How to Make a Bird Feeder from a Liquor Bottle

Anyone else have baby birds galore in their yard?  With lots of little mouths to feed, wouldn't it be nice to help out the adult birds with an extra feeder or two? I've been making and selling these fabulously upcycled bird feeders for two years now.  I only sell them at festivals, farmers markets and the like.  Because they are so expensive to ship, you won't find them in my Etsy shop anymore.  So I thought, why not show the rest of the world how I make them.  Check it out, I officially call them Booze Bottle Bird Feeders:

They're pretty easy to make once you get past the drilling a hole in glass part.  But, remember, I showed you how to do that in my last post.  You'll need just a few supplies:

1.  Wine or liquor bottle with the original cap or a cork
2.  A thrift store plate
3.  A 12-18" (ish) length of copper wire
4.  Vice Grip (best ten bucks I've spent in a long time!)
5.  Clear Silicone
6.  And if you don't already have one, a Diamond Hole Saw for drilling your holes in the bottle

Once you've drilled your holes in the "booze" bottle, you can use your vice grip to shape and coil the copper wire around the neck of the bottle to form your hanger.  Then simply add a solid bead of silicone adhesive to the bottom of your bottle and press it into place on your plate.  Set it aside to cure and in a short three hours time, you'll have your very own booze bottle bird feeder.  Now go raid your recycle bin...or the neighbors and get to it!

How to Make a Wine Bottle Hummingbird Feeder

This time of year you can typically find my Etsy shop shelves stocked with a variety of upcycled bird feeders.  And this year I've added a line of Booze Bottle Bird Feeders made from bottles that a local restaurant would have otherwise thrown in the trash.  Recycling isn't as widely accepted where I live as it is in major cities across the country.  Here, waste management services typically charge restaurants (and even some residents) an additional fee for recycling so it's more cost effective just to toss everything in the garbage.  I know, sad, but true.

I thought I'd show you how to make one of my simpler bird feeder styles.  It's a hummingbird feeder made from a wine bottle and I've put together a video tutorial for it.

I go over the tools you'll need to make this bird feeder in the video, but the one thing that you'll likely have a hard time finding are the stoppers with the built in tube feeder.  I can't tell you how many people ask me if I sell just the stoppers when I'm out at Farmer's Markets and other festivals.  So, here are the one's I use:



I hope you'll enjoy making these and share the project with your bird loving friends!

Linking up to Catch As Catch Can on My Repurposed Life

How To Make a Butterfly Feeder from Thrifted Stuff

My Mother's Day Patio Makeover included lots of fun little feeders for birds and butterflies.  Mom loves Hummingbirds so, of course, I added one of my wine bottle hummingbird feeders to the mix:

And tucked away in the same photo is a small butterfly feeder made from a thrifted salad plate and a glass sundae dish.

If you'd like a closer look at the butterfly feeder or want to know how to make one of your own, you can check out this YouTube video or even jump back to a post I wrote last year on how to make a bird bath.  It's the same concept.  And so is this bird seed feeder.  I simply glued a large ceramic candle holder to a fancy flower pot and viola! we have ourselves a colorful bird (and squirrel) seed feeder.

It really doesn't take much to add some color to your gardens, not to mention functional art.  So head out to the thrift store and then pick up some silicone...and get busy.  Make some for your mom and then make some for you.  Everyone needs a beautiful song in the garden, don't they?

Here Come the Bird Feeders

My workshop runneth over with mismatched plates, bowls and cups along with lamp bases, candle holders and other thrifty finds!  It's that time of the year to start making the bird/butterfly feeders and baths. Some of the pieces are simple match 'em up and glue 'em together pieces, like this one:

Others take a little more ingenuity to complete.  I brought home a candle holder that I thought would be the perfect fit for a few teacups and saucers.  But that didn't exactly work out the way I expected.  There was a fancy little scroll work on the candle holder that kept two of the saucers from laying flat.  So what did I do?  I pulled out my Dremel 200-1/21 Two-Speed Rotary Tool Kit, of course!  I swear I don't know how I ever lived without that thing.

And then there was plenty of room to attach the saucers after I sanded the edges and added a couple coats of paint.  I think she turned pretty neat and just the right size for a table top or a large planted container.

This year's feeders will have nothing on last year, mainly because I have the right tools now!  My next big feeder project?  This baby, here....

I'm thinking more teacups and saucers and maybe, PURPLE!  Mom and dad have a few of my pieces in their shop now, but the big debut is March 1.  Yep, less than two weeks away and I'll be at my first Farmer's Market for the season.  I can hardly wait, it's going to be a very busy season!

My Snapple Bird Feeder Is Working!

Remember the Snapple bird feeder that I made last week?  Well, I'm happy to report that it is actually working!  Here's what I saw when I came home from work last night.  There's only a smidge of bird seed left in the bottle.

I probably wouldn't have even notice if it weren't for the giant Blue Jay sitting atop the Shepard's hook eating.  I don't know how someone that big was able to feed from it, but there he was - the very first Blue Jay that I've seen in my yard.  I was very excited!

Have you tried it yet?

Wordless Wednesday Featuring an Upcycled Surprise

My nine year old niece visited this weekend and brought with her and upcycled bird feeder that she very proud of.  I dare say I might have rubbed off on her a bit since the whole playing with trash is kinda "my thing" in the family.

While the engineering may not be an exact science on this one, the creativity is pretty awesome.  In her mind, when the bird lands on the spoon it acts as a funnel initiating a pour response filling the spoon with seed!  Cute, huh?

Upcycled Finds in Abbeville

I fell in love this weekend, in love with Abbeville, SC.  If you've never had the chance to visit you should.  Abbeville is a very sweet little town that prides itself on preserving its historical nature.  I had the opportunity to participate in their Art'Oberfest festival this weekend and found myself daydreaming about my own little shop right on the city square. 

Alas, it's Monday and reality has sucked me right out of those daydreams. But I am left with the "warm and fuzzies" thinking about all of the wonderful art that was on display this weekend.  There really was an amazing variety of wares!  I was amazed at all of the booths that had upcycled/repurposed goods in them.  Thank goodness, I drive a tiny Kia that was packed to the roof with my own displays because I would have put the furniture guy out of business on day 1!  He had these amazing king size chairs fashioned from an old crib.  The cushion on each was half of the crib mattress that he had upholstered!  I'm sad to say that he sold those puppies before I had a chance to snap a pic - amazing!


I did bring a few things home with me this time around.  Here are some wonderful vintage buttons that I can't wait to use in my jewelry and soda can flowers.  They came in a really old mason jar that will make a lovely soy candle, too!

A few booths down from me there was a man selling some really fun stuff out of old glass jars, mostly wine bottles that he collects from restaurants.  That's were I found this really cool hummingbird feeder.  I know, the hummingbirds left a couple weeks ago but when you see a cool upcycled creation you have to grab it while you can or it'll be gone before you know it!

I wish I could share my third purchase with you but it was a Christmas gift for a friend and I don't want to spoil the surprise.  But it was another wonderful creation from the same artist who made my bird feeder. 

Be sure to visit this quaint little town when next you visit the South, you won't be disappointed!

Celebrate National Wild Bird Feeding Month

It's that time of the year!  Food sources are scarce and your local birds are looking for food much harder than they do throughout the rest of the year.  During the month of February the National Bird Feeding Society encourages citizens to not only feed their feathered friends but to provide shelter and water to help them survive one of the most difficult months of the year.

What better way to celebrate this event than with an upcycled bird feeder that you can get the kids involved in too?  Here's a quick tutorial for a homemade bird feeder that will reuse some of that plastic headed to the trash or recycle bin.

For my feeder I chose to start with a grande sized Starbucks cup; always in constant supply and currently not recyclable in my community.  Keep in mind that you can use just about anything that you can get your scissors through (soda bottle, milk jug, etc.).  So be creative, rescue some plastic and some birds!  To get started, cut the vessel of your choice into strips.  Be sure leave a couple of inches at the bottom to form the bowl that will hold your bird seed, like this:

Once you've made your strips you'll bend each strip back individually and secure it to the bottom outer edge of the feeder bowl.  Be as creative as you'd like!  You can punch some small holes in the both the bowl and the strips then  thread through a length of raffia or twine or you can simply use a glue gun like I did:

If you use a glue gun you'll have to hold each piece in place until it is dry before moving on to the next.  Once all of your strips are secure you'll end up with something that looks like this:

Now you just need to feed two pieces of twine or other decorative string through two of the loops that are equal distances from each other:

Tie off the strings and fill the cup with bird seed that will attract your local wildlife:

...and hang it outside, preferable near a water and/or shelter souce.

These cute little feeders are so easy to make and you have so many different containers to choose from you could make a whole garden filled with them!  At least it'll add a little color to the brown (or even snow covered) winter garden in your yard.

Here's another version that you can make from an aluminum can pretty easily. This colorful bird feeder is made out of an Arizona Iced Tea can. I added some beads and decorative wire for the hanger.  Use your imagination and dream up some fun feeders.  Leave a comment and let me know how you designed yours!