Toddler DIY: Rainbow Heart Bird Feeders

Posted on February 9, 2022 by danielleridgway

Looking for ways to spread love and enjoy your local wildlife? Try making these Rainbow Heart Bird Feeders. They’re a great way to have fun with your child and show them the importance of the world around us.

Plus, they turn out really cute AND it doubles as a snack time for your little. A total win-win for every being involved!

This easy DIY Rainbow Heart Bird Feeders only need three items to make create. Here’s what they are:

Pipe Cleaners
Fruit Loops or Cheerios
Yarn

To begin making these, there’s just a simple prep that won’t take too much time at all. All you need to do is pour some fruit loops in a little bowl. Then, twist the pipe cleaners into v’s. Once you do this, your child will be ready to start threading.

Mila and I had talked about making bird feeders before we started this activity. So, she knew what she was supposed to do. We also have threaded with pipe cleaners before too.

If your toddler has never threaded with looped cereal before, I would suggest showing them, thread together, and then they’ll be able to pick it up by themselves. It’s such a good skill for them to have and tremendously helps with their fine motor development; which is beneficial for so many reasons.

Once they have threading down, you can challenge them to do different patterns too.

For Mila, I lined up the Fruit Loops in the order I wanted her to thread. We just did a simple rainbow patter for one of the hearts. This challenged her to find specific colors and to keep the pattern.

When the pipe cleaners are filled with cereal (or your child has snacked on the rest of it), all you need to do is twist the ends of the pipe cleaner together. Then, pinch where the two heart bumps would be at the top. I had to move the cereal around so I could do this and form it into the shape it needed.

After, we just tied yarn to the tops of the heart. We headed outside to find the most perfect tree that our birds fly too.

Mila was very proud to see her Rainbow Heart Bird Feeders on the tree. Then she played out in the snow afterwards too. We love connecting with nature and being outside as much as we can. Thank goodness spring will be here soon!

This bird feeder was a fun way to play and help the animals we love so much. We hope that you’d love to make one too for Valentine’s Day or spring.

Have you ever fed birds before? What’s your favorite way to do so? Let me know in the comments.

DIY Valentine Ribbon Wreath

Posted on February 7, 2022 by danielleridgway

If you’re looking for a fun way to add interest to your front door and celebrate Valentine’s Day, try making this DIY Valentine Ribbon Wreath.

It’s a cute way to be festive AND thin out your craft supplies too.

Real talk. I’m the type of person who saves everything just in case I can use it in the future. Most of this ribbon comes from a project I did in Mila’s room… while I was pregnant.

Now I’m happy I saved it for this quick DIY, but it’s a little embarrassing I kept it for that long, oops.

Anyways, here’s what I used for this DIY Valentine Ribbon Wreath:

Cardboard
Scrap Ribbons
Scrap Fluffy Yarn

The first thing I did was cut out a heart for the frame out of cardboard. I actually cut out a big one then cut a smaller one from it to just get the outline. This can be a little tricky with cardboard, but I promise it can be done!

After the heart frame was ready, I got my scrap ribbons out. Like I said before, they’re from Mila’s nursery, so a ton of pinks. What’s fun about this DIY is you can use any color ribbon or yarn to fit your style.

To secure on the heart, I double knotted the ribbon. Then if the ends were too long, I trimmed it up.

I actually use quite a lot of ribbon. Just keep adding until it’s almost full.

Then, I added my fluffy yarn in pink and cream to the heart. This gave it so much more dimension and interest. When I just had the ribbon on it, it was boring, so I totally would recommend adding something like yarn or anything soft.

When everything on there, you can fluff the ribbon and yarn to make it look fuller.

To make it be able to hang, I attached a run on on both side of the heart bumps (no idea what else to call this). Then, I tied a bow at the top to hang it from my wreath holder. This way it wasn’t hanging at an angle and you can clearly tell it’s a heart.

Now you have a beautiful DIY Valentine Ribbon Wreath and was able to use that extra craft supplies you have laying around.

A total win-win for Love Day.

Have you ever used cardboard to make a wreath? What are some other items you use?

DIY Valentine’s Day Cards: You Color My World

Posted on February 4, 2022 by danielleridgway

Is there anything more nostalgic than a school Valentine’s Day Party? The rush of having a cute card box and picking out the perfect Valentine’s Day card for your friends. They’re little reminders to show your friends that they are loved.

Since this is Mila’s first year at school for the big event, we decided to make a DIY Valentine’s Day Cards.

It’s been so much fun creating for Valentine’s Day. If we hadn’t had so many snow days, I’m unsure whether or not DIY cards would be in the picture, but I’m happy they are.

Mila and I talked about different Valentine’s Day cards and gifts. We decided we liked the phrase, “You Color My World.” Mostly because I pushed it really hard because I was already thinking about crayons

A lot of the elements in these Valentine’s Day cards should look familiar!

On the front of the cards, if you can remember to a few blog posts ago, Mila had already painted the tops of her cards. All I did was take the dry pages and cut them out into small rectangles. Then, I wrote “You Color My World” with glitter markers over it.

For the back, I cut the same size rectangle with white card stock and taped them together. If the back of the painted paper wasn’t messy, I would have skipped this step.

Next, I wrote “to” and the name of Mila’s classmate. Then, I had Mila write her name under the “from.” I think it’s important she keeps writing her name and actively participates in helping with these DIYs.

On the back of the card, I made space either on the side of their names or above for a little gift. Since we were doing “You Color My World,” we had to make personalized crayons.

Last year, I wrote a blog post on how to make these letter crayons.