Day 20 at Beccy's Place - R is for Rudolph . . .

. . . Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

I'm playing along with the

Ninth Annual Month Of Holiday Cards

at

Beccy's Place

I'm not colouring at the moment but I am working on Christmas craft projects for creative little hands around our neighbourhood ... the endless months of Covid-19 lockdowns has brought our community much closer and I look forward to sharing more crafty adventures with them over the coming weekends and school holidays now that restrictions have eased.

Beccy's prompt for Day 20 is the letter "R"

(Beccy's post with "R" inspiration words and

bold Red outfit Santa card to inspire is HERE)

My "R" kids Christmas activity kit is for Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer ornaments.

The fun cuties can be made with craft sticks in assorted sizes.  The ones I have made use what are traditionally called popsicle or icy pole sticks and mini craft sticks, along with assorted googly eyes and assorted red pom poms.

Yes, I know there are green and white pom poms mixed with the red ones in the photo ... all my Christmas pom poms are mixed up together and part of the fun with any activity like this is searching for the perfect piece, so how could I possibly sort my embellishment stash and take the foraging fun away?

Paint the craft sticks with brown paint.  Once dry, take two sticks and put the ends together to make a "V", take the third stick and put it across the upper section of the "V", adjusting the height and "V" angle to form ears at the top left and right and antlers at the top.  Once you're happy with the position, put a dollop of glue where the craft sticks overlap to hold them securely in place.  Once dry, glue a red pom pom on the bottom of the "V" to make Rudolph's vibrant red nose, then glue the googly eyes in place.  Turn Rudolph over and adhere some ribbon or twine to make a loop to hang the ornament.  My strip of gold edged red ribbon is 8" long.

   

They make such a cute pair.

~~~*~~~*~~~

Here is a handy hint should you ever need to paint a bundle of craft sticks.  Run a line of double sided tape along a piece of cardboard, position the sticks along the tape with enough space to access the edges.  The sticks stay in place while you're painting them.  If you have a nice warm sunny day like I had today, the first ones painted will be dry by the time you finish the first coat, so you can flip them all over, paint the other side and touch up any of the edges missed when doing the first coat.

*** INGREDIENTS ***

assorted craft sticks - 3 per ornament ... it's hard to make just one

I have used "popsicle" and mini size, jumbo size would be a fun size too

brown paint and paint brush

glue or glue gun - to adhere the craft sticks

googly eyes

glue or glue dots - to adhere the googly eyes

I used Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Adhesive

red pom poms

glue or glue gun - to adhere the pom poms

I used Helmar 450 Quick Dry 

fine ribbon, string or cord - to make the ornament loop

glue - to adhere the loop

I used Helmar 450 Quick Dry 

*** REFERENCE ***

This project was inspired by the "Popsicle Stick Reindeer Kid Christmas Ornament" post on "The Kindergarten Connection" blog HERE.