Snowy feeder for the birds

IMG_0671[6430]
IMG_0672[6432]
IMG_0676[6428]

Snowy Day Bird Feeders
In the really cold weather birds use up more of their energy from food to keep warm, but the food is harder to find (bad combination!) Here is a little idea to help them out during this snowy time!

You will need:- 

Some wire (We used sticks of florists wire that we had unused from a Xmas project)

An apple

Dried fruit

  

Chop up your apple into fair-sized chunks. 

Fold a little bit of the end of the wire over to make a stopper

Thread on your dried fruit and apples

Hook the top of the wire over to make a hanging loop

Choose a bush in the garden to hang it on and wait for the birds to find it!

 

Which birds will come to your feeders?

Little x-mas reindeer <3

Things to gather together:- 

toilet roll tubes, 

brown paint, 

twigs or pipe cleaners for antlers,

black buttons felt or felt pen for eyes,

PVA glue,  

Sticky tape,

something for the nose - little bottle top, scrunched up red paper, red glitter, tiny Pom Pom, felt pen. 

 

Then!!! 

1.  Cut the toilet roll tube in half and paint your choice of reindeer colour. I did brown, but you could mix up different shades.  

2.  Break up your twigs into the right size for your tubes and stick them to the insides of the tubes with sticky tape.  

3.  Put eyes on your reindeer tubes and then the nose. I had some odd bits at the bottom of my craft box so I used a little red bell, a tiny bottle top, and different sized pom-poms that had fallen off another project.  I added a smile too!   

 

It helps if you leave each stage to dry in between because it’s really annoying if you knock your reindeer's nose off because the glue hasn’t set!

IMG_0521[5253]
IMG_0522[5254]
IMG_0523[5255]
IMG_0524[5256]

Make a twirly-whirler!

You will need:- 

some cardboard from the recycling, or a pizza base. 

Paint. 

Decorations. 

A bit of wool or string. 

 

Here we go! 

Draw a spiral shape from the edge of the circle, I imagined a coiled-up snake, then when you reach the centre you need the round off the end of the coil.
Make a small hole in the very centre of the rounded off part in the middle.  Then you need to cut on your spiral markings all the way to the middle.

Paint the whole of the cardboard, I did two shades of bluey-green, one shade on each side. I had to wait for each side to dry before I could do the other one. 

Then decorate one side - I did mine with splodges of different coloured paint and I sprinkled glitter onto the wet paint. (Make sure your glitter is from previous years, like mine is, or buy eco glitter so as not to cause harm to sea life when the glitter finds its way there).
Leave it to dry.  

You can now decorate the second side, I put little dabs of glue and stuck some stars onto it. When it dries, thread your string or wool through the hole in the middle of the circle and hang it up to sparkle!!!  

See where your decorations go, you could do stripes of paint, or stick foil milk bottle tops onto it. Maybe make one in Xmassy colours, or crisp winter colours, have fun!

1
2
3
4
5

Make an autumn hedgehog!

Things to gather together:-

Some cardboard (old cereal box)

PVA glue

Some leaves from the park or garden

(If you can’t get out to collect them, cut out leaf shapes from brown paper envelopes)

 

  1. Go into the garden, to the park, or anywhere that you can see some trees. Gather up some handfuls of leaves, trying to pick out the ones that are whole and not damaged.  Look under different trees and see if you can find different shapes and colours. Take them home and spread them out on an old cloth to dry out in the sun.
  2. Draw a hedgehog shape on the cardboard, the nose is a triangle and the body a big oval. Add some legs!
  3. Cut around your drawing so you have the shape of a hedgehog. If you wanted to you could paint or colour his face and feet brown. I didn’t because I liked the brown of the cardboard I used.
  4. When your leaves are dry, glue them one by one and cover your hedgehog with them. If you start at his bottom and work towards his head the leaves lay over each other like spikey spines! When you are happy with it, put a weight on it to stop the leaves curling up as they dry. I used a box with some tins in it.
  5. Leave it to dry (takes HOURS) but you do need to wait. Then you can give your hedgehog a nose and an eye! I’ve used small black buttons, you could colour them or use a bit of black felt.  Then paint glue really carefully all over the leaves, I was a bit worried here as they went all white, but when the glue dries it makes the leaves super shiny and less breakable.

There are lots of things you can do with your hedgehog, stick him on a card to give to someone for their birthday, or send to a grandparent, or stick on your bedroom wall (that’s where mine is going).  You could make a whole family of them!

Find some lovely leaves. What colour is your favorite?
Find some lovely leaves. What colour is your favorite?
Draw a hedgehog shape on a piece of cardboard
Draw a hedgehog shape on a piece of cardboard
Cut the shape out but be careful!
Cut the shape out but be careful!
Glue the leaves on to your hedgehog but leave the face clear
Glue the leaves on to your hedgehog but leave the face clear
Draw a face on your hedgehog and he or she is ready for whatever adventure you have planned!
Draw a face on your hedgehog and he or she is ready for whatever adventure you have planned!