Category: Holidays

Winter Penguins from Soda Bottles

penguin-plastic-bottle-craftYou’ll need:

  • 2 soda bottles (same size)
  • Paint, assorted colors
  • Fabric strips
  • Yarn

1. Cut bottles – adults only! (Make sure to use clean, dry bottles)

(1.5 Optional: add beans or another dry item for weight.)

2. Fit the short end over the long one.

3. Hot glue closed.

4. Paint base coat white all over whole form. Let dry. (You may find that first scuffing up the surface lightly with a piece of sandpaper will help the paint adhere. Make sure to wipe off excess debris before painting though!)

5. Outline the body shape (think of it as a heart with a flat bottom). And then paint over the white in center so it has a good coat. Let dry.

6. Paint rest of body black. let dry. This may take more than 1 coat. Let dry completely.

7. Paint hat base color. Let dry. Give 2nd coat if needed. Let dry.

8. Decorate hat. Use the back of a paint brush to make cute dots, as in photo, if desired.

9. Paint eyes and triangle nose. Make sure this is above ‘natural waist’ of the bottle – so the scarf won’t cover the features.

(9.5 Optional to give whole thing a coat of spray glossy finish.)

10. Add a fabric strip scarf, trim ends with scissors.

10.5 Make and hot glue a yarn pom pom on top of hat.

 

 

Felt Wreath Ornament

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I made 30 of these for my co-workers – they loved the variety of colors. I presented them with a chocolate piece in the centers.

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Per Wreath You’ll need:

  • 8 inch – medium gauge wire (easy enough to manipulate by hand, but firm enough to hold the round shape)
  • 1 inch felt pieces – (we used 6-8 colors and about 15 squares of each color) (I bought $15 worth of felt12X15 ‘sheets’, in all kinds of colors, they were about 30 cents each.)
  • 1/4 ” ribbon – you can buy pre-tied ribbons, I just used some from my ribbon stash and tied my own – easy peasy!
  • Small felt dots, or sequins

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Tools needed:

  • scissors, craft glue, needle-nose pliers, hot glue

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Turn one end of the wire over with pliers to make a loop. Take wire and make a round shape by pressing it around a cup or other round object. Cut a small slit in each felt piece by folding it in half first. Start threading the felt pieces on -pattern not necessary, it’s your wreath though – whatever color combo is fine! When the wire is just about full, Use pliers to fold the straight end over in an L shape. Hook the L into the original loop, and then press that L down to secure. (See pic below.) Use craft glue to secure the small dots. It will dry nicely. Use hot glue to hold the ribbon bows – (craft glue wasn’t successful on all the ribbon types we tried.)

Optional: add a ribbon for hanging, or even fishing wire – but a regular ornament hook will work fine through the wire loops.

Kids will love cutting and threading the squares, and adding the dots. Adults need to cut and work with the wire, and of course the hot glue gun.

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Candy Sleigh

These take, literally seconds to make. I made 6 of them for the girls at work and once i had all the supplies laid out, they were done in 5 minutes. Feel free to substitute other candies of the same size.

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For each sleigh I used:

  • 2 Candy Canes
  • 1 Kit Kat Bar
  • 8 Miniature Hershey variety pack bars
  • Curling ribbon
  • Glue gun

Use hot glue to secure the mini bars to the Kit Kat bar. 4 on bottom, 3 middle, 1 on top. Tie and curl ribbon as in photo. Turn it over. Put a line of hot glue on the candy cane, then press on to the bottom of the Kit Kat bar as in photo.

Total cost of each is under $3.00