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! 

Make Your Own: Ant Killer Shaker

Last week's post about Make Your Own Watering Can out of a milk jug got my creative juices flowing. I am super serious about my garden this year (thanks to my New Year's Resolution), so I've made me a little basket that carries my tools, my garden diagram (yes, I made one of those), my watering can, fertilizer, and now, the ant killer. Last summer was the summer of all summers to get eaten up by ants. For serious, I was a walking buffet every time I walked into the yard. Not this year, though. I'm determined to keep my feet (and arms, back, and face...yes, face) free of ant bites this year. So I bought this big mama-jama bag of ant killer.

Ant killer is scary. That is poison that I am carrying around the yard, and the bag I got is pretty big. The directions say to sprinkle only about a tablespoon or so on each ant bed, so I couldn't see myself really lugging around such a huge bag. After feeling so proud about my watering can, I knew I could do something similar with the ant killer. So I rummaged through my recycling bin (another NYR), and found exactly what I needed to make killing ants safer and easier to handle (not to mention easier to carry in my basket).

Ant Killer Shaker:

What You'll Need: 

• small plastic jar with a lid (I used a peanut butter jar)
• 1 coffee filter
• scissors
• a rubber band
• 2 paper towels, one of them damp
• a permanent marker 
• ant killer 

Instructions: 

1. Clean out the plastic jar and dry completely. 
2. Cover the opening of the jar with the coffee filter and use the rubber band to hold it on, binding the rubber band over the filter and around the rim of the jar. 
3. Make a few small holes in the top of the coffee filter with the scissors. Pierce the filter and turn 360 degrees. You need to make sure you make an opening, not a slit. The ant killer will not go through a slit. 
4. Remove the coffee filter and fill the jar with ant killer. Replace the filter and rubber band. Put the lid of the jar on top of the jar and tighten. Adjust the filter and rubber band as needed. 
5. Using the damp paper towel, clean off the outside of the jar. This is to make sure that if you did get the poison on the outside of the jar, you remove it to keep your hands clean. Once you have cleaned the outside, use the dry paper towel to dry it off completely for the next step. 
6. Clearly mark on the outside of the jar with the permanent marker "Ant Killer" or something similar to that. You want to make sure others know what is inside the jar. 
7. Store in a safe place out of reach of children. Wash your hands after each use to be safe. 
8. To use: take the lid off the jar and sprinkle over the ant bed. I have also"stirred up" the ant bed to make sure I get the poison close to the inside as possible. I want those bad boys to DIE. If you have a particularly large ant bed, you can carefully remove the filter and rubber band and pour more if needed. 

Make sure to always wash your hands after using. Although it is safely inside the jar, you never know how much may get on your hands in the pouring. 

I sure hope you and I can join forces and make a difference in the world by killing these pesky insects! 

I am not, in any way, advertising a particular brand of ant killer.
See that itty-bitty ant bed? That is at the end of my kids' slide. 

Here is a closer look to the Ant Killer Shaker. Five holes in the top works for us.
More or less for you, depending on your need! :) 

Make Your Own: Watering Can

It's Springtime. Yup. It's already hit 90 degrees here. BUT part of my New Year's Resolution this year is to have a successful garden. My dad, who has a HUGE garden and comes from a long line of farmers, has been guiding me step by step to help me out. It makes me wish I had paid attention when I was younger.

So in attempt to have a successful garden and get my kids involved, I found this great idea on Pinterest: make a watering can out of milk jug. We go through at least a gallon of milk a week, and I have been feeling pretty crummy throwing out those jugs. So every other jug or so I wash it out good, and save it. My original purpose was to make liquid laundry detergent (which is on my Make Your Own list), but since my dry laundry detergent is working well, I have all these milk jugs begging to be used. Lucky for me, I can now use one or two to water my plants...or have my kids do it! So...

Make Your Own: Watering Can

What You'll Need: 

• Milk jug, cleaned out (I cleaned mine out and then ran it through a wash in the dishwasher) 
• Sharp knife
• Water
• (optional) plant food (the kind that needs to be mixed with water)

Instructions: 

1. Take the lid off the jug and place it on a sturdy surface. I put mine on my counter. Just make sure it is sturdy and level. With a sharp knife, pierce the top of the lid. Slowly and carefully turn the knife. This will make a nice little round hole. In the picture below, you can see my first attempt. On the left you can see where I thought if I just pierce the lid a few times it would work...uh no. You need little round holes like the one on the right. 

2. Add plant food to the jug. Slowly add water to fill the jug. I really like doing this! I have no clue how much water my old watering can holds, so when the plant food instructions said "1 scoop per gallon", I was just guessing. This way, I know how much water! Yay! 

I'm not advertising "Expert" plant food. It just happened to be what I got. 

LABEL! You don't want someone to mistake this as kool-aid or something. 

3. Begin using! 

What I really love about this idea is that my kids can use it! While I am planting or putting away stuff, my kids can walk around the garden or yard and water the plants. ALSO, I hate having to drag my hose everywhere. The moment my dog sees the hose, she things it's playtime, so this reduces the chance of another destroyed hose. (For real, she rips the nozzle off the hose. We bought 4 hoses last summer). Finally, I love the way this pours out. It helps make sure I don't overwater my plants! 

And check out the garden fairy that helped me out! 

When I told her that was good, I got all the pictures I needed, she insisted on finishing the job.
::sigh:: makes a mama proud!