bird seed ornaments for a winter bird garden

I was feeling crafty the other day and made these bird seed ornaments to place in my bird garden in the back yard during the winter months.  I thought they might be a cute addition to my bird feeders for the winter months and continue to draw birds into my backyard to watch this winter.  And I pretty much used supplies I had around the house to make a suet type of mixture for my birdseed.  Even the pine cones came from my back yard.

I started with a 1/2 cup of lard and placed it in an empty soup can.  

Next I added 1/2 cup of peanut butter.

I heated a pan of water on the stove and placed my soup can with my ingredients inside and allowed this to cook until it melted completely.

Next I dipped the pine cones into my suet mixture.  (I used an ove glove to hold on to the can as it was hot.)

Then I rolled my pine cone in birdseed.  (Different types of birdseed attract different birds; this was a mixture of cracked corn and other ingredients which should attract blue jays, cardinals and robins.)

I then allowed the bird seed pine cones to set up for about a day before I moved them again.  The next day I drilled a small hole into the stem of the pine cone.  (I used my husbands power drill for this with the smallest drill bit.)

Then I attached an ornament hook through the hole and made a hanger for the pine cone.

After that my pine cones were ready to be hung on the tree for the birds.  I have also thought about stinging some popcorn and hanging that up for the birds to eat as well.  And figured it would make a nice little decoration for my winter bird garden.

This post was linked to: Mingle Monday on Add a Pinch, Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch, Just Something I whipped up Mondays on the Girl Creative, Made by You Mondays on Skip to my Lou