How to Make Bird Feeders Out of Teacup & Saucer
Old dishes can be used to create wonderfully whimsical and functional decor for your yard. Instead of inviting the birds to your yard for a cup of neighborly tea, offer them a cup of birdseed. Make a bird feeder using a teacup and saucer. Visit a thrift store for vintage melamine teacups and saucers to create cute bird feeders. This easy-to-make project will be a quirky addition to your yard. Make several to have on hand for quick birthday and housewarming gifts.
Things You'll Need
- 1-inch diameter wood dowel, 36 inches
- Measuring tape
- Jigsaw
- Sandpaper
- Acrylic paint
- Paintbrush
- Clear acrylic spray sealer
- Pencil
- Silk ivy garland, 6-foot package
- Staple gun
- Wire cutters
- Household cement
- Vintage melamine teacup and saucer
- Drill, small bit and screwdriver bit
- 2-inch wood screw
- Birdseed
Instructions
-
-
1
Measure and cut a 1-inch-diameter wood dowel 36 inches long, using a jigsaw. Cut one dowel end at an angle. This will be the stake end that will go into the ground. Sand the cut raw edges, eliminating any splintered or rough spots. Paint the dowel, using an acrylic paint color that will match or coordinate well with the cup and saucer color. Apply two coats for complete coverage and allow the paint to dry. Spray the dowel with clear acrylic sealer to protect the paint from the elements.
-
2
Measure 6 inches up from the stake end of the wood dowel and mark. This will mark how far the dowel is to be inserted into the ground. Place an end of silk ivy garland on the mark. Use a staple gun to staple the ivy end to the dowel. Wind the garland around the length of the dowel. Use wire cutters to cut the ivy garland at the top of the dowel. Note: You will have enough leftover ivy garland to make another teacup and saucer bird feeder. Staple the end of the ivy to the side edge of the dowel's top. Do not cover the flat top end of the dowel.
-
-
3
Apply household cement to the bottom of a melamine teacup and center it on the matching saucer. Allow the cement to dry. Use a drill and small bit to drill a pilot hole in the inside bottom center of the teacup and through the bottom of the saucer. Melamine is a hard plastic and can easily be drilled without breakage. Stand the wood dowel up, with the pointed stake end down. Drill a pilot hole straight into the top of the dowel.
-
4
Insert a 2-inch wood screw into the pilot hole inside the teacup. Use a screwdriver bit in the drill to screw it down until it just barely sticks out the bottom of the saucer. Place the teacup and saucer over the end of the dowel and match the tip of the screw with the pilot hole in the dowel. Drill the screw the rest of the way into the teacup, saucer and dowel, to attach.
-
5
Push the stake end of the teacup and saucer bird feeder into the ground. Fill the teacup and around the edges of the saucer with birdseed.
-
1
More Like This
Comments
-
Tough Month For Wildlife March is the most difficult month of the year for birds to find adequate food to survive winter in most of North America. That's because the supplies of natural food....last year's seeds, fruits, berries and insect eggs and larvae...are at their lowest levels after months of birds feeding on them. March is too early for a new crop of seeds, fruits, berries, and insects to be available. Therefore, birds have to work harder to find sufficient food during a month when it is still very wintry in much of the country. That's why March is the best time of the year to feed birds in the backyard. They will respond more readily to feeder foods offered in March than at any other time of the year. Though birds are not dependent on feeders for their survival (studies have shown that birds glean 75 percent of their daily food from the wild, even when feeder foods are available), feeding them in March will make life a little easier for them, and under severe conditions, may even save them from starvation. so...make a bird feeder out of an teacup & saucer!!
