How To Make a Milk Carton Birdhouse
- December 10, 2007
- 8,872 Views
Produced by
Howcast Media
Directed by
Kevin Hall
Voice-Over Artist
Darcie Champagne
Production Designer
Karin Olsen
Music
Edison Music Corp
Writer
maura_rhodes
Art Director
Dew Gueramian
Here’s a great reason to drink your milk: When you’ve emptied the carton, you can make this simple house for your feathered friends.
You Will Need
- An empty quart-size milk carton
- A stapler
- Masking tape
- A soft cloth or rag
- Brown shoe polish
- Scissors or a small precision knife
- A grown-up to help with cutting
- A pointy screwdriver or something to poke holes in the carton
- Twine
- A twig or small branch (optional)
Step 1: Rinse out carton
Rinse out the milk carton thoroughly and let it dry.
Step 2: Staple shut
Close the carton and staple it shut. It will look like it did when your mom or dad bought it.
Step 3: Cover with tape
Tear or cut pieces of masking tape that are two or three inches long and stick them all over the carton until you’ve covered it completely.
If you overlap the edges of the tape slightly, you’ll cover the carton better.
Step 4: Rub shoe polish
Dab some shoe polish onto the cloth and rub it all over the tape-covered carton. This will make the house look like it’s made out of bark. Let the polish dry.
You can also decorate the birdhouse by gluing moss all over it, or excelsior, green stuff that looks a lot like moss that you can buy at a crafts store.
Step 5: Make door
To make the door, have a grownup cut a circle that’s an inch to an inch and a half in diameter about 4 inches above the bottom of the carton.
To make a perch inside the birdhouse, poke holes in opposite sides of the carton and stick a twig through it.
Step 6: Make holes
Make a few holes in the bottom of the carton for drainage and two holes in the top so that the birds can breathe.
Ask a grown-up to poke the holes, too. That screwdriver could be sharp.
Step 7: String & hang
Poke a hole through the very top of the house, where the milk carton forms a peak, and string a piece of twine through it. Tie a knot in the twine, hang the house from a tree, and wait for your new neighbors to move in.
Wrens, tree swallows, and bluebirds prefer enclosed birdhouses like this one, while robins like open platforms for nesting.
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Comments (2)
I likeed the bird house because it looked like fun to do.And do you think you could cut a hole threw a milk cartin?
over 4 years ago by KatieL
Cool and so useful!!
over 3 years ago by webkinzluver456
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