Claypot characters

These frugal and easy crafts make wonderful teacher and grandparent gifts!

Here are some fun-tastic clay pot crafts for you and your family! I wanted to be different. The first image that pops in people's minds when you mention Christmas is Jesus or Santa. We all know Frosty comes in 2nd. What about the elves, reindeer, angels and gingerbread people!

I had so much fun painting these and researching the cutest smiles for the heads. I used real buttons for the Ginger person. I added clear glue and glitter. I later found a pack of 100 wooden buttons-yay for no more coloring and size matching.
 
For the elf and reindeer I drew the antlers and hat freehand. The elf hat is two pieces of felt stitched together. I measured the head and made sure one layer covered just a bit more than half the head. I added a bell to the tip with some snow. He looked a little bare so I added a scallop collar using my cuttlebug - Scallop die cut. Textured snow paint finishes the bottom.

The reindeer antlers were a bit tricky. You could use pipe cleaners instead of the felt. After staring at a few billion antlers online they started to look like two Y's connected. ;-) (I was chanting Y Y Y when I discovered this which concerned the husband).

Felt alone was too flimsy so I applied a coat of Mod Podge and they stiffened up. Use a small layer b/c too much will make them too stiff. If you make them thick enough to stitch two together I would recommend putting floral wire inside. You need them just right for them to stay on. My first batch was too stiff and they broke right off. I touched up the paint, hot glued again and added moss as hair. It will mask the hot glue marks around the antlers.

I went back and added ribbon bows on the gingergirls heads and neckbows for the gingerboys.

Frosty is my favorite! The snowball pot is 1.5 from ACMoore. The trees came in a three pack from HobbyLobby.com when I made the tree globes at $1.99. The felt hat I tried to create but it was proving to be difficult to stiffen into shape. I bought the hats at factorydirectcraft.com for $1.99.
 
All the character pots are 2.25 inch pot. The heads are 1 1/2 inches. I used fusion glue to adhere the pieces to the 6 inch saucer. Pots were bought at 50% at ACMoore this past summer or $1 for 3 at Dollar Tree. The heads (knobs) were bought online at caseyswood.com

Some of these beauties are gifts while others are part of our own decorations. You can visit my pinterest board for more ideas. Next year I want to try the village!

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