Bird Feeder from Plastic Bottle

• Recycling Art and Crafts Series from Victoria B

  Bird Feeder from Plastic Bottle

  What you need :

  Any Large Plastic Bottle Washed and dry !Remove paper label!

  (Can be Milk Jug, water bottle, Soda bottle in gallon or half gallon size ! )

  Marking pen that works on plastic!

  Tape band to measure

  Ultilty Knive or box Knive With new blade!

  Sharp Scissor

  2 Sticks for perches

  (can be dry twigs off the local tree or dowels or found objects

  one needs to be about a foot long other maybe 6-8 inches!)

  Wire to hang with !

  (can be picture wire or other easy to bend with hands

  Old hanger? Or if not you need pliers)

  Non toxic Paint that works on plastic (optional)

  Directions:

  1. Take your bottle in your hands ,exam it for cracks and look at it's shape !

  Decide if it will stand up right or be on its side! I usually make mine in

  upright position

  2. Make your entrance Hole ! It can be square or round that is up to your design!

  I usually do square because thats easier to cut! You are going to make it 2 or 3

  inches above the floor of the bottle,to be sure there is room for seeds!

  (You can make more then one entrance, but you will need to make them

  smaller !) only do that in a bigger bottle! Draw a guideline with marker!

  3.You need to measure 4-5 inches up from your bottom line on each side don't

  make it to big or the bottle may break! Mark your lines with marker !

  4.Lay your bottle on a hard surface (Table or work bench) to cut it ! With

  theMarked side up!

  5. Open the knive and put out the shortest amount of blade it will allow !

  6. Take blade and cut down and along the lines up marked or just inside the lines !

  Don't worry about perfect you can trim later with the scissor ! Cut the plasic

  slowly to prevent rips! You should cut four sides on a square

  7. Below your opening (at least an inch from the bottom) you will need to mark

  a dot for your perch! You will also need to mark a dot on both sides for your

  other perches if desired! Make these ! inch or 2 inches above the bottom cut

  and 1-2 inches away from the sides cuts !

  8. Cut an X on each dot!

  9. Cut your one long perch so that you have 2-3 inches on each side of your

  containor cut another perch, 3-4 inches or as long as you desire for the one in

  front!

  11. push the sticks though your X cut dot though to the other side be careful not

  to rip plastic!

  12. Paint as desired!

  Need any helpwith this or want me to teach a class?

  You can email me at vbeasley@satx.rr.com

  See some of my other arts and crafts at http://VictoriaB2007.etsy.com

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Just did Makers Faire in Austin Texas this past weekend!

Not as an Artist selling but as part of My Etsy Texas Crafters Team! GO Team ! If was a lot of fun and hard Work ! I wanted to tell MY team Leader Thanks Milly! Milly of thistlecraft.etsy.com She worked so hard for this ! As did Many Others So here is a Great big Hipp hipp hurra To all of us who did come and take up this team challenge! We got a lot of folks to sign up for our Newsletter and passed out lots of Free gifts with our members Etsy store URLs and information! I enjoyed watching the folks doing the Make and takes and demos! I was able to watch, when I wasn't swamped with folks in front of our part of the booth telling them all about Our group, what Etsy http://etsy.com was, and getting them to sign up ! I couldn't Talk Sunday after noon or Monday much having wore out my voice! All the volunteers probably did!
Makers faire was the best thing I have seen in a long time for Artist and Crafters ! I really enjoyed the demo's and free make & takes ! So many things to see and do so well worth the entrance fee! I of course only saw a little bit as I cant walk sit or stand for great amounts of time but the little bit I did see was impressive! If you have not gone to one before You should the next time one comes to your area! check out this link for some cool video there about it http://makerfaire.com/austin/2007/
I did a demo on Sat Making a Bird feeder from a bottle recycling was one of the themes of the Makers faire ! When i told folks I was doing the demo I had all kinds of request to see the Bird feeder and to give them One So I will post the directions! I also will do a video on how to do that soon!