Category Archives: cheap

Simple Bird Feeder makeover

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I hate birds and I always have.  In fact you can ask some of my closest friends and they will tell you that I always give their birds the evil eye and then tell the animal what a tasty meal they would make.  I really hate birds.

That being said it might be odd to announce that I am now the owner of a bird feeder.  A bird feeder that I wanted to purchase.  I have always wanted a bird feeder.  I have some odd romantic vision of my backyard/garden area having beautiful flowers, homegrown food and bird feeders. Don’t ask me why but it is a fact.  So this year I finally gave in and bought a bird feeder to make my backyard the local hangout.

The bird feeder I bought is nothing extravagant. I am fairly frugal and I did not want to buy any feeder that was priced over 12 dollars.  (Sorry Better Homes and Garderns, the feeders were beautiful, but “wild” birds don’t need to be sitting their rump on something that cost 30 bucks.) My four year old and I went to Wal-mart and browsed their selection and settled on a wooden house for 9.97.  I didn’t like the coloring but I had an idea and the price was right.

Here is my Extreme Bird house makeover — (okay not extreme but I had a Ty Pennington moment)

 Fresh from the store.  No real color and no seal.  In our climate there needs to be some type of seal and I really wanted some color.

How to make a bird feeder

I remembered I had some Jim Holtz Distress Ink (Tea Dye) at home and I figured I would give it a shot.  I never really could find anything I wanted to use the Ink on so this was a perfect opportunity.  It isn’t too overwhelming and it would give it the brown color I wanted…

Bird Feeder with Distress ink

Can you see the slight color change? Not overwhelming but just enough.

I followed the Distress Ink with Mod Podge; Gloss Coat.  There is a Mod Podge that is made specifically for the outdoors but I only had the Gloss Coat on had.

Hanging Bird Feeder

I lightly covered every side of the bird feeder with the ink and had to use my finger for the corners but I think it turned out well.  A darker brown and now it has a sealant.

Here are the supplies

Tools to makeover a bird feeder

Since I had the Mod Podge and Ink on hand this little makeover cost about 12 dollars for the bird feeder and food.

Quick and easy makeover for the backyard bird feeder. Nothing too detailed and I hope it gave you a few ideas.




Twitt

Homemade Glass Magnets

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I am about to admit something to you…. I have never made homemade glass magnets.  I could never figure it out.  Seriously.  There would always be too much Mod Podge, I couldn’t find the right picture and it took me forever to find the glass bead things.  Well, today, finally, my kids and I made the magnets.  So for those of you that don’t know how to make them here is how we did it.

Items you will need

Glass bead things – AT THE DOLLAR STORE
Mod Podge Gloss
Scrapbook paper/ pictures/ anything that you are going to want
Paintbrush
Magnets – I got mine at Wal-Mart for 2 bucks
Hot glue

 Here is some of the things we were working with.  The boys wanted animals and eyeballs so I had to find those images on the computer

Trusty Mod Podge
Glass Things – Only 1 dollar!
Now I did a rough trace of the bottom of the glass so I would have an approximation of how much to cut out
After cutting out the circle (an Exacto would have been better but mine broke in the move) apply a thin layer of the Mod Podge.  After it has been applied to the back of the glass wait a bit and apply another layer to the back.
Wait until it is completely dry and hot glue magnets to the back. These are my kids work!
These are mine! So cute and Easy!
While I was hot gluing the magnets to the backs I glanced over at “work” station and noticed flowers that I  NEVER use because I love them too much.  I had a bright idea…
I hot glued magnets on the back and made myself some beautiful floral magnets!!
There ya go! An easy and fun craft that your kiddos can help with.  Maybe not the super young kids!  I do need to give a shout out to Amy over at Mod Podge Rocks.  She did a step by step tutorial and explained to me that I was applying too much Mod Podge on my images!
If you didn’t know how to make these magnets I hope this helps! If you already did – well- sorry.
Twitt

Learning to read with Twister

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Twister Reading  – Sort-of

My son is learning how to read in school and he recently brought a list of words home that he needs to learn in the next coming weeks.  I developed a little game for him to play to make it a little more fun. 

I took the spots from my outdoor Twister set (we NEVER use) and wrote the words that he needs to learn.  I tell him the word and he has to jump/walk/run to the next one. 

Here they are spread out–

We have more words but they were spread out throughout the room and I couldn’t get that shot.   I will say that this is working much more than boring old flashcards! 

Twitt

Rainbow Rice

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I don’t know what it is but summer really destroys any motivation I may have in the craft department.   I seem to get all my inspiration and motivation in the cooler months.

Today I broke my trend of nothingness.  I looked up a blog that has great kid craft ideas we made one.

The Pink and Green Mama always is up to something wonderful and I tapped into her artistic abilities today
Here are the results.
Step one- Plain rice.  We prepped it with a few drops of alcohol and waited till it was dry
End Result.  I’m sorry I forgot to take pictures of the steps in between.  I had four boys with baggies filled with rice and food coloring, my thoughts were preoccupied.
This was an extremely simple and fun activity for the kids.  They loved playing with the rice and the fact that they were allowed to help dye it made it that much better.
Drop by The Pink and Green Mama for the recipe and other awesome crafts.
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Twitt