Better Homes & Gardens – Holiday Crafts 2019

instructions

12 HolidayCrafts 2019

Pretty as a

Pumpkin

shown on page 9

MATERIALS

2— 21 ∕ 2 -inch foam balls (head and
body) (such as Styrofoam brand)
Wooden skewers
Crafts glue
Artists brushes
Tissue paper: white
Acrylic paint: orange, desired flesh
color, brown, off-white,
light pink, black
Hot-glue gun and glue sticks
2^1 ∕ 2 -inch length of^1 ∕ 4 -inch
wooden dowel
Chenille pipe cleaners: orange
and black
3^1 ∕ 4 -inch-diameter paper disk
(such as an empty ribbon spool)
Paper-wrapped green florists stem
wire: 26-, 18-, 14-gauge
Wire cutters
Paper punch: leaf
Scraps of cardstock: green and black
Scrap of striped blue-and-cream
ticking fabric
Pinking shears
Sewing thread
4—^1 ∕ 4 -inch-diameter buttons: black
1^1 ∕ 2 -inch foam ball (cat)
Crafts knife
Toothpick
Jewelry pliers
Scrap of^3 ∕ 4 -inch-wide ribbon:
off-white

MAKE THE BODY
Push 2^1 ∕ 2 -inch foam balls (head and body)
onto opposite ends of a skewer. Mix crafts
glue with water to make a thin consistency.
Brush thinned glue onto a small area of
one foam ball. Tear off a small piece of
tissue paper and press onto the wet glue.
Continue brushing glue and applying tissue
paper pieces until head and body are
covered; let dry.

Paint the head and body orange; let dry.

Remove balls from skewer.

Using the pointed end of a pencil,

enlarge the skewer holes in the head and

body to accommodate the dowel. Fill hole

in body with hot glue and insert the dowel

segment about 1^3 ∕ 8 inches deep. Fill hole in

head with hot glue and insert the other end

of dowel into head, leaving^1 ∕ 4 inch of dowel

exposed for the neck.

Poke two holes in bottom of body for

the legs. Fill each leg hole with hot glue and

insert a 3^1 ∕ 2 -inch-long orange pipe cleaner

about^1 ∕ 2 inch deep into each hole.

Paint the paper disk orange for base;

let dry. Poke a hole in the top of the disk

for each leg. Insert leg ends into the holes,

securing with glue.

FINISH THE HEAD

Paint a 2^1 ∕ 2 -inch-diameter face circle on

the head using desired fl esh color; let

dry. Referring to photo, right, paint eyes,

eyebrows, mouth, and freckles using

brown; let dry.

Paint nose using orange. Paint eye

highlights using off -white. Paint bangs using

brown. Mix a small amount of light pink

paint with water. Use thinned mixture to

lightly paint the cheeks; let dry. In the same

manner, shade the nose and mouth using

thinned orange paint.

Use a skewer to poke a hole in the head

near center top of face circle. Push hot glue

into hole, then insert a 2^1 ∕ 2 -inch length of

14-gauge paper-wrapped wire for stem.

Bend stem as desired.

Punch two leaves from green cardstock.

Paint vein details onto each leaf using

brown paint. Hot-glue leaves to head at

base of stem.

Loosely wrap 18-gauge and 26-gauge

green wire around a pencil to create

tendrils. Trim to desired lengths. Poke holes

in head around stem. Fill holes with hot

glue and insert tendrils.

FINISH THE FIGURE

Dab hot glue to middle back of a leg and

press an end of a black pipe cleaner into

the glue. Wrap the pipe cleaner around the

leg to make a boot. When you reach the

base, make a large loop around the front

of the leg to form the boot toe. Wrap pipe

cleaner to the back of boot, glue, and trim.

Repeat to make a boot on other leg.

For the arm piece, cut one 8-inch length

of orange pipe cleaner.

For a mitten, bend the end of another

pipe cleaner back on itself^1 ∕ 4 inch to make a

thumb. Bend the pipe cleaner back on itself

(^1) ∕ 2 inch from the previous bend and trim
the end fl ush with the base of the thumb.
Repeat to make a second mitten. Paint each
mitten fl esh color; let dry.
Hot-glue a mitten to each end of arm
piece. Dab hot glue on back of neck and