, push skewers or straws through the middle so we have a place to string the ribbon through.  Don’t get too close to the edges, or they make break once they are hung up.  Don’t worry about this for the Easter Eggs just yet.

After everything is filled and your bird seed is all used up, place your tray in the refrigerator overnight.   The next day everything will be set and you will be ready to add the ribbon to hang them.

The next day carefully remove the bird seed from the cookie cutters and eggs.  Everything I had in a cookie cutter or silicone mold came out pretty easily.  Two of my eggs did not make it.  They split in half as soon as I opened them.  I don’t think I had enough seed in them.

But the eggs are the hardest to do.  So be ready for a challenge if you decide to fill the eggs.

Adding Ribbon to Hang Your Bird Feeders

With my four eggs that survived.  I took a small straw (narrower than a regular straw, a skewer will work too) and carefully pushed it through the top half of the egg.  The egg will want to start to crumble and come apart, so hold it firmly together while you are inserting the straw.

Three eggs survived this step.  So when it was all said and done I ended up with three of the six eggs that I could hang outside.  (But I found a solution for the ones that didn’t make it)

After your straw is through the egg, thread your ribbon through the straw, and then tie it off on the top.  If you are using a skewer, tape your ribbon to the end of your skewer so the ribbon goes through at the same time.

The cookie cutter shapes are thinner, so you can go ahead and remove the straws from them and thread the ribbon through the hole.  Tie all of your ribbons off and now you are ready to hang them!

Let’s talk about the eggs that didn’t make it for a minute.  I don’t like to be wasteful.  So I took some of the plastic eggs and added tape to the back where the hinge is to enforce it.  Then I taped a small piece of straw over the hinge of the egg so I could hang it from that.

Thread the ribbon through your straw and tie it off.  Then fill both sides of the plastic egg with the parts that broke.

 

It holds the bird seed and hangs in the tree beautifully.  Next, we need to chat a minute about how these hold up in the weather.

When we got them all done, we went out and to hang the bunny up right away.  The kids couldn’t wait.  I wanted to wait until the next day because it was supposed to be sunny (yay!)  And sunny makes better pictures.

Unfortunately later that afternoon it warmed up a bit, the wind picked up and it poured down rain.  The bunny shaped bird feeder didn’t survive the storm.

The warmth and rain that usually comes in the spring months will dissolve the gelatin.  So take note of what your weather is going to be coming up before you make these.  You should be good up to about 50 degrees.

The rest of the eggs and cookie cutter shapes we hung out the next day are still doing great 5 days later (it got cold again).  And I am willing to bet the bird seed in the easter eggs will be just fine for quite a while too.

I know how much of a pain it is to go back and find a project you want to do.   Or to have your phone or tablet in the kitchen while you are trying to read the directions and make something at the same time.

So I made a one sheet download with the recipe and simple directions.  You can easily print it out, or bookmark it on your device to find it quickly when you are ready for it.

All of my plans and printables are kept in my Resource Library to keep it easy for everyone to access what they need.  For exclusive access to the library simply fill out the form below for the password.

I hope you have as much fun making these as we did!  Thanks for stopping by!