Valentine’s Day is exciting for the little ones but if the thought of your four year old overdosing on sugar and being hyperactive for at least two days straight is too much to bear (especially after this past weekend’s blizzard), and you are looking for a non-candy valentine option, a heart shaped bird feeder is a valentine that even a non-crafty mom and young tot can make!

It’s true, but before I tell you how, I must give credit where credit is due.  Making a Valentine’s bird feeder was not my idea.  A friend of mine posted on Facebook last week after completing a massive bird feeder project with her boys and I just loved the idea of doing something different this year.  So, thank you L.G.

I was initially going to try to do individual bird feeders for both of my girls’ classes but that would have required us to make 30 feeders!  I know I said these were very simple to make and they are, BUT considering the attention spans of my 2 and 4 year old and my thinning patience as more and more bird seed was thrown on the floor by my 2 year old on purpose, such mass production was not in the cards for us.  Instead, we settled for making enough feeders to give the teachers and the grandparents.

If you search online, you can find many variations of how to go about this naturalistic endeavor, some of which are a bit more involved like the recipe used by my friend.  I went for the quick and easy method and here’s the result:

Now it may not win any awards, but this cute and functional valentine was handmade with love by two darling little girls on a very snowy Friday morning and I don’t think we will hear any birds complaining.

Wanna make your own bird friendly valentine?

To complete this project, you will need:

• Birdseed
• Bread
• Heart shaped cookie cutter
• Egg white (stirred)
• Paint brush
• Kabob stick
• Yarn or ribbon

First, you will need to cut the bread into a heart shape using the cooking cutter.  Next, use the paint brush to spread egg white on the heart-shaped bread and then dip the bread into the birdseed pressing down hard enough so that the seed sticks.  Once both sides are covered with bird seed, place the covered bread heart on a cookie sheet.  Bake the bird feeders for about 20 minutes at 325 degrees.  Once the bird feeders have cooled, use the kabob stick to poke a hole through the top of the heart so that you can make a loop with a piece of yarn or ribbon for hanging.

We packaged our feeders up in small plastic treat bags tied with a red yarn bow.

WARNING:  COOKING WITH KIDS CAN GET MESSY!

Show some love to the birds this Valentine’s Day!

Original bird feeder recipe can be found here.