Fluffy Yarn Reindeer Decoration Tutorial

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm definitely short on time this Christmas season. The days are counting down so fast and there's still loads to do.  This is when the Christmas crafts need to be pretty quick & easy.  Enter: The Fluffy Yarn Reindeer.

I'd seen yarn wrapped trees and a few reindeer here & there, but they all had a children's arts & crafts, rope-y look and even the slightest imperfection was really noticeable.  I wanted our reindeer to look a bit magical and what could be more fantastic than fluffy, shimmery antlers?

With his cherry red nose and snowy texture, he's an elegant Rudolph:

The best part? It's simple to make, doesn't require loads of materials and is inexpensive.  My craft win trifecta.  I didn't even have to leave the house because I had all the gear just sitting around in my craft hoard stash.  Which is good since I don't have time to run to the craft store all that often these days.

Materials:

- Papier mache reindeer (or tree/whatever shape you like)
- Skein of eyelash yarn 
- Tacky glue & hot glue
- Red shank button & satin ribbon
- Optional, but helpful, acrylic paint in the color of the yarn

The first part is optional, but key if you're a perfectionist type.  Add a bit of acrylic craft paint to the areas that are more challenging to cover.  This helps camouflage any gaps.  In this case it was the pointy ends of the antlers.  If I were doing this all over I'd probably paint the entire thing, but I was short on time so I just did a few choice spots.

I found starting at the antlers was the easiest with the yarn.  Dabbing a bit of glue along the upper area, I laid a bit of yarn over the antler tip and wound the yarn around about an inch down.  I did it a few more times to get the tip covered and then wound downward and moved to the other antler, loosely going upward and winding in more tight rows on the way back down.

Spread more of the tacky glue around the muzzle area

Then start winding from the antler area to around the mouth:

Wind around the area and then back around from the neck to the tip of the muzzle to get full coverage and then start looping it around the ears.  Dabs of hot glue here & there help keep the yarn from slipping off.

Work down the neck and then start wrapping around the center and then front to back to get the entire midsection covered well:

Then wrapping down one leg and adding a dab of hot glue at the hoof and cutting the yarn. I glued a new strand at the top of each of the remaining legs and wound down finishing them the same way.  Using a pin, I pulled loose some the the eyelash strands than got matted down with all the winding to fluff him up a bit.

For some added detailing, I ground off the shank of a cherry red button and hot glued it on for a nose.  Adding a nose was my daughter's idea and it really added the right touch.

I tied a satin ribbon bow around his neck and our fluffy fantasy reindeer was complete.

This little fella is ready to bring some wintery cheer to a special spot in our home.  Mantel, side table, table centerpiece, he can go anywhere!

Merry Christmas!

Lil Reindeer Antlers Hair Clip Tutorial

Today I've got another holiday wearable tutorial.  This one is so fun & festive, you can't help but feel merry seeing them: my Lil Reindeer Antlers Hair Clips!

These are inexpensive to make and a great way to dress up any outfit this season.

And make for some terrific holiday photos:



They use basic craft supplies, so they're very simple to add to your holiday to-make list!




Materials:
- Brown & green felt
- Polyfil
- 3/8 inch wide grosgrain ribbon
- Round red beads
- Jingle bells
- Hair Clips
- Hot glue/E6000 glue
- Notions: Sewing machine, paper, marking pen, hand sewing needle, knitting needle or pencil, scissors

Start by drawing an antler shape on a piece of paper, about 4 inches high and cut out.  Cut out two pairs of 4in x 4in squares from the brown felt and trace the antler shape onto the top of each pair.

Stitch along the outline of each antler stack, leaving the bottom open.

Cut antlers out close to stitching and stuff with some polyfil, using a knitting needle or pencil to gently fill all the nooks and crannies.  Fold the raw edges of the openings inward.

Cut out some small holly leaves from the green.  I just freehanded those - they don't have to be perfect!

I dabbed a bit of hot glue to attach the leaves to the base of each antler and then stitched the beads and bells onto them by hand.  You could glue them, but I wanted to be sure they wouldn't fall off, so stitching was added security.

Cut a 4 1/4 inch piece of ribbon for each hair clip.   To wrap the clip, put a line of glue along an inch and open the clip and stick it to the underside of the clip's top half:

Then add some glue to the top, end and around the base to wrap the ribbon all the way around. 

Now that the clips are wrapped, dab a generous amount of E6000 glue onto the base of each antler and attach them to the clips.  This glue is super strong, so it'll support the weight of the antlers better than hot glue.  You'll want to make sure the clips face each other so the antlers mirror each other.  You don't want two facing the same way - that makes for wonky reindeer;)

I let them dry upside down and then they were ready to wear:

I made this festive shirt to go with them, since I'm on my machine embroidery kick for the holidays.  My kids love the movie "Elf", so this seemed the perfect fit to go with our new antlers:

Happy Crafty Christmas!  

And if you like making holiday hair clips, check out my other how-to's by clicking the photos below: