Kids Craft: Santa Corks (& Santa Bowling)

So! Today I have a quirky little craft that can go “two ways”: either you make our cute little Santa Craft and hang it up on your tree as an ornament. Or you make at least 6 of these and create your very own little Santa Craft bowling game. Which will it be? We set out to make ornaments… but as the corks stood their drying, I suddenly thought – hey, I bet the kids would LOVE to bowl with them too. Now I can’t decide.. ornament or bowling?! I give you both options, you decide. First to what we did (*cough*, did I say “we”? Sorry.. I mean “I”, I did this craft for the wonderful Hallmark Advent Calendar, I am there under door 2 – Hooray – do check out the rest of the fabulous calendar!! And as it was “commissioned” I was in hurry, the kids would have LOVED to make these, I know. And they would have been able to help paint and stick beards on etc)

Materials (per Santa): one cork, red & pink acrylic paint, red felt (or card), cotton wool (or white felt), PVA glue (a hot glue gun is even better, but you can get away with PVA),ribbon for hanging, black and red pens for details

1)      Paint you corks 1/3 pink and 2/3s red and let them dry fully

2)      Using a glass (medium to large – e.g. 6-8cm in diameter), draw a circle on your felt. Cut this into thirds. Each third will be enough for one hat.

3)      (If you want to use these as ornaments, then..) Take a piece of ribbon, tie a knot in the end. I double knotted it, so that you can glue it into the hat more easily.

4)      Place your ribbon inside the pointy bit of your  1/3 of a circle. Then align the straight edge (trapping the ribbon inside) and glue down – this is when a hot glue gun is much easier. It does work with PVA or fabric glue, but it gets a bit messy as the felt absorbs a lot of glue. You can always use some red card instead, which you may find easier to stick.

5)      Once dried, glue the hat to your cork. If it isn’t a perfect fit, don’t worry, the cotton wool will cover it up.

6)      Unroll your cotton wool and tear off a strip for the hat brim, cut a triangle for the beard and make a little ball for the top of the hat.

7)      Glue the hat brim, the bobble ball and beard in place. You can shape it a little once stuck on by patting it down or trimming it with nail scissors.

8)      Carefully had eyes and nose (it is easy to colour the cotton wool by accident) and…

Finished!

We made a little ball by scrunching up a piece of paper (aka snowball) and had a go at Santa bowling!

The kids think the Santa Bowling is hilarious. Which would you do – ornament? Or bowling?

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