Reindeer Head and Block Nativity

These are our fun and...interesting crafts for Christmas this year.

So, my family owns a plumbing supply business and occasionally they have random things, or too much of something that they can't sell or whatever...like white porcelain faucet handles. :) Well, back in October I was given two boxes full of these handles and told to figure out something creative to do with them. A month and some days later a Reindeer epiphany occurred. And Viola', Rudolf the Faucet Handle Headed Reindeer has emerged.

He was actually really easy to make, once we figured out the system, and busted out trusty old glue gun. The handle is hollow with a hole at the top and bottom, so what I did was string the ribbon through a red wooded bead, and pulled the ribbon up through the handle. Then I folded brown pipe cleaner in half and stuck that down the top of the handle until it butted up with the bead at the bottom. I glue gunned the bead to the pipe cleaner AND the bottom hole of the handle so they didn't move around, and tied a knot at the top of the ribbon so he could hang. I cut little pieces from the pipe cleaner to use as the antlers and folded them on the larger pieces. And of course, don't forget the googly eyes!
Easy peasy. . . if you happen to have some random faucet handles laying around. Hee hee!

Our second project is wooden block Nativity Scenes. These are all over the internet and pinterest, etc. so I'm not taking credit for them, I'm just telling you its another craft we are doing.
I found the Me And My Big Ideas brand Nativity stickers at Hobby Lobby ($1.99 for 3 sheets), bought some 3 foot planks of wood from Home Depot and cut them to the sizes I would need, stained them with whatever random stain I had laying around, then put the stickers on them. Yes, I know my instructions are awesome. If you want more ideas and better instructions, there are some---> HERE and HERE. I'm not sure there is a wrong way to do these. You could use ink and stamps, or hand drawings or clipart and mod podge. It's just a fun little project and a great little gift for a family with kids.