Easy Homemade Bird Feeders

We do lots of crafts, but this is possibly the easiest one ever, and it's even more rewarding than a beautiful abstract painting hung on the fridge because the feeders, when placed selectively, can help stop crying, give mamas time to do necessary things alone (sweep the floor, do dishes, fix lunch, go to the bathroom...), provide spontaneous entertainment for all ages, and make the dinner hour a bit more like happy hour and less like a food fight.  We hung our bird feeders all in front of windows, with the majority grouped off the deck out back and visible from the kitchen and family room windows.

What You'll Need:

recycled paper rolls (from toilet paper, paper towels, or wrapping paper)

Peanut Butter

Bird Seed

Wide and deep container (large Tupperware, old dishwasher pack container, big bowl...)

Ribbon or Twine, or sticks, for hanging

Cut the rolls, if you'd like, to desired lengths.  We used a thick wrapping paper roll so it would hold up to rain, and I cut it into varied lengths with a serrated bread knife. Then we colored our rolls for extra fun, but if you have a child who, like my Louie, eats markers, you can certainly skip this part.

Spread each roll with peanut butter- smooth is sooo easy to spread quickly, but I thought the birds would like chunky more than I do, so that's what we used.  If you have little little ones, or over zealous ones, I would suggest prepping the rolls through the peanut buttering stage before you start this craft with them.  Seeding the feeders is really easy, fun, and quick for tiny hands and tiny attention spans.

**a note on birdseed** do little research on which birds you want to see and what seed attracts them. We first used a corn mix, and it did bring cardinals but also threatened to bring sparrows, so we switched to an all thistle seed and had finches, cardinals, blue birds, even blue jays and a woodpecker! 

Dump about 1-2 inches of bird seed into a large container and spoon, roll, press, or toss, birdseed on the peanut buttered paper roll until it is thoroughly covered.  

I like to set the seeded bird feeders on a jelly roll pan and put them in a cool, kid-safe place to dry out for a day. Then we hang them on sticks, slide them on branches, or tie them up with ribbon and wait for the birds to come.

Once all the feeders have been picked dry, we just start all over again. Slather, seed, repeat :)