I saw this little guy on a few weeks back and knew I had to make him. Actually, I’m making a flotilla of these guys – everyone I know is getting one; the crafty Christmas elf strikes again.
Step one: It takes 2 ½ wine corks to make a single ornament, so ask everyone you know to save their wine corks … or go to your parents’ house and steal a bag of corks from your mother’s craft shelf (cough*not-saying-I-did-that*cough).
Step Two: Gather ye supplies: wine corks (obviously); googly eyes (now called wiggle eyes … who knew?); red-nose material of choice (I used jewels, because that’s how I roll); antler material of choice (more on this to come); eyelet screws; xacto knife and glue.
Step Three: Chop up wine corks accordingly; one head and four legs (hint: legs are made by cutting a half into halves). The body is a whole cork, no chopping required.
Step Four: Glue, glue, glue! A note about gluing – Weldbond is GREAT stuff, however it takes a long time to dry. I was sitting on my couch holding varying cork body parts waiting for the glue to set; hot glue or super glue would have been faster and made it easier to set up an assembly line.
Step Five: Let your reindeer bodies dry over night (or all day); then take a nail poke a hole in the body behind the head. Remove nail and carefully thread the eyelet screw into the hole; congrats now you can put a hook on the ornament and hang it on the tree!
Step Six: (I know, you thought you were done) glue on Rudolph’s nose (a pom-pom, a small red ornament, a bead) – I used a jewel because I thought Rudy needed a little more sparkle in his life. Since you already have the glue out, go ahead and glue on the googly eyes – for a more minimalist look, you can forgo the eyes.
Step Seven: Freak out because your reindeer doesn’t have any antlers and then ponder what in the holy heck you use to make them. I chose that weird crafty foam paper stuff. Cut the foam paper into an approximation of antlers and glue them to the back of Rudolph’s head.
Now for the fun part (after everything is dry), hang it on your tree and bask in the glory that is your craft making skills.
Merry Hanukwanzmas!!!!
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