Reindeer Game Crafts: Part II

Today, as you can see, I have the last craft of the Reindeer Game Crafts. This craft is fairly simple (in my opinion, it's so much easier than the last craft). You will need:

• Two different brown/yellow/black/etc. papers (I used dark brown and then a tannish color)
• Shoe
• Hands- I hope you don't need to look too far for that one
• Pencil/Pen
• Scissors
• Googly eyes (optional)
• Marker or pompom (for nose, both optional)

First trace one shoe and both your hands onto the paper (preferably shoe on darker paper and hands on lighter paper as shown). You may need help tracing your dominant hand. I did. I got my little sister to trace it for me, so you will see the hands look drastically different.

There we go! I outlined my outlines with marker, but you don't have to. I did it just to be able to capture the trace lines. (Pencil doesn't show on my phone camera, especially light marks on brown paper!!)

Now, cut all the pieces out.

Next, glue the hands to the foot.
The hands are the antlers and the foot is the head. For the eyes I used googly eyes, and for the nose I just drew a circle with my Sharpie marker. You can also draw the eyes or use a pompom for the nose.

Reindeer Game Crafts: Part I

Today I will start on the first part of my "Reindeer Game Crafts", which, as you could probably guess, are all crafts that have to do with reindeer. It is that time of year you know! 

Here's what you'll need:

• Brown or black yarn
• A shower ring (could be replaced by any small circular object)
• Scissors
• Sharpie (optional)
• Pencil (highly recommended)
• Glue

You'll need four arms-lengths of yarn. Here's how I measure it.
Put a piece of yarn in between your fingers, close to the ball (or bag or whatever) of yarn. Pull- keeping your fingers in the same place- the end of yarn up to your shoulder, then reach down and pull it up again. Pull it up to your shoulder four times. Ta-da! Four arms-lengths of yarn!

I used a basic white shower ring, (shown to the right) that is usually used to hold your shower curtain up.


 What you're going to want to do is tie your yarn onto the shower ring close to the place where it clips (sorry, do it closer than it is in the picture to the left, try to get it all the way to the edge). There will be a little tail. Hold the tail down and start wrapping the yarn over it as shown below. Go in the direction away from the clip.

Keep going around the ring... 

                   And around...

 And around....

Until you get here:

 

( as you can see, I moved the yarn closer to the edge)

Once you get here, you'll need to wrap over and over where the shallower part it, so that you can't see that it was skinnier there. It should look a little like this ------------->

Since I had a very long tail, I made a star-ish type thing across the middle. You don't need to do this if you don't have a long tail. If you do, though, make sure you tie it like this. Wrap it around a different string and tie a knot. I did it twice to be extra secure. Cut off the tail, if you have one. 

Yes, I just used scissors.

 Next, I cut out my reindeer head, I'm not a perfect drawer so I just looked at a picture of a cartoon reindeer and kind of based it off that (not exactly of course, but I'm sure you know what I mean). To the right is the paper I used. It's scrapbook paper and is supposed to look like a map. (It kind of reminds me of the wall at Subway!)

Here is the reindeer head all cut out.

 Next I had to cut out the legs. I made them a little chubby. To size them I just set the head out next to it, sort of in the way it would be on the ring and drew them. They look like pants right now and that's because I made them super long and the top so I could cut it down perfectly by setting it behind the ring and drawing a pencil line on the edge (shown to the right)

 To glue it, I just used Elmer's Glue-All which is available anywhere (yes, Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, and maybe even H-E-B- haven't checked yet).

 

Make sure you put the glue on the ring, not the paper. 

Once you glue the legs on, you're done! Remember: You can turn this into an ornament just by putting another piece of yarn on.

                 

Doctor Who on the Shelf

Being not only a Whovian but a sister and daughter, I knew that sometime between the end of November and Christmas Eve our "Elf on the Shelf", Puck, would have to do something Doctor Who related. Then it hit me... Weeping Angels.

Don't Blink! A Little Make-Over.

 Here are the supplies I used for a basic paint job:

• Gray Paint
• Decorative Angel
  (This time of year it's easy to find an angel, just look in the Christmas section! I got mine at Wal-Mart for $1.98 by itself.)
• Water
• Different size paintbrushes. (I used a medium sized, and two slightly different detail brushes)
• A plate for your paint

Make sure you cover your paint area!

For the gray paint, I used Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint as seen here. 

I bought it for $2.98 at Wal-Mart.

Start off with a medium-sized brush. You don't need much paint and you can always go back for more!

I just painted it quickly this time, I'll go back a do the small parts with a detail brush later.

Here is a picture of me painting the angel. ------>

Sorry for the bad quality of the photo.

If the paint looks bad, just keep trying and use different methods.

Here's a before-after shot.

And here's what it looks like when it's done.

Make a Mini Sonic Screwdriver out of Foam!

This one's pretty simple. Just cut out a small piece of foam, elf-sized, and used a silver Sharpie to completely color it then use blue, green, or red to color the tip. Lastly, use black (or any color) to add details.


To make my Elf complete I added my tiny TARDIS and a red foam bow tie. 

Thanksgiving 101

We all know Thanksgiving is right around the corner (tomorrow to be exact) and I just wanted to share a few of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving, as well as tell you a few fun facts I've learned.

My favorite Thanksgiving dessert is none other than pecan pie, a treat seen on my dinner table every year since the first time I tried it.

Mmm... I do love the smell of bread, and, on Thanksgiving, the smell of rolls in the oven!

Thanksgiving dinner just wouldn't be the same without that fine fowl known as the turkey. Although my turkey isn't as picture perfect as the one below, it's delicious either way!

And now learn a bit more about Thanksgiving!