Crafting: Easter Egg Bird Feeder

Easter was about a month ago, and I still find myself on little Easter egg hunts. I tend to find them under my foot at 2:30 in the morning on the way to the restroom. They just seem to pop up in the midst of my laundry. They are neatly snuggled under the leather chair in my living room as I try to vacuum under it. Yup. They are everywhere. Still. And I'm going to get rid of them one way or another.

So this week, Abigail and I are going to do our best to put those little plastic eggs to use (if it's the last thing I do).  I have found two ideas on how to use them. I'm using them as molds for one of my items in the Make Your Own series (that I didn't do yesterday because I couldn't find one ingredient, but I'm heading to Ace Hardware tomorrow, and I will find it). Today's craft is also using these eggs.

 Abigail and I have been studying flowers this week, and I have been brewing up an idea to use the plastic Easter eggs to make some kind of flower. At first I was thinking of just making a flower and doing some melting and molding and such, but I'm thinking melting plastic is not really what I want to do, but I did decide to make a bird feeder out of them. Abigail and I went to a friend's house (hi, Carrie and Anna Pearl!) to play in the sprinklers, and I brought crafting stuff just in case we needed something else to do. Check it out!

Easter Egg Bird Feeder


What You'll Need:

• Plastic Easter eggs in various colors. (If you can't seem to find your, check the places mentioned above)
• Hot glue and a glue gun
• Fishing line
• Bird seed 
• Scissors

Instructions: 

1. Spread the eggs out on the table. Have the child choose a center egg to be the middle part of the flower. Then have the child arrange 5-6 (depending on the sizes of your eggs) around the middle one for color. (Educational note: I had the kids sort by size and color...although I didn't think of that until after they were choosing colors. Next time, I will do it first). 
2. The adult will need to then glue the "petals" on to the center egg. The final product should have the center egg facing down and the petals facing up to hold the bird seed. 
3. This part is the tricky part. Cut two pieces of fishing line about 1 1/2 to 2 feet long. Loop them under the center egg and tie at the top. Have them loop in different directions to make an X under the center egg. 
4. (Optional): once you get the loops where you want them, glue them to the center egg to make sure they stay on. I didn't initially do this to Abigail's and it fell off on the way home. 
5. (Optional): My original plan for the fishing line was to glue the ends of the string to the inside of opposite eggs, having the two lines cross in the middle. I still think it's a good idea, but we just didnt do it. 
6. Once you have the two fishing lines secure, cut another piece of fishing line about 1 foot. Loop through the other two so they are held together. Tie a knot. 
7. Fill the open petals with bird seed and hang. 

See pictures below if that was confusing...and to see how much fun the girls had with these! 

Choose a center and then the petals

Here's what Abigail decided

Glue the petals to the center. Make sure the center is upside down. 

Abigail's completed Easter Egg Bird Feeder. If you look closely, you can see how she is hold the one line that is holding the other two (that are looped under the center egg)

Anna Pearl and Abigail are filling them with bird seed

Trying to make it even. When we got home, we filled them up. 

Fill it up and hang it! See Anna Pearl's? Her's has a leaf on it! What a creative mama she has! 

And here are the two bird feeders hanging. 

These turned out better than I thought they would. I was super impressed and really excited about using these. So grab up your leftover eggs and put them to use!