Legend Of The Crafter

Hello and welcome back to the Legend of the Crafter! This month for December I decided to do some fun ornaments for the Xmas tree that the kids could make with me. I came up with the idea for these when we were at the Puyallup antique show and I kept getting drawn to the booths with the tacky vintage Xmas decorations. The tacky ornaments that stood out most to me were the pinecone ones that were made into snowmen, Santa Claus, etc. So I decided to come up with my own pinecone ornaments!

Supplies:
lots of pinecones
various colors of felt
scissors
yarn
Xmas ribbon
glitter spray paint
hot glue gun and gluesticks
pom poms

Step one: Gather all your supplies and head to a family members house (the kids and I went to visit my parents and sister in Yakima) because crafting with crazy family members is much better than alone. I also suggest having a few beers while crafting with your crazy family members because this adds to the excitement, as you can see from the pictures we got a little crazy with the googly eyes and yarn! First gather up a bunch of pinecones, you can buy the yummy smelling ones at the store or better yet send your damn wiener kids outside in the cold to collect them for you (after all that's why I had kids in the first place so I could put them to work for me hee hee!) Take all your pinecones and spray them with the glittery spray paint (glitter makes everything better!) then let them dry for a few hours. Be sure to do this in a well ventilated area unless you prefer to get high off the paint fumes.

Step two: Get your felt and scissors and start cutting parts out for your pinecone critter. I decided on owls cus they are big right now, all the hipsters love them. For the owl I took my scalloped craft scissors and cut two large circles for around the eyes, then two medium black circles for the eyes with regular scissors, and last two little white circles for the pupils and glue these all together. For the beak I cut a triangle shape and for the feet two heart shapes. And don't forget two leaf shapes for the wings. Glue all your pieces to the pinecone. If you want to add extra things like hats you can cut a circle for a top hat, then cut a long rectangle piece and roll it into a tube and glue it to hold the tube together, then glue the tube to the circle. The santa hat I made by cutting a long rectangle piece and rolling it up into a cone shape and trimming off the bottom so it is straight, them glue a long white strip around the bottom and a white pom pom to the top. Just go crazy coming up with felt pieces to glue on like mustaches (also big with the hipsters) or find things around the house to use (I just happened to have a lil pair of wire rimmed glasses that worked perfect for a dapper young gentleman.)

Step three: After your done glueing on all your felt pieces you're gonna want some little ear tuft thingie majiggers as I like to call them. I made mine with yarn. Get about six to eight pieces of yarn about two or three inches long each and bunch them together. Tie them in a knot in the middle and trim the edges so they are the length you like them. There you go, they are now ready to glue them on above the eyes.

Step four: Finally get a piece of Xmas ribbon and tie it into a loop and glue it to the back of the pinecone for hanging it on your tree!

We had alot of fun making these, even my sister who claims to be crafting impaired got in on the action and made some crazy lil critters. Speaking of critters the horror nerd in me had to make a Critter ornament for my tree. Stay tuned next month for my next crazy craft, and I have been busy knitting a bunch of cute hats for Xmas gifts and I will be posting pics of those also. Knit or die!!! Peace out crazy crafters!