Personalized IPad and a GIVEAWAY!!

     I love a little personalization!  So, I am super excited about how cute my IPad and IPad cover look with their new, super cute decals!!!

    Enter Kati, of Daisy Decals.  She and her Mom have a new Etsy shop that specializes in selling retro and vintage decals.  I fell in love with Daisy Decals when I found out they are a mother daughter duo (a stay at home mom & a struggling college student).  I have been both of these things and so I can completely relate!  Then, I actually got a peak at their designs and they are darling.  They sent me my favorite, which was the vintage camper.  And they sent me an extra one to boot, a cute retro flower decal they are still in the process of working with!

You must peruse their Etsy shop, as they have many other super cute decals for sale!

Check out this Retro typewriter, that I am in love with!

Or this View Master brings back so many memories for me!

So, Kati is going to give one of my readers a free decal of their own!  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post.  The giveaway will end on March 27.  I will randomly pick one winner on March 28!   You can get an extra entry by tweeting, and/or blogging about this giveaway (so really that is two extra entries you can get).  Just leave me another comment (or two) letting me know you did.

Make sure to check out Daisy Decals’ Etsy shop and give them some love!

Rebecca

Money Tree Teacher Appreciation Gift

Come check me out over at Skip To My Lou!  Hello to all those readers that are visiting my blog, from Cindy’s!  I was so excited when Cindy asked me to do a guest post on Teacher Appreciation Gifts!  I shared a tutorial on a fun and super cute Money Tree Gift!  What teacher couldn’t use good ‘ol fashioned money!?  (You know, since teachers are so high paid and all!).

Then go and check out the rest of the fun ladies that are guest posting for Cindy’s Teacher Appreciation Ideas theme!

 

Thanks Cindy!

 

Rebecca

Thanks For Giving A Hoot-Teacher Appreciation Day Gift

“Owl always be grateful for all your hard work!
Thanks for giving a Hoot about my daughter!”

I have been collecting owl things to put together for a gift.  I found each of these things separately in clearance bins!  Those marshmallow owls are truly staring me down… “eat me!  eat me!”  But I will resist.  This last weekend I found that awesome quilled owl card to finish it off, at the Encinitas street fair!  (Those cards were absolutely amazing!  I’ll show you more later!)

Rebecca

What are you doing for Teacher Appreciation this year?  I’d love for you to link up all your ideas on our post yesterday-Wednesday’s Creative Inspiration!  Or leave a comment here.  You guys are all so creative and I love getting new inspiration.

Thankful Candy Dish

I love candy dishes. I want to have Martha Stewart's expansive kitchen cabinets. Just to have enough space for candy dishes (oh, including cookie jars! sigh ). However, that is not my reality. So, I try to keep things simplified. I found this small dish and thought it would be perfect. My thought for it is to have it out on my counter for during November. I like as many things around, that remind us of gratitude, during the Thanksgiving Season! If you want to see how easy it is to etch, check out Erika's post on it from earlier this week. I knew this cute little dish was perfect for etching a fun thankful design onto. Instead of etching the design, however, I etched the negative. I used the word "thanks" in many different languages. I put them onto the cup, in what I think is kind of a "wordle" design.

When I pulled off the extra vinyl from around the cut out words, I just couldn't trash them (I have this problem often, like with empty drink holders, etc). So, I grabbed a clean glass jar (yes, this also points back to the before-mentioned problem of keeping things that I "might" be able to use in the future). I put these onto the jar and etched the words themselves onto this jar.

Back to my candy dish. Once all my vinyl words were put onto my dish, I actually contemplated leaving it that way. Since I was only using it as a candy dish, having vinyl on the dish would not have been a problem as I would just wipe out the inside of the jar (so I wouldn't have to worry about throwing it in the dishwasher and having the vinyl ruined). I just really liked how the vinyl looked on the dish (see the top photo for the example of this...I probably will do it this way in the future!). But I charged forward, as I already had a vision in my head that I wanted to finish out. To reverse etch this jar I had to put the etching cream all over the outside of the cup part (the area you see etched, just above). I'm glad that I went ahead with my plan and didn't keep the words as vinyl. Instead you can now see through where the vinyl letters had been and the rest of the dish is frosted. I love it.

Here you can kind of see how the jar turned out, using the vinyl from around my words. I only etched the words. After I decorate the lid, fill it, and tie a ribbon around this, I will be using it as a gift for my daughter's teacher.

This was an interesting project for me because I had it in my head for a bit. Once I started to work on it, my vinyl cutter and I got into a fight. When I say fight, I mean a full blown fight (I went through 2-3 feet of vinyl, a blade, and LOTS of my time). I prodded and coaxed her (or him...maybe that's why she's mad at me, because I don't even know if she's a she or a he...) for quite a while. I went through so many modifications and just couldn't get her working for me. But it's ok now. We got back on speaking terms in time for me to finish up this project! I don't know if she's kissing up to me to make up for her temper tantrum with me, but I swear the last 2 days she has cut better than ever! I finished at least 7 projects with her just today!

The best part of this? I didn't even keep my candy dish! I know, I know, after all that work (really the etching and all was easy, it was the all-out fight with my cutter that was tough). But it went to a super cause. Every year my sister's and I go to my Mom's church for a Service Auction. It is so much fun. Really, it's because of the auctioneer! She is one of my Mom's best friends and she is an absolute hoot! It makes for such an enjoyable night, with her at the podium and gavel in hand.

I have to give you a quick run-down on this event because it is always so much fun. People sign up to donate handmade items, food, or service. On the night of the auction you peruse the list of donations. Each person also fills out a questionnaire. It is a list of things that you get set amount of points for. A few questions are: "If you made your bed today. (10 points). If you are 18-25 (10 points)" There were 47 questions, and you are on the honor system. You tally up your points and that is how many points you have to bid with. Some of the items to bid on were crocheted baby items, cards, jewelry, homemade breads, a yoga session, babysitting, and even cleaning of your baseboards (it's supposed to be all homemade, but some "stretched" the truth on that one!)! I tell you, some people get so creative. There are secret items that you don't even know what it is, just who it's from. You can join your points with other people. I think one of the reasons that my Mom, My Sisters and I love this night so much is that we join our points together to make sure we get stuff. The bidding gets crazy (sometimes we bid against each other...just because it's fun). Although, it was not fun that Anjeanette bid against me for the salsa. I called it first! ;( Neither of us got it, so we'll be ok. ;)

Rebecca

S'More Teacher Appreciation Gifts-Paper Milk Cartons

I know I keep saying this, but cute, right!? I love the papers that I used for these gifts! I made these tall milk cartons from a template and my own cute paper stash (oh how I have a weakness for paper!). Then, I filled them with all the makings for S'Mores; Graham Crackers, A Hershey Bar, and Marshmallows. Make sure to be able to see all of your ingredients. The Hershey Bar would be lost on either of the sides and so had to be sandwiched in the middle of the marshmallows and graham cracker. I added a tag on the back that was a heart felt letter of thanks from my kids and I and then this saying:
"We Need S'More Teachers Like You!"
To make these I cut out my milk carton template out of my cute papers, having to add a window to see what was inside so that my note made sense. That's the backside of my paper cut out and with fold lines in place.
Hard to see on this one but I'm holding my window cover. I cut up a sheet protector for this and glue it to the inside of the box before you glue the box together!
I have a new favorite glue for paper projects. I really want my paper projects to hold up especially because I tend to do lots of bags and boxes, and who really wants the gifts inside falling out because your glue doesn't hold?! The paper on the left is the front side of my paper after it is cut out and lines folded. The paper on the right shows the box mostly put together. I glued the top part together and then filled the box with my goodies, and the bottom of the box has a tuck in closure (fit tab A into slot B kind of a thing)!

You wont see the box on the right finished. It was an extra one that my daughter asked for. She had another teacher at school that she goes to (for her Project Ideal class) that she wanted to give something to as well. I'm so happy that my daughter likes doing this as well as me and that she thought about another person to give this to. My kids ride the bus and so for Christmas and end of the school year we also include the bus drivers in the gift giving.

I punched 2 holes in the top to tie a pretty ribbon through that will add a cute embellishment as well as tie the card to the gift! My other fun embellishments are my 3-D butterflies on the window part of the box. I cut them out of excess from the boxes. I only glued on the body of the butterfly and folded the wings back so that they would stick out.



As with most gifts, these would also be great for Mother's Day or any other gift giving time!

Don't forget to check here, here, here, here, here, or even here for our other fantastic Teacher Appreciation/Mother's Day gifts!

Rebecca

***All the girls at Roots and Wings Co love to share our patterns and templates. Unfortunately, the template for this milk carton is not ours to share. It is part of a program that I got with one of my cutting systems.

Teacher appreciation week door sign

This week is Teacher appreciation week. I love doing little things over a week to show our teachers how we love them. Well I love making the things. But when it comes time to actually GIVING them to the teacher, I'm always so embarrassed. I don't know why. I guess I worry they will think it is silly.

You have no idea how I agonized over this one.

Before school last week, I took construction paper and traced the hands of the children in my son's classmates. I had them sign the middle of their hand too. A few weeks ago I asked the principal's seceretary if I could decorate the teacher's door. They don't do that here. I don't know why, but they don't. She seemed surprised to have such a request but asked the principal anyway. Yes, she thought it was a delightful idea. Really the school is like 12 years old and they don't do that here. Seems strange to me. I thought so last year too, but didn't get up enough nerve to ask.

Anyway I took the handprints and layered them on posterboard to sort of resemble a flower. I cut out some words and a flower pot and a stem and leaves. I added some real ribbon to the flower pot. I was careful to make sure each child's name was showing.

All weekend long I was worried...I'm not sure what I worried about. Right before school I remembered I needed to snap a picture. I tried not to show my kid's but they were holding it. So you see a bit of them anyway. And it is a little crooked.

But guess what? The teacher loved it and thanked the class for helping make it. Yay!

Brownie mix- Teacher's gift

When you have a special needs child the number of "teachers gifts" go way up. My oldest son is in a general ed classroom of K-2nd grade. There are two teachers, one is for the hearing impaired students, 2 interpreters and the aide that comes in to assist my son for 2-3 hours of the day. Then there is the Occupational and Speech therapists. I also include my son's special ed teacher from last year because she continues to advocate for him and watch over him all on her own. She isn't his teacher anymore but she is our friend. The school psychologist has also been thrown into the mix in the past.

Then there is his little brother, who is in preschool. He has 1 teacher, 2 aides and a speech therapist.

A small village is helping us to teach and raise our boys. I don't know what I would do with out any of them. I can't say enough good things about them. We have been fortunate to have fantastic teachers, aides and therapists working with our children. Under their care, my boys are sprouting wings.

I have always made it a point to let them all know in some small way how grateful we are. I know exactly how my children are doing in school. I know that the progress my boys make is due, in part, to their guidance. I have always taken their advice to heart. In the world of Autism, no one set of therapies or "treatments" is right for every child. There are many, many, too many therapies and treatments and teaching methods out there that promise results. You could get swallowed up by them and overwhelmed. Along the way, my son's early interventionist, teachers and therapists have gently guided me along. It makes a big difference. I have not had to deal with the stress of fighting with the school to get services for my child and I hope to never have to. I will never forget how these people have impacted our lives.

I could probably narrow down the list, but every single person I have mentioned works with one of my children. How can you leave them out, even if they are not directly responsible for my child? They still have an impact.

We give them gifts at Christmas, Valentines and at the end of the year. I never give the same thing twice. Last year for Christmas I gave them all homemade vanilla (4oz bottles with beans included). For Valentines I gave them chocolates in little fabric bags tied with a bow and a heart card that the boys wrote on. Last years end of school gift were mini roses in cute wooden pots with a note on them that my son wrote saying "Thanks for helping me to grow." He signed it with a heart and his name. I scanned it in and printed them out and glued them to the pots.

This year my idea stems from a gift in a jar. However, I am not using jars or the standard gift in a jar recipe. I am using some from my Make-a-Mix cook book. In side this book is a basic brownie mix recipe. With that brownie mix you can make brownies and 4 other recipes.
Each person will get:
a reusable 1 quart fabric snack bag (with waterproof lining)
4 cups of the brownie mix (why 4 because that is the largest amount called for in one of the recipes)
4x6" laminated recipe cards for all 5 recipes, 4 brownie topper recipes plus the recipe to make more mix.

This is the front card with a table of contents. On the back side I have a saying. "Just like this Brownie Mix, you have given me the basic ingredients so that my tomorrow is filled with options. Thank you, D 2009" the back of the card also has the same background pattern as they other sayings cards. I wish I could say that I came up with all the sayings I used. The only one I came up with is the first one there with the thank you and my son's name.

Some of the recipe cards have the recipe continued on the back and some do not. Those that don't have a saying on the back. This one is on the back of the Brownie recipe card. This one is on back of the brownie mix recipe card. I liked that it is a variation on a classic. As a student I never thought that the teachers may be singing there own song on the way home that last day of school.

This last saying is on the back of the Chewy Chocolate Cookie recipe card. I liked this saying so much that I had to use it. Though, I admit I was worried about using a sentiment that talks about "God". I am not very religious myself and I worry about using such sayings when I don't know how the recipient will feel about it. In this case I used it because I think anybody will like it's meaning.

I am going change a couple of the sayings for the aides and the therapists. Now I just have to come up with them. I think that is the hardest part about this whole project is coming up with just the right sentiments. I am particular in that way. I try very hard to relay just how grateful we are and how fantastic we think they are. Their jobs should never feel thankless. They should never wonder what they are doing it for. When a parent shows appreciation for what they do, it goes a long way.

For copyright reasons, I am not going to post the recipes here. But I will say that I was able to google "make a mix brownie mix" and find the basic recipe there for the mix. If you have any other questions please feel free to send us an email. Sign in when you leave a comment and we will email you a response.

I laminated the cards and punched a hole in the corner and put them on a ring. The ring opens up so they can remove the card from the rest if they want.

What I like about this gift is that I can make a lot of them with out spending a ton of money. Mostly this will just take time. I only have to make the cards on the computer once and then print and cut them out. I think this will prove to have the "wow" factor with out costing a lot of money per person. I purchased my fabric from the remnant bin. If I need more fabric, I will use what ever fabric remnants I already have. I just liked the apple fabric for the teachers.

You can find the Make-a-Mix cook book HERE. You will find all the recipes for this and more in it. You may also be able to find it at a local library, be sure to check their on line catalog to find out.

Katrina

~~~~~~~~~~

Quick update: I have given out some of these to the teachers, aides and therapists already. The verdict is they loved them and they haven't even seen the sayings inside yet!! So happy to get something from us. I still have a few more that I am going to give out next week. These took a bit of time because of how many I had to make (13) but so worth it in the end. If you only have a couple to make they would be super quick to put together. Oh and I had some extra brownie mix left over. So I made a batch of brownies and visited my son's old pre-school teacher. I gave them to her and her aides. We had a chance to catch up. That was really nice. Like seeing an old friend.

Teacher Appreciation Week is May 4th - 8th

Thanks Rebecca and Katrina for holding down the fort while I was down for the count this last week. It was nice not to have to worry about anything but getting better. It was also fun to receive their fun get-wells;)

On with my post...

I send my child off every weekday to have his mind filled and to learn and grow. I miss knowing everything he does in a day, but I'm enjoying every second watching him to learn and grow. My 3 year old is still at home with me every day, but his turn will come.

I can't spend endless money on daily gifts for my son's teacher. I wish I could. What I do have is time and the creativity to make things. That is what I did this last week during my recovery from my ear surgery. I wasn't in so much pain, but I get dizzy easily. So sitting things worked well for me. Sewing and sitting mostly;)

I found out his teacher's favorite color is pink, her favorite treat is a brownie and her favorite Starbucks drink is a Vanilla Chai.

I made four days worth of thank yous from me and one day from my son.

I found these cute Journal Mounts at Joann's that I am going to write out a little poem to go with each gift. (Oh and I am NOT a poet, but I had fun trying to personalize the gift with a thank you for each thing. They had to be short because the Journal Mounts only have a few lines each.)

Here are the gifts with their little poems:

1. An ice cream cozy

Now take a time out
For yourself won't you please.
This ice cream cozy
Won't let your hands freeze.

2. A cup cozy. You make it the same way you make the ice cream cozy, but I use an actual cozy that comes from the store when you order a hot drink for my template. I also used Insulbright for the inside insulation. I put a $5 Starbucks gift card in there too. You are so awesome

So please won't you try

To take some time to unwind

With a Vanilla Chai?

If you are interested, here is the little coffee cup card I cut out. I did not want it to be cute, I just wanted it to be a place holder, if you will, for the cozy. The ice cream cozy will have a real pint in it, this will not since it has the Starbucks gift card. You could totally use a card like this and make it way cute for another purpose though;)

3. A pencil holder. I just stitched up a cylinder with some patchiness. I used some really stiff Peltex to keep it standing up nicely. It is completely lined with no exposed seams.
You do so much

In this difficult joint.

Thank you so much

That is my point.

4. A rectangular container to catch whatever she may need. I put some of my favorite brownies in there. We love to mix these up with just applesauce. So good.

You held us together

And that's no small feat

And now we share with you

OUR favorite brownie treat.

5. I had my son draw some flowers in different sizes. I had drawn the circle on the right and said to make flowers smaller than that. This way he had an idea how big to make them. I used my favorite technique for sewing with felt and stitched up a broach from his drawings. It is so fun and simple. You take your drawing or whatever, cut it out of paper and layer it on top of felt. Reduce your stitch length waaaay down, and sew directly following the lines on your paper.

If your stitch length was short enough, the paper will almost pop off on it's own. You carefully peel the paper off at this point. Carefully trim closely to the line without cutting the line. Do this with all your flowers. Stack them together, stitch them together. Embellish with some cute matching buttons and sew a pin to the back.

I just love how it turned out. My son was so proud of himself with this one.

My 3 year old saw it and had to make one too. He doesn't get nearly enough drawing time in. It took all we could do to get him to draw two flowers. But I stitched his up just the same. I think any of these would be great girlfriend, or Mother's Day, or pick me up gifts individually too.
For all that you do
I want to say thank you so.
Your nurturing ways
Have helped me to grow.

I also had my son write a letter to his teacher. And lastly we included a letter he wrote and sent to our Governor asking her not to cut his education any more. Arizona is right there at the bottom of the list (or second to the bottom) for education. There is this idea if you are in AZ and want to teach your kids about being involved in making change happen. join hands for education

My girlfriend and I are having the kids in their class trace their hands and then sign them. We cut them out and made a poster with them for the teacher.

Take a minute to thank your children's teachers. Teaching is so much more than just the ABC's. It is stepping in where I am not, to do all the things I can't do while my son is at school.

I'm also going to add a note and another favorite poem, I'm not sure who wrote it, but I totally feel like a teacher's job and a parent's job are one in the same.

“WHOSE CHILD IS THIS?”

"Whose child is this?" I asked one day

Seeing a little one out at play

"Mine", said the parent with a tender smile

"Mine to keep a little while

To bathe his hands and comb his hair

To tell him what he is to wear

To prepare him that he may always be good

And each day do the things he should"

"Whose child is this?" I asked again

As the door opened and someone came in

"Mine", said the teacher with the same tender smile

"Mine, to keep just for a little while

To teach him how to be gentle and kind

To train and direct his dear little mind

To help him live by every rule

And get the best he can from school"

"Whose child is this?" I ask once more

Just as the little one entered the door

"Ours" said the parent and the teacher as they smiled

And each took the hand of the little child

"Ours to love and train together

Ours this blessed task forever."

Hopefully this will give you an idea or two for doing something for your child's teacher. Let me know if you ended up using any of them yourself, K?

Anjeanette

Hummingbird Feeders using recycled products

Happy Earth Day Everybody!!!

I love hummingbird feeders. Those little birds are so much fun to watch. They are vocal, have personality and are bold. We have one that visits our yard often. She , I assume it is a she, use to scold me if I was too close to the feeder when she wanted a drink. Now she knows me so well that I can be standing within 2-3 feet of the feeder and she will come by for a drink. She has even done a fly by when I was in the front yard pruning my dessert spoons. She flew so close she brushed my hair. Then landed in the mesquite tree near me to chirp at me before going to the back yard. She will also chirp at me (like she is scolding me) when the feeder is empty or has been taken down to be washed. I have a feeder that I purchased and have been wanting a second one for the front yard. They say you should hang feeders 20 feet apart. These little guys are very territorial and will chase off any newcomers. This is also very fun to watch. They sound like they are scolding each other. I am slowly starting to understand the different chirps of these little guys. My boys also love to watch them fly around. From time to time we have had lots of tiny black flies and the hummingbirds zoom around to snatch them up. Very cool to watch them dart and hover around.

This tutorial will teach you how to crochet a hanger for a standard soda bottle or water bottle of about the 16oz size. You can adjust the pattern to fit a larger bottle if need be. Smaller bottles won't be a problem. I will also show you how I made the feeding tube out of a bartender's spout I had laying around and a reservoir out of two caps. The really nice thing about this, is that I had the yarn from another project, the bottle, caps, the flowers from the Mother's Day Jewelry box, the butterflies from my boys' toy collection and spouts that we have had since forever. It is always nice when you don't have to buy items to make something. If you don't have the bartender's spout then you can either buy a spout or rig up another way to give the birds access to the sugar water using container lids.

Make your hanger red or add red flowers to attract the hummingbirds. Don't add red food coloring to the sugar water.

(Crochet patterns confuse me with all the abbreviations so I am not going to attempt to write this out the traditional way. I don't do much crocheting but I can do chains and basic stitch patterns. It is when I have to follow a pattern to make something out of those stitches that I get turned around and sideways, so please bare with me) If I can make this then anybody can make this.

To start you are going to make a chain of 21. If you have a larger bottle add some some more stitches to it. I used a multiple of 3 because I plan to add 3 loops onto this ring, so make it divisible by 3.

Now go through the first stitch in the end of your chain to make a circle. Then add two rows to the loop you made (so that will be 42 more stitches once you connect the ends). This will give a nice sturdy ring around the top of the bottle.

Chain 14 stitches. Count 7 stitches from the chain and make a single crochet and chain 14 more stitches, single crochet in the 7th stitch from the chain and chain 14 more stitches and single crochet to the base of the first single chain. You are basically making loops. By making chains and connecting them in the middle of a chain from the previous row. Make sense? I am sorry if this is confusing. If you need clarification, please feel free to comment and I will try to better explain. If not leave a comment anyway, I like knowing people like my crafts;)

Keep going with the chain 14 and single crochet in the 7th stitch till you get to the base of the bottle. I have looped mine over the bottom of the bottle just to show you how it should look at this point. Once I got the first 3 loops made, I worked with my pattern while it was on the bottle. This helped me to see exactly what I was doing.
Once you have gotten to the bottom of the bottle you will make the chains 40 stitches long and single crochet in the 7th stitch. Do this two more times. On the last chain tie it off in the 7th stitch. This will make it easy to take the bottle out to clean it or replace it.

Now make a chain of about 20 stitches. Thread it through the loops at the top of the bottle and tie the ends together to make a hanging loop. I have a chain hanging in my tree with an s-hook to make it easy to take down the feeder to clean and refill it.

We made the hanger and I just can't stop there. Humming birds are attracted to the color red and flowers. If you look at the feeders in the store they are usually a combination of red with yellow flowers. I am adding flowers that I used in my Mother's day box project. In between the layers of petals there are while plastic pieces. I removed 2 of the 3 then put the petals back on.

I used the green backing and a bit of hot glue to hold the flower in place on my hanger. I snipped off any extra stem once the glue cooled.

If you don't have a bartender's spout and you don't want to make a well for the birds to drink out of, you can buy spouts like these. They are made for humming bird feeders.

To make a well, you will need the cap that is original to the bottle and a slightly larger cap. Here you can see that I have a medicine cup and a red cap that I got from an empty spice jar. You can also use a large Gator aide cap or from some other condiment jar. In this case I felt this medicine cup left a very narrow opening for the humming bird. Since they won't be able to perch with this design I wanted to make it easier for them to get to the nectar.

You will need to drill a whole in the cap. I used a 1/2 inch drill bit. When I drilled the hole, the gasket inside the cap was pushed out. I used siccors to cut a hole in the gasket. You want to keep the gasket in the lid so that you get a nice tight seal so air does not leak in and cause your reservoir to over fill and leak out.

I cut pieces of the plastic ring from around the neck of the bottle to use as spacers under the bottle cap when gluing the lids together. You want the bottom of the bottle cap to be lower than the lip of the outer reservoir. I used the pieces of plastic to make sure my bottle cap stayed level while I glued it in place (it will leak a bit if it isn't level). I added a tiny bit of water to the bottom of the reservoir. It will help the hot glue to cool faster and stay where you put it.

Glue the caps together in at least 4 places. Making a bridge of the hot glue. Be generous with the glue. It will need to hold when you screw on the cap and take it off again. You can see here that I have left plenty of room for the hummingbirds to get to the nectar.
Cover the hot glue with silk flowers.

I bent my spout a little so that it pointed more to the side instead of mostly down to the ground. To do this I inserted a screw driver into each end and bent it but not to a full 45 degree angle (more like that of a pet feeder). You will need to drill a small hole in the end of the cover. I used a sharpie to color the end red (you could just leave it as is, if adding a flower). I then carefully made 4 small cuts from the center hole on 3 layers of pedals. I then pushed the cap through it.
The bartender's spouts have this air tube to help the liquid keep flowing when turned upside down. I plugged this with a round toothpick and then broke off the extra toothpick.


You feeder will drip a little at first till a Vacuum is created. Though I did find that since it was quite windy today, my nectar slowly leaked out all day.


For this feeder, I left the flowers on their stems. They were 4 flowers to a main stem. I wove the stem through the chains. For the most part I didn't glue my flowers in place on this one. I only used glue when I wanted to change the direction a flower was facing or to keep it from sticking out form the hanger. I hot glued the plastic butterflies onto the hanger. Nothing is glued to the bottle.

Notes: Having tried two of the 3 cap designs, I would use the two cap reservoir over the bartender's spout. The spout is a little harder to get just right so that it does not leak out little by little. Though nearly all options will leak a little till a vacuum is formed. If I were giving this as a gift I would splurge and buy the spout stopper. Check with your local pet store or look for them on line.

My 7 year old saw me making my feeders and decided he wanted to make one of his own. He didn't want the fancy holder or the flowers all over it. he wanted to make the bottle cap reservoir and add some real flowers for the hummingbirds. We make a quick hanger with pipe cleaners. I cut a piece of pipe cleaner and twisted it so make a ring. I then took 3 pipe cleaners and twisted them around the ring. Then at the top of the feeder (the bottom of the bottle) I twisted them together and used another piece of pipe cleaner to make another ring for the pipe cleaners to be twisted onto for a hanging ring. We then filled the bottle with sugar water and added the flowers to the reservoir.

To make the nectar for your hummingbird feeders mix a 1:4 ratio of sugar to water. One cup water and 1/4 cup sugar. Bring it to a boil to kill and bacteria that could make our little friends sick and let cool.

Clean the feeder before refilling it. Use vinegar to clean out the bottle. Do not use detergents or bleach. Clean the feeder at least 1-2 times per week. (For this reason I never make more than the 1 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar for each feeder)

I love comments, they make me happy. If you liked this project, please leave a comment and let me know how yours turned out. This project will take less than two hours total. Less when you make it for the 2nd time and don't stop to take pictures along the way ;)

Katrina

P.S. Thanks for stopping by.........

Technorati Tags: soda bottle feeder,hummingbird,feeder,crochet,make your own,tutorial