Craft a Birdfeeder Scene Inspired by ‘The Twelve Days of Winter’

As promised yesterday, today I’m sharing a cute craft that we’ve been putting together over winter break week.  This was inspired by one of the books I mentioned in our list of 8 great reads to share on winter days- The Twelve Days of Winter: A School Counting Book, by Deborah Lee Rose, illustrated by Carey Armstrong-Ellis. This cute little craft is geared towards slightly older kids, but youngsters could easily participate in parts so they have a hand in the creation. There’s some drying time involved between steps, so it’s a great idea to start the project anticipating some breaks.

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We decided to do a few different sizes of this project, because we like trying out varying supplies when we’re creating something brand new. You can choose to use whatever combination of ideas works for you, and go as simple or as complicate as you’d prefer to get.

We used three different glass jars with lids, in varying shapes and sizes. Ours are a combination of thrift store bargains, and craft store deals, but you could easily upcycle most jars you have at home. The only real guidance I would offer is to be sure you use a fairly plain jar- anything with a lot of embossing or quilting on the glass is going to make it very difficult to peak in at your little scene.nWe used a sponge brush and some white acrylic paint to sponge some ‘snow’ over the bottom of our jars, and a bit up the sides, to create some snowbanks. You don’t have to be terribly neat or precise in this step, making it great for kids to complete successfully. We set the snowy jars aside to dry.

One prominent gift from their teacher in The Twelve Days of Winter: A School Counting Book is a birdfeeder in a tree, and we wanted to create a feeder that had a similar look to the one depicted. We found some cute little glass enclosures for very cheap in a late December sale, and knew we could make them work. The small plastic containers you get from quarter machine prizes could also work very well- I don’t know about anyone else, but #thebigone has accumulated a ton of them from getting his grandfather to buy him teeny tiny toy dinosaurs. We used a few different materials to fill our feeders… Brown glass seed beads, brown mixed glitter, and some textured brown fabric were all glued in, and then we glued the feeder domes to the bottom of the feeder. [Brown kraft paper, torn pieces of brown paper, or white paper with brown crayon on top are all great options that you likely have available at home]. We set them aside to let them dry.

Using the free printable I created, we colored some winter backdrops for our jars. We used both colored pencils and crayons while working on ours, but markers or paint would also work just as well. The printable features the winter scene in three different sizes, so you can choose which option works best for the jar you plan to use. Once we were happy with our coloring, we cut out the scenes.

After making sure our snowy paint was totally dry, we rolled some strong scrapbook adhesive all over the back of the winter backdrops, rolled them up a bit, and slid them into the jars. A clean, dry sponge brush helped us reach in and press the backdrop into place. We wanted to add a little winter wildlife reminiscent of the scene from the book, so we glued some small foam birds we had found very inexpensively in the floral department of the craft store to the bottom of the jar. (If you choose a very tall/narrow jar, tweezers or tongs may be helpful in attaching the birds). For our larger jar we decided to include some animals intended for a holiday village scene, purchased during a late December sale for a huge discount. You could also choose to just draw them onto your winter backdrop, or extend the project even further by sculpting your own little animals out of clay! After we let the glue dry, we could peak up and around our snowbanks at the animals playing in the snow.

We used some string to hang our feeders from the lids of the jars. You could very likely use hot glue to accomplish this task quite quickly, but I basically have no fingerprints left because I am so terrible with a hot glue gun. So I chose to go to the slower route, and used a big dollop of craft glue to hold the string in place. Longer waiting time, but worth it for my fingers!

Once our glue was totally dry, we were able to fully assemble our little winter wonderlands. These jars are absolutely charming, and will look great displayed throughout the winter for years to come. If you and your kids decide to try this craft, I would love to see how yours turn out, so please share photos via email or social media.

I share some more great ideas for winter fun right here!
And don’t forget to check this board often for tons of ideas to build upon the books your family is reading together!

Free printable is waiting for you right here!

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