Bird Seed Ornaments

While perusing Pinterest about a month ago, I came across a pin for bird seed Christmas ornaments. I thought it might be a fun crafty thing to do with Peanut so I gave it a whirl. This is a pretty cheap craft to do. You probably have most of the items at home! Free or free-ish is always good, especially around this time of year. An added plus- apparently a lot of recipes for something like this calls for peanut butter. If you have a peanut allergy in your family, this is a safe recipe for you!

Bird Seed Ornaments

Ingredients:  3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup water, 1 envelope unflavored gelatin, 3 Tbsp corn syrup, 4 cups bird seed, molds (I used cookie cutters), nonstick spray, straws, wax paper, ribbon or twine 

Step 1- Get a super cute helper. It helps if they are wearing Christmas pjs. Add the flour, water, gelatin, and corn syrup in a large bowl.

Step 2- Mix until well combined.

Step 3- Add bird seed.

Step 4- Mix until well combined. Apparently Peanut didn't think this looked too appetizing.

Step 5- Coat molds or cookie cutters with nonstick spray. I placed my cookie cutters on wax paper to help cut down on clean up.

Step 6- Fill each mold with bird seed, pressing the seed flat. Place a straw through the seed to create a hole for your ribbon. ***Note- this is STICKY!!! You will have bird seed all over your hands. You might want to spoon some into the mold and then place a piece of wax paper on top of it before you press the seed down with your hands.

Step 7- Let the ornaments harden in the molds for 2-3 hours. Carefully pop them out of the molds, remove the straws, and place face down onto wax paper to let the other side dry. At this point, I let them dry overnight.

Step 8- Attach ribbon or twine through your ornaments.

Step 9- Make sure you have some sunny days ahead and then hang your ornaments. From what I've read, these will dissolve in wet weather. Not a huge problem though- the little birdies can eat the seed off the ground!

Good thing Woodman was home to assist with the ornament hanging!

I love those faces!

It's always helpful to have a Lucky Pup as a supervisor.

By the time I got back inside from the ornament hanging and to the bay window, birds had already found our ornaments and were flitting about! I did notice that the birds had a harder time perching on the ornaments with longer ribbon loops. The ornament wasn't very stable and would shake around, scaring the bird. I probably would make smaller loops if I did this again. I also read how some people made larger holes and just threaded the tree branches through the holes to stabilize the ornament, skipping the ribbon step altogether. 

To my teacher friends- this is a super easy project you can do with your class! Doesn't take long at all....don't want to eat up that instructional time! ;)