
Heart-Shaped Bird Feeder DIY
For the love of birds
Homemade bird feeders not only help our feathered friends, but making them is a fun family activity perfect for cold winter days!
Supplies for Homemade Bird Feeders
3 cups birdseed
2 – 1/4 ounce unflavored gelatin packet
cookie cutters
twine
Sprinkle two packages of gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Let it sit a couple of minutes until gelatin has absorbed the water. Heat 1 3/4 cups water in a pan, then add in the gelatin mixture. Stir until dissolved. Stir in 3 cups birdseed.
Allow mixture to cool until gelatin is thick and coats all the birdseed.
Wrap a piece of foil along the bottom and up the sides of a cookie cutter. Spray foil and cookie cutter with cooking spray. We used a 5 inch heart cookie cutter. This mixture was enough to make three bird feeders.
Pack birdseed mixture inside cookie cutter. Place a piece of straw in birdseed to leave a hole for hanging the bird feeder.
Allow mixture to harden and then remove from cookie cutter. We placed ours in the freezer for about and hour to speed things up.
Add a piece of twine for hanging.
A perfect treat for the birds!
Update: please see author’s (Cindy’s from Skip to My Lou) comments below on how to tackle any issues you may be having with this recipe.
Comments
This is so cute! My daughter will love this project.
what a wonderful idea..can’t wait to try it..tfs.loves ya..Gail
I love this idea – what a great project… will definitely being doing this with my kiddos
This is such a great idea and a super family project. Thank you!!
Love this! A Valentine’s Day for the birds!
Birds can eat the gelatin? I know certain things are not ok for animals….gelatin is ok?
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Great idea! My son and preschoolers would love to make these. Thanks for sharing.
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What a cute and cleaver idea. I love this idea and will try it out myself. Thank you for sharing.
♥ What a sweet treat idea for feeding the Birdies! ♥
Very cute and clever idea. I will definitely use this idea and see how well I do. Thank you for sharing.
Very clever, I’m going to try to make one that’s the size of baseball.
How many feeders does this recipe make?
Love this idea. It’s so cute. I will do it.
Thanks for sharing.
i LOVE this! and tried it yesterday. My hearts are, well…. flexible, bendable! I’m not sure what i did wrong as i followed the recipe. Any ideas on how i might be able to harden them so i can hang them up? I’m dying to see them hanging from tree, being enjoyed by our sweet finches. Thanks!
oooh! i just remembered…. i did add 2T of peanut butter to the mixture because i’ve heard its wonderfully nutritious for the lil guys, could that be the cause of the hearts not hardening enough??
We are going to make them for V-day gifts for my son’s class!
[…] Heart-Shaped Bird Feeder DIY – Alphamom Great winter project to work on with the kids! Love the shape of it too. […]
@ jayne – i think yours did not harden because of the pb…i’ve made this type of feeder w/ the kids before but it was w/ birdseed, pb, & lard (or crisco)…they didn’t hold shapes really well and we would pack this mixture in open pinecones and hang them from the trees.
i’m really looking forward to trying this recipe, i like the idea of the gelatin to hold a shape…..
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Looks lovely…what a cute Valentine’s Day gift for the birds!
This is so cute! LOVE IT! Thanks!
Cute….a definite Valentines idea! Thanks.
[…] This homemade heart shaped birdfeeder from Alpha Mom looks easy to make and just in time for Valentines! […]
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We tried this with a group of pre schooler, and I could not make the gelatin harden. Did anyone succeed with this project? What is the secret??????
Mine came out great after adding one small step…. A fan! I let them sit overnight and woke up and they were still pliable. Well I pulled out a small table fan and put it on them for 24 hours. They hardened right up and are packaged in baggies for my daughters valentines day party this Friday.
[…] shaped bird feeder from Skip to My Lou via Alphamom: Show the birds some love too! Related Posts:How to: Make Sewn Valentines21 Valentine’s Day […]
These are so cute – and a wonderful gift for the birds! I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow
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I want to do these with a preschool class – how many does the recipe make?
We tried these with my moms group. They were easy and super cute however once defrosted from the freezer they just fell apart. I followed the directions exactly. We hung our feeders on the tree only to find a few hours later they fell right off the twine to the floor. Really cute idea but, it doesn’t work.
I think adding peanut butter might be the reason the gelatin didn’t set. The gelatin simply acts as a binder, for us it made the bird seed just sticky enough to hold together. The bird seed was well coated. It is very cold where we live, so the bird feeder was frozen most of the time. Make sure you allow the seeds to absorb the liquid and the mixture is cool and starting to thicken before.putting in the cookie cutter. I hope this helps everyone! Here is a slightly different recipe from FamilyFun.com . It uses a bit less water.… Read more »
This really doesn’t work. I followed the directions exactly, and the gelatin set quite well. But the seeds just fell right off, the whole shape crumbled easily, and the ribbon pulled out through the holes as soon as I tried to pick them up. I am very disappointed, had them in the refrigerator overnight with hopes of giving these lovely-looking things to a bunch of relatives tonight for Chanukah.
[…] Feed more than just your soul with some heart-shaped birdseed feeders: https://alphamom.com/family-fun/crafts/heart-shaped-bird-feeder-diy/ […]
Thank you for a wonderful project I can do with my grandson who is TERRIBLY allergic to peanut butter. I’ve seen many ideas for similar projects but they all called for peanut butter. Thanks again…I can’t wait to have him over to make these 🙂
[…] greased silicone bundt pans and it was super easy to get the birdseed molds out. You can use the quantities here but I vehemently suggest a bundt over the finicky cookie cutter bit. Rate this:Share […]
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Thank you so much now I have something to give to my teachers
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Hi there. I will be sharing a link to your bird feeder on my next blog post: 10 Ideas for Celebrating Earth Day with Kiddos. http://www.partypaperscissors.blogspot.com.
[…] Heart-Shaped Bird Feeder – Alphamom […]
[…] Heart-Shaped Bird Feeder DIY – Alphamom Great winter project to work on with the kids! Love the shape of it too. […]
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