I wanted to title this post "Bird seed tree hanger favors" simply because I don't think these creations are particularly ornamental. Birds are going to eat them. And then they won't look nice anymore. But most people think of these as ornaments, so....
When I saw these on a DIY blog, I knew they would be perfect to put in the goody bags at my baby's owl-themed birthday party. Guests received an owl finger puppet, a wildlife conservation chocolate bar and this little treat for the birds.
There are variations to this recipe, but the most common recipe I found online was this one, from several different sources. I ended up making two batches.
To make these "ornaments," you'll need:
1/2 cup water
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3 tbsp. corn syrup (I wonder if honey would work? Hmm.)
4 cups birdseed
3/4 cup flour
Dissolve the gelatin in the water and stir in the corn syrup. Mix the flour into the bird seed in a big bowl, then stir in the liquid.
The mixture blends nicely.
Then, choose your shape. Spoon the bird seed mixture into silicone molds, muffin tins or cookie cutters, which is what I used.
Aren't the animal-shaped cookie cutters cute?
After you get the mixture into your shape, poke a hole into it so you'll be able to thread a ribbon or twine through for hanging. I used a kebab skewer to make a hole and sort of wiggled the skewer a bit to enlarge the hole.
Then you just let the shapes dry. I found that some of the shapes broke when I took them out of the cookie cutters -- maybe some nonstick spray would have prevented that from happening. Maybe not. The birds ate the mistakes, though, so it was all good.
After you tie the ribbon or twine onto the dry shapes, then you can put them into bags for giving.
And you can say your project is for the birds!
