Heart-shaped birdseed wedding favors are so simple, lovely, and useful! Monica’s making them for her November wedding, a time of year that the birds will especially appreciate them, just as her guests will! She used a tutorial found online, but tweaked it slightly to fit her needs. Last Friday, we spent the afternoon making a few in the studio. She even let me take a few home for my neighborhood birds!
You will need: Birdseed | Knox gelatin packs | Water | Heart-shaped cookie cutter | Non-stick spray | Straws | Wax paper | Mixing bowl | Cookie sheet | Twine or ribbon
Dissolve a packet of gelatin in about 1/4 cup of water, bring to simmer and stir until dissolved. (We used the microwave to heat water in the studio, but a stove is preferable.)
While waiting for your water to heat up, cut straws into about one inch increments.
Cut however many you need for the number of favors you are making. You will use these to create your holes for hanging.
Once your gelatin mix is ready, pour about 3/4 cup of birdseed into a mixing bowl.
Pour in gelatin mix and stir. You don’t want this mixture to be too wet, so if you see liquid puddling in the bottom, add more birdseed. (We wound up using about a full cup of seed.) Mix well.
Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and coat your cookie cutter with non-stick cooking spray before getting started. Then begin filling your heart-shaped cookie cutter with birdseed. (You’ll want to move through these pretty quickly because the gelatin will start to set as it cools.)
With your heart fully packed, place a piece of a straw where you’d like the hole to be. Make sure the straw goes through to the cookie sheet. Gently lift your cookie cutter up and move on to the next one.
You’ll knock out several in no time! We were able to get about 6-8 per batch, but this will depend on the size of your cookie-cutter. Let these cool for about 45 minutes and then remove the straw pieces and flip the hearts over. Once they are pretty rigid, you might want to let them finish setting on a cookie rack, so air can get to them from all sides. It is important that they dry throughout so as to not grow any mold.
Once your hearts have set fully (maybe a day or so), add natural twine or even a ribbon to hang them by. (Natural twine is better for the birds and they will actually use it to help construct their nests!) Add a sweet note and either hang on a branch display at your wedding reception or place in favor bags to be sent home with your guests!
Gather other great DIY project ideas on Pinterest!
What a great favor project! I love idea of hanging these on a bunch of branches at the wedding reception for guests to take as they leave!
How long to these last or how long can you store them? Do they fall apart or anything if you havent used them in a while. Im asking becuase I want to make some for a large group of people but I want to do it ahead of time but dont know if they would make it a couple of months.
L. Ruiz, I made these about two months before our wedding. I “stored” them in a single layer on our table with some spread out on cookie cooling racks and some on parchment paper. They were in a pretty sunny spot, and I turned all of them about once a week (after the initial drying). There were a few that fell apart a bit when I packed them up in the favor bags, but I think that was mostly because I didn’t have the correct proportion of seeds/gelatin on those specific hearts. I would be sure that they stay dry and there is good air flow while you are storing them, and you shouldn’t have any problem with mold. Good luck and let us know how they turn out!