Showing posts with label How-To's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How-To's. Show all posts

Friday, November 20, 2009

Kids Christmas Craft - Clay Pot Snowman

This week of 12 Weeks of Christmas is another Christmas craft. My girls made this snowman out of clay pots when they were preschoolers. Now they are 19 and 21! And I still love putting this snowman out at Christmas!
First glue two clay pots together, one upside down on top of the other. Probably any type of glue that is permanent. Cover both pots with a "texture" paint - you can find "snow" paint or some other texture paint in the paint aisle of your craft store. After that dries, paint the whole thing white with craft paint.

For the hat, paint a smaller clay pot with the same texture paint. Then paint over that with black craft paint. For the bill of the hat I cut a circle out of poster board (use a plate as a circle pattern - you just need it to be a size that seems to fit with the sizes of clay pots you are using). Paint the poster board circle with the texture paint, then paint over that with black craft paint (both sides of the poster board circle need to be painted).

At this point you can paint holly leaves or some other decoration on the hat with craft paint.

Now glue the poster circle to the top of his head, then glue the small pot upside down onto the poster circle. (I think I used hot glue so that we didn't have to wait a long time for glue to dry.)


Because I was making this with preschool age kids, I painted circle outlines for his eyes, mouth and buttons. Then the girls filled in the circles with paint.

To make his nose, I twisted white copy paper into a cone shape and glued it together. Then the girls painted it orange. I stuffed it with tissue paper (and glued this into the inside of the cone) - this gave me a "flat" surface that I could apply glue to and then stick to his face.

Then we tied a Christmas ribbon around his neck to cover up where the two big pots meet. We glued this ribbon to him in a few places so that it would not slide off.

You could use any sizes of clay pots you want to - he could be tiny, or as big as you want him to be. For his body we used pots that are 4 1/2" tall, and for the hat we used a smaller pot that is 2 3/4" tall. So ours is about a foot tall.

He is very cute in person!

For more Christmas crafts, click below to go to Red Writing's!

Thanks for stopping by!

I am doing a little series on Holiday Tables right now, so go to my main page to find those posts.

Shannon

Monday, October 12, 2009

How to Make A Feather Wreath - Cheap!

I absolutely LOVE feather wreaths. But they are really expensive! I have an adorable little red feather wreath that is usually on my wreath hanger on the mantel. But this year I was trying to decorate my fall mantel in chocolate, green and silver. So I realllly wanted a brown feather wreath. Cheap.

So I thought I would try to use a cheap feather boa from Hobby Lobby. And one of these wire wreath frames from Hobby Lobby.

I just cut lengths of wire and wired the feather boa to the wreath frame - put a wire about every 2 to 3" so that it stays in a nice full circle shape.

I wired all the way around the outside wire of the wreath frame, then wired all the way around the inside-middle of the wreath frame.

One feather boa was the perfect length to go around twice on the 12" wreath frame from Hobby Lobby. The frame was $1.99. The feather boa was $6.99 (I think) - and you could use a 40% off coupon on the feathers!
It was a little tedious. So you might not want to do this on a day that people have been getting on your last nerve like I did. But even on a day when I had used up all my patience at work, this only took me about 30 minutes.

And then I had a great, cheap, chocolate-colored feather wreath for my fall mantel. It looks great!

I'm going to make a black one sometime soon! Because every room needs a little touch of black!

Shannon