Refurbished Hummingbird Feeder

@Home with Maddy

Project article and photographs

by  Madeleine M Langlois,  MaddyLane Designs

From faded out to fabulous!

How to refurbish an old Hummingbird Feeder

Transform an old dull and faded out hummingbird feeder with bright colours and they will come.

Hands-on time: Under one hour.

Total time: Plus drying time.

Skill: Super easy.

Project cost: Under $20.00 for the supplies.

Materials & tools:

• An old Hummingbird feeder

• Vitrea 160 paint by Pébéo, which is waterbased, easy clean up ( I use Pepper Red 04 ) for the bottle part of the feeder

• 1 small sponge paintbrush

Ceramic glossy paint by Pébéo ( I used Cherry Red 24, and Rich yellow 21)

(for cleaning the brushes use odourless mineral spirit or white spirit and then rinse with soapy water. )

• 1 inch paintbrush to paint the base and lid

• Assorted smaller fine tip paintbrushes to paint the flower details

• Paper towels

• Clean cloth

(Materials for this project are available at craft retailers.)  

Saving the environment one recycled and refurbished item at a time! Take an old faded out Humming bird feeder, take it apart, wash it well, and wipe dry.

I used paints that I already had. I wanted to use a bright red and I had some specialty paints by Pébéo with the exact colours I wanted to use for the make-over.

For the bottom base and the top lid of the feeder, I used Ceramic gloss finish which is for ceramics, clay, earthenware, wood, metal, canvas and it also works well on plastic as well as it adheres well to the surface. I have been using these products on various surfaces over the years and I must say you can pretty much be used on any surface. All for the exception of dishes and glass wear, only use the Procelaine food safe paints on those surfaces.

To paint the flowers, I used Rich Yellow 21, and let dry. Paint the base and top part of the feeder using the Cherry Red 24, and let dry.

While the bottom and lid parts are drying, use a sponge paintbrush to create the texture of stain glass on the bottle part of the feeder, this paint dries in minutes.

Once everything is dry, you can opt to add pretty and colourful details to the flower part using paints and colours that you already have and let dry.

Once dry, reassemble the feeder. Let everything dry for about 24 hours before putting it outside.

For the sugar water part: Never use red dies, raw sugar, honey or maple syrup.

Just plain white sugar and water. 1 part sugar to 3 parts boiled water.

1/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup water that has been boiled

Mix the water and sugar and let cool before adding it to the feeder bottle.

My favorite part, was seeing the Humming birds come to it as soon as I hung it up outside. Now I have a new hobby, hummingbird watching.

Get the kids involved, this is a fun project you can do with your children 5 and older.

Happy creations and Hummingbird watching!

Variations;

• You can use glass like spray paints as well, but I just prefer not to use spray paints at all.

• There are so many other crafts you can make using the Pébéo specialty paints, such as mixed media, jewelry, faux stain-glass, flower pots, dishes and so much more.

www.maddylane.ca

View more MIy projects at www.maddylane.com

Copyright maddylane designs 2020

photos, text by maddylane designs

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