Christmas in April - Clothespin Dolls
Welcome back to the 12 Months of Christmas Ornaments Series, we are already to Christmas in April!!
If you are new, I decided to create this series because I never have enough time to create all the Christmas ornaments I want every year so I figured why not continue making them all year long?!
And then I thought, why not share them here with you so that you can make them with me?! 😃
Below you will find this month's ornament tutorial in both a written blog post and a YouTube video!
Christmas in April - Clothespin Dolls
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If you'd like to catch up, you can see January through March's ornaments here:
Retro Christmas Ornaments DIY - Christmas in January
Spun Cotton Ornaments DIY - Christmas in February
Old-Fashioned Felt and Sequin Ornaments - Christmas in March
- A round-style wooden clothespin
- A scrap of fabric (approximately 3" x 5" is all you need)
- Coordinating thread and a needle
- Coordinating wide ribbon (approximately 1" wide x 5" long)
- A coordinating piece of embroidery floss
- Scissors
- Small clamps (or regular clothespins will work too)
- A pencil
- 1 White pipe cleaner
- Hot glue gun
- Craft paint (black, white, flesh tone, pink, red, and color suitable for eyes)
- Paint brushes suitable for small detail work
- You can substitute colored Sharpie markers for all the paint colors EXCEPT the flesh tone
- Pinking shears
- A stylus
- A piece of wire
- Miniature buttons
- Flower-shaped buttons OR miniature silk flower
- 1/4" wood bead
I remember very similar ornaments that my mom had on our tree when I was a kid.
I have recreated them and put my own spin on them. You can tailor these however you wish making girls with different colored hair and holding something symbolic such as a volleyball or other sports symbols. You can make boys too!
Here are the written instructions.
Step 1 - Paint the clothespin
Paint the clothespin with flesh-colored paint (or chocolate brown for an African-American doll, light brown for a Hispanic doll, etc.)
You'll want to paint the entire clothespin which I had not done yet in these pictures.
Step 2 - Draw and paint the hair and face
You can use a 1/4" wood bead to create hair buns if you'd like. I especially like this on the flat-top clothespins. Some have rounded tops and wouldn't necessarily need a bun.
Step 3 - Make the dress
Step 5 - Create the flower
The flower is created with a small piece of wire (I used green florist's wire) and a flower-shaped button.
I did not get pictures of this part but you can see how to do it in the video.
Bend one end of the wire to form a little hook, slide the shank of the button over the hook, and tighten it with pliers so the button no longer moves around.
Bend the ends of her hands so that she can hold the flower stem and glue the stem to her hands.
Step 6 - Sign your new ornament and share it in the Facebook thread
Be sure to sign and date your new ornament! You'll thank me a few years down the road!
Share your ornaments in the Facebook share thread!
Check out the other months' ornaments here:
Christmas in May - Retro Drum Ornaments
Christmas in June - Macrame Santa Ornaments
I hope you enjoyed this month's ornament! If you did, I'd love it if you'd share it!
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These are much cuter than other ones I've seen. So sweet!
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteThese are so cute Tania! They remind me of little international dolls that I see sometimes. The possibilities of these are really endless and they can use up a lot of odds and ends.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tuula!
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