Welcome to another Wacky Workshops project – how to make a plastic bottle bird feeder.

We all know the damage plastic is doing to our environment and the importance of recycling it so it doesn’t end up in landfill or our oceans.

We can take that one step further and get our kids involved in creative recycling to empower them to help save the world.

By showing them how to reinvent things, we are opening up their creative minds to come up with new ideas for recycling and reusing.

HOW TO MAKE A PLASTIC BOTTLE BIRD FEEDER

This is an easy project but does require some cutting so it’s best to prepare the bird feeder and then let the kids be involved by decorating it.

MATERIALS

• Plastic bottle with the cap still on – I used a 1.25-litre soda water bottle
• Box cutters
• Scissors
• Sharp, pointed knife
• String
• Paint
• Nail polish – optional

METHOD

• Cut off the top third of the bottle using the box cutters.
• Cut a line from the cut section of the bottom portion of the bottle about two-thirds of the way down, then across and up again to form a rectangle shape.

• Use a sharp knife to put a hole on each side of the rectangle shape you just cut out, near the top.
• Pierce a hole on either side of the top section of the bottle, near the cut edge.
• Thread one end of the string through one of the holes in the bottom part of the bottle, from the inside, out, and tie off.
• Thread the string through a hole in the top part of the bottle, from the outside, in.
• Allowing enough string to reach up through the bottle cap and allow for hanging, thread the other end through the other hole in the top of the bottle, from the inside, out. Then thread it through the hole in the bottom part of the bottle from the outside, in and tie off.
• The top part of the bottle should fit snugly over the bottom part with a nice little rectangular shaped hole for the birds to reach the birdseed.
• Pierce a hole in the bottle cap and pull the remaining string through that so you can hang the bottle.

• Now for the fun part. Have the children paint the bottle in the colours of their choice. Remember, these will be hanging outside so the paint needs to be weatherproof.
• Have the kids decorate the bottle with painted patterns or nail polish (which withstands the weather). It’s not a good idea to glue on embellishments or stickers as the birds are attracted to pecking at them and could choke.
• Once the feeder is dry, hang on a tree branch. Fill with birdseed and watch the little birds flock into your garden.

HOW ABOUT A PLASTIC BOTTLE FAIRY HOUSE?

NOTE: This same technique also makes really sweet fairy houses that can withstand the rain and the sun. An added bonus is you can have fun adding all the embellishments you want, using an industrial-strength glue.

Follow me on Pinterest for more fun crafting ideas.

Happy crafting and have a gleeful week, Tamuria.