Babipur Crafts – Cardboard Bird Feeders

Here at Babipur we absolute love crafting! When we saw these fantastic Cardboard Bird Feeders created by customer and hangout member, Amy Grant we asked her to write a feature for the blog. We are thrilled she said yes!! This is such a lovely autumn activity and we hope you love it as much as we do.

So over to Amy…

Guest Blogger Amy Grant

I just want to start by saying how flattered I am to be asked to write a blog post for Babipur! Tilly and I are long time Babipur fans and she knows it’s something good when a parcel with elephant tape arrives! I was asked to write a post about one of our favourite activities to do at this time of year – cardboard bird feeders.

You know how you set up an activity and expect them to be interested for a few minutes, twenty if you’re lucky. Well this one grabbed her and kept her fully engaged for a full hour. So here we go, cardboard bird feeders by Amy and Tilly.

What you will need

This activity is really easy and very child friendly. Best of all you only need a few things to get started:

• Thick cardboard (an old cardboard box is perfect – repurpose a Babipur box maybe!)
• Lanka Kade animals
• String
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Something sharp to make a hole with
• Bird seed
• Peanut butter

Get started!

1. Choose your favourite Lanka Kade animals and draw around them on the cardboard.

2. Cut out your animals. Thick cardboard is tricky to cut – you might need a helping hand from a grown up here.

3. Have fun matching up the animals with their outlines. This was a game in itself for us!

4. Poke holes in the top of each cut out and thread the string. This is a nice fine motor activity for children to do, for toddlers you could make the hole bigger to make it easier.

5. Melt the peanut butter for thirty seconds in the microwave to make it more spreadable. Then it’s time to get messy as you and your little one spread it over the cut out. You can cover one or both sides but doing both sides makes this stage much messier!

6. Sprinkle the bird seeds onto the cut outs, pat down gently and then tip off any excess.

7. Hang your bird feeders and stand back proudly and admire them!

Time to enjoy nature

You could make your bird feeders as big or as small as you want, Lanka Kade figures work well because they are big and chunky (and there was nothing funnier for Tilly than seeing a sparrow perch on top of her unicorn and peck off the seeds!) but you could use anything. The bird feeders are fine to be left outside, even if it rains.

Ours lasted for about a week before going soggy and falling off the string but the birds had found and enjoyed them long before they fell apart.

This activity was a huge hit for us and is one that I am certain we will be repeating many times over the autumn and winter. As the weather gets colder it gets harder and harder for birds to find food. An activity like this not only helps to entertain our children, but also teaches them about the importance of looking after our wildlife.

Have fun!

Thank you

Huge thanks to Amy for writing this feature for the Babipur Blog! You can find more of Amy and Tilly’s adventures over on her Instagram account @tillystoys

Share with us

We would love see your bird feeder creations; share your pictures and thoughts with our community! Tag @Babipur on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, or share your pictures with the Babipur community in our Facebook group, Babipur Hangout!