Santa Claus Mask/Ornament

The below pirate mask was given to all kids who attended Pirate story time @the library. The simple design of the pirate mask tempted me to create a similar Santa Claus Mask for my 2 yr old. The Pirate mask is made of Foam sheets. I made the Santa Claus Mask from Foam sheets and colored Felt Scraps, used few strips of white felt cloth to enforce the fluffy look of Santa.

Materials Used:

Foam Sheets*
Felt Cloth
Permanent Markers
Washable Markers
White Paper sheet
Carbon Paper

Steps Overview:

• Draw the face of Santa on white sheet of paper and Trace the Shape on to the White Foam sheet/Cream sheet with a carbon paper. Don't follow the way I have done I just drew the face directly on the foam sheet and had difficulty in tracing back the shapes of eyes, beard, etc. I didn't have cream color foam sheet So I used white foam sheet and covered the face part with Cream cloth.
  
  
  
• Trace shapes of Eye lashes, Beard, Mustache from the paper on to White Felt cloth. Cut the shapes out as shown below
  
• Trace shapes of Nose and Lips on to Red felt cloth. Cut the shapes. Start gluing the shapes in a order. First glue the Beard to the Foam sheet. Then glue on the lips. Next glue on the Mustache followed by the Nose. Trim the extra foam across the edges of the face.
  
• Draw the Shape of Hat on a Red Foam Sheet. Glue the Red Foam sheet on to the Face. Glue on a strip of white felt for the brim of the hat. Glue on Eye lashes of Santa. Glue on White felt fluffy or pom-pom to the end of the Hat as shown below.
  
• Let it Dry for a day. After drying cut through the eyes. After completing I didn't feel like making a hole in the Mask. So I just drew the eyes with Permanent marker and decided to use it as an tree ornament instead of Mask:-) If using it as a Mask, Punch two holes and attach an elastic string. For Ornament punch a hole on the center of Santa Hat and attach a string to hang it.
  

* Note: I used Creative Hands Rainbow Foam sheets. Size: 5.5 in * 8.5 in.

DIY Nativity Scene: completed

Finally completed my DIY Nativity Scene:-) Hurray!! I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!!!




For the complete tutorial of the DIY Nativity Scene please read my previous posts

1. Stable - Empty Stable
2. Nativity Figures - Mother Mary, Baby Jesus, St.Joseph
3. Manger - Baby Jesus in the Manger

Nativity Scene: Manger

I made the Manger for the Nativity scene from a Bathroom tissue roll tube.

Bathroom tissue paper/Toilet Paper tube and Stapler pins is all you need.

Steps overview:

Measure the Bathroom tissue roll tube to the height of Baby Jesus and cut it to the height.

Cut that cylinder Bathroom tissue roll tube into a halve

Staple the halves as shown in the below picture

Manger is ready!!

Juice Can Santa Claus

Myself and My daughter made this Santa Claus from an Empty Juice can. I found this Juice can Santa idea in Artist woman blog. But I used Scraps of Old dress instead of felt cloths.

Materials Used:

Old Red, Pink, White color dress
unusable ball ornament
Empty Juice can or any cylindrical container
scissors
Craft glue
White lace from an Old dress

Steps Overview:

• Cut a red color cloth into rectangle shape with height same as the container and width as long as to go around the container plus a inch extra. I had used some Old T-shirts of my daughter.
  
• Apply glue to the container and start sticking the cloth on. Overlap the last inch of the cloth onto the start.
• For the face, cut the light pink cloth into face shape. Apply glue on the face shape and stick them on the container.
• For the beard I used a lace from my daughter's old dress. Glue on the beard along the edge of the face.
• Cut two white oval shapes, two black circle shapes for the eyes, Glue it into place. Cut a moustache shape from white cloth, Glue it into place. Cut a triangular shape red cloth for nose and a semi-circle shape for the mouth, Glue it into place.
• For the hat, Cut the sector shape out of red cloth as shown below. The base of the sector shape should be long enough to go around the container
  
• Glue the radius of the sector as shown below.
  
  Now decorate the Santa hat with white cloth and white pom-pom. As I have lots of this unusable ornaments I used that to decorate the hat.

Isn't the Juice can Santa fascinating!!

Butterfly ornament

My 2 year old likes to paint. She creates modern art with her hand:-)). Last week She created the below painting.

Recently I read a blog post about the butterfly ornament oh so happy together had made with her kid. Inspired by the post, Myself and my daughter created this butterfly ornament from her painting.

Materials Used:

Empty glue Sticks
1 inch size Ball Ornament(with the hanger broken) or 1 inch size pom-pom
Red Felt Cloth
Craft Glue
Glitter glue
Pipe cleaner
Magazine paper or scrapbook paper

Steps Overview:

• Take the below items Empty Glue stick, Unusable Ball ornament, Pipe-cleaner
  
• Remove the cap from the Glue stick and remove the inner plastic layer in the glue stick neck with a craft knife as shown in picture below.
  
• Glue on the unusable ball ornament to the neck of the empty glue stick.
  
• For the body of the butterfly, glue on red felt cloth around the empty glue stick. Glue on the pipe cleaner antennas to the back of ball ornament
• For the butterfly wings, Draw the Butterfly shape on the painting created by my your kid and cut out the butterfly shape
• Cut out a bigger shape of the butterfly from an old magazine or scrapbook
• Glue body of the butterfly to the butterfly wings. Then I let my daughter to decorate the butterfly with glitters
• Clip the butterfly to Christmas tree with clothespin.
  

Nativity Scene: Nativity Figures

Generally we buy the Nativity set and arrange them in a creative way. Inspired by the Nativity set tutorial made from Spool dolls, I created an DIY Nativity Scene but I have used Empty glue sticks and unusable ball ornaments to make the Nativity figures. The best part is it's made of recycling items.

Materials Used:

Empty glue Sticks
1 inch size Ball Ornament(with the hanger broken) or 1 inch size Pom-Pom
Small pieces of old cloth
Felt Cloths
Craft Glue
Small piece of yarn
Permanent Markers

Steps overview:

• Remove the cap from the Glue stick and remove the inner plastic layer in the glue stick neck with a craft knife as shown in picture below.
  
• For Mother Mary and St. Joseph, take the unusable Ball ornament and glue on the neck portion of the ball inside the empty glue stick neck as shown in below pictures. For Baby Jesus glue on the Ball Ornament to a Glue stick Cap as shown in below pictures.
  
  
• Now dress up Baby Jesus, Mother Mary and St. Joseph as you wish. I have used few scraps of old dresses and Felt cloth for the dress up. Holes in my shiny Veneer has a very detailed tutorial on the dressing up of nativity spool dolls .
  
  

Nativity scene: The stable

This Stable for the Nativity scene is made from an Empty Juice carton.

Materials Used:

Empty Juice carton(Washed and Dried)
Felt Cloths - Green, Brown
Ornamental Star-1 no
Craft Knife
Scissors
Craft glue

Steps Overview:

• Wash the Empty Juice carton and let it dry. Remove the spout with the help of a craft knife.
• On the perpendicular side of the spout containing side. Cut a section of the carton as shown in the below picture. So that you have three walls and a roof support.
  
  
• Glue on Green Felt to the inner side of the juice carton base to give a grassy look
• Glue on Brown Felt on the walls and roof of the Juice carton. Glue on Ornamental Star at the center of the roof.
  
• Here u go Stable for the Nativity scene is ready!