Mini Sculpting: The Bumble

I have always loved the movie Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and even more so now that my son shares this love too!  I have been dying to try to sculpt my favorite characters and now that I saw the perfect way to display my characters I’m giving it a shot.

The Bumble is near and dear to me because when my son was two and we watched the movie he would always run and hide behind the couch whenever the Bumble appeared on the screen! It was so adorable and now that he’s a little bit older he loves the Bumble too.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Sculpey modeling clay
• Aluminum foil
• Blue acrylic paint
• White acrylic paint
• Gray acrylic paint
• White doll hair (I purchased a Santa ornament with a flowy beard at the dollar store)
• Hot glue sticks

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Sculpting tools (Darice 11-Piece Clay Cleaning Tool )
• Scissors
• Glue gun
• Sculpey ABB02 Bake and Bond Sculpey Oven Bake Clay (Sculpey Artist Set: 2-Ounce Bake & Bond Bakeable Adhesive for Oven-Bake Clay, 1-Ounce Clay Softener, 1-Ounce Gloss Glaze)

1. Shape some aluminum foil for the torso and cover with modeling clay and then sculpt the pecks using a scraping tool.
2. Next shape aluminum foil into the desired size and shape for his head.  Use the bake and bond to add a small roll of clay to the face and add more to the top of it then create a triangle shape to lay over it creating the nose. Attach the nose by smoothing the clay on the edges with the side of the needle tool and your fingers; to shape the nostrils better if needed after attaching the nose use the needle tool.
3. Add bake and bond to the side of the head where you plan to attach it to his body, smoothing the clay from the head to the body with the sides of your sculpting needle and fingers.
4. Shape more aluminum foil for the arms and cover with modeling clay.  Add more bake and bond where you intend to attach the arms and attach same way you did for the head.
5. Shape more aluminum foil for the legs and feet making sure that they are flat enough to allow him to stand once completed and cover with modeling clay.  Shape the toes by using the cutting tool and smooth out the ends with your fingers.
6. Use the scraping tool to shape the eyes by scraping around and outward then smoothing out with the sides of a tool or your fingers.  Use the crescent shape tool to create the under eye circles.
7. Roll pointy fingers, add bake and bond, press on top of each other gently, roll a ball adding more bake and bond and gently press on top.
8. Add bake and bond to the ends of the arms and attach the hands to the arms in the same way as the other pieces.
9. Roll two pieces of clay out thin and cut with an exacto knife to make the edges sharp and shape into a half circle shape for the teeth.
10. Bake the teeth in oven for about 5 minutes, allow to cool down and add to the mouth.
11. Bake the bumble for 15 minutes.
12. Once cooled, paint him white with gray accents on the arms, legs, body and head.  Paint the teath and eyes white.
13. Paint the hands and face blue.
14. Paint the Iris black.
15. After all of the paint is dry cut short strips of white hair.  Lightly coat areas with hot glue and allow to cool slightly before pressing hair into place.  Repeat layers as needed, gently rub to remove any hair that may be glued into place.

All that is left to do is make Yukon Cornelius, Hermis, Rudolph, Santa!  Once they’re all complete I create my dollar store snowman display with each scene from the movie for you all to see.  Merry Christmas and happy crafting! 🎄🎅🦌

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Snowman Ornament with a Knit Hat

You all know how much I love the dollar store and this year I saw a cute idea for making knit hats as ornaments, but I thought it would be even cuter if you combined it with a snowman head!  I was disappointed when I went this weekend and saw there was no more foam balls, but then I realized that I could actually get the ornaments in a larger quantity and do the same thing! – a total bonus! These are so cute and easy, they’ll have you running straight to the dollar store right away!

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Small plastic ornaments from the dollar store (or foam balls of equivalent size)
• Snow-Tex to make it look like real snow
• Diamond Dust for sparkle
• Yarn
• Toilet paper tubes
• Small bells
• Air drying clay
• Black acrylic paint
• Pink acrylic paint
• Orange acrylic paint
• Hot glue and gun
• Ornament hooks

1. Start off by covering a generous layer of Snow-Tex to cover the whole ornament.
2. Prop on toilet paper tube to dry.
3. Cut off the end of a toilet paper tube to the desired width for the rim of your knit cap.
4. Cut a lot of yarn at least 10 inches long.
5. Now we simply make a loop and we put it in our little circle, completing this all the way around.
6. After you have finished the ring, pull all the ends through the tube and tie it off with a bell on a piece of yarn.
7. Cut off the extra length to create the pom-pom on top.
8. Once the Snow-Tex is dry, sculpt a carrot by rolling out a cone shape from the air drying clay and rub onto the head. 
9. Use a clay too or side of a tooth pick to make indentions to make it look like a carrot.
10. Hot glue the hat to the head.
11. Once dried, paint the eyes and mouth with black paint.  Add the rosey cheek color in a pink circle and paint the carrot orange.
12. Add an ornament hook and done!

Super cute and easy! These are a great dollar store make over to wow your friends and family with a nice ornament for a Christmas present, you can even use it on the outside of present to compliment your wrapping job!  Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas in the Office

Two years ago we had a double “D” (desk decorating) challenge where myself and my co-workers had a contest to decorate our desk for a bragging rights as the prize.  My boss turned it into a whole event where we had a building Christmas party and allowed everyone to cast their votes – he even allowed our higher headquarters to vote via email! 

In this challenge I had an ugly desktop hutch that I had on the floor because it didn’t fit on my desk (we had old mismatch furniture) so I had the brilliant idea to transform it into a fireplace.

I used old boxes on each side to create the frame of my fireplace and then I used my white recycling bin paper to make the white”mortar” and red paper cut into rectangular bricks using a paper cutter and taped them on top.  I used cardboard tubes from a roll of wrapping paper to make logs for the fire and then cut different colored cardstock paper in the shape of flames and glued them to the inside.

After I was done I went to the dollar store and scored some stockings, poinsettia garland, nicknacks to give it the “lux” homey Christmas vibe and I painted a window on posterboard from the dollar store with a scene of Santa and reindeer to complete the scene.

This was a lot of fun and was nice to be the first place winner! Merry Christmas!

Candy Cane Wreaths

My sister saw a friend from works wreath that she created out of candy canes, so she got infected by the crafting bug and said let’s do it!  We took a quick trip to the dollar store and grabbed some supplies.  They’re super cute and easy, we each are going to make one and even crafted one for my parents anniversary on the 21st.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• Hot glue and gun
• Wire ribbon
• Regular ribbon
• Ornament of your choice
• Peppermints (optional)
• Assorted candy cane size

1. We started by creating hearts by hot gluing two candy canes facing inwards by the hook.
2. Hot glue two sets together by gluing the flat sides together until you form a circle all the way around.
3. Hot glue your ornament into the center.
4. Cut small 1-2 inch strips of ribbon to hot glue around 2 candy canes for added stability.
5. Create a bow at the top and a loop to hang the wreath on. 

In the second one we used unwrapped (must spray with an acrylic sealant if being used on your door or  it will melt from condensation!) smally canes to create smaller hearts and added the peppermints to the arches of the hearts because my mom really loves bling and this just took it to next level.

Nothing says Christmas like candy canes! Happy holidays and get crafting!

Trunk or Treat: Nightmare Before Christmas

Since I am clearly in love with the Nightmare Before Christmas (secretly I think I am the Pumpkin Queen since my birthday is Halloween),