Tuesday Tutorial: Birds Nest Hanger

My lovely friend Jaime told me the other day that she read in a magazine about taking pieces of yarn and putting them in your bushes outside for the birds to use in their nests. This reminded me of an idea I heard of {or saw, can't remember} of a tree hanger full of goodies for the birds. So I decided to make my own. I had no idea how I was going to make the ball, so I just tried this and it worked out pretty well. I'm sure there are many ways to make this, but this one worked for me. {and I had a hard time coming up with an original title for the tute, so it's aptly called a "Birds Nest Hanger"}

Materials:
heavy gauge wire (about 16ga)
thin gauge wire (about 22ga)
embroidery floss
wire cutters
round nosed pliers

1. Find something that is the size you want your hanger to be. I used a large glass mug. Wrap your heavy gauge wire around that and overlap just about 1/2". Clip.
2. Turn the edges, making this shape.
3. Repeat 4 times. I originally made 6 of these but only used four.
4. Put two of the pieces together, crossing them at the bottom. Tie together with embroidery floss.

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5. Tie the other two. This is a frustrating step because I wanted it to be perfect but it just wouldn't lie perfectly. Just know that they'll fall toward each other instead of being evenly spaced, and that's okay, it'll all work out in the end!
6. Clip about a 6" piece of wire and make a loop on the end.
7. Thread that short piece of wire through one of the loops. Keep theading it through all of the loops, trying to make sure you're using the ones that naturally come next. Since they all end up coming together when you tie them they can get mixed up.
8. Go all of the way around, you can see that they're still not evenly spaced. We're going to fix that soon!

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9. Wrap the end of the 6" wire around itself.
10. Make a messy hook. I figure the birds won't care how pretty it is. {You can make yours pretty if you want}
11. Take a long piece (probably 18" or so) of the thin gauge wire and wrap it around the middle of one side.
12. Continue to wrap the wire around all of the 8 side pieces. This is also a little tricky, but just make sure you have them as evenly spaced as possible. I flattened the parts where I wrapped them with pliers, otherwise they slide up and down the sides.

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13. So I totally skipped #13...oops
14. We're almost there! Here's how it looks with the first brace on. (like my bracelets? get them here and here)
15. Gather up your fabric scraps, pet fur, thread, etc.
16. Make another brace. I finished here but then we had a windy day and all of my scraps fell out. So make a few more braces with the thin gauge wire to keep the scraps intact. The birds can pull the scraps out with their beaks so don't worry about that!
17. Finished!!

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I love seeing the buds on the trees! See how the fabric is almost falling out already? Yeah, I need to make more braces. You create and you learn...trial and error! But I'm excited to walk around the neighborhood and see nests with beautiful fabric scraps.

Happy Tuesday! Have a crafty day today!

(Linking up to Made with Love Monday)