Snow Chicks

 Well, Daniel has the driveway clear...

 ...but the car's covered. That's fine I'm not going anywhere!

 This is where I am from yesterday.

 I want to strengthen their beaks with some glue...

 ...make sure their "feathers" are even...

...and glue them to their astro turf.

Badgers

My sister just got back from visiting our mom in England and she's already started sending me pictures. This is my mom's backyard and where she feeds her badgers.

I couldn't resist revisiting an old project.

Sneak Peek

I couldn't wait but we'll have to talk later.

The Possibilities Are Endless

Because you always need friends.

Another polymer clay nose. The eyes are just plastic rounded disks I found next to the googly eyes. The trick to making these critters look right is shaping the head.

He has a nice bushy tail.

Polymer eyes and nose are not the easiest things to make. The challenge is making everything the right size for the face you're working on. Round headed pins are great but sometimes you need something bigger. Of course those googly eyes come in many shapes, sizes and even colors.

This is Elaine's kitty.

Badgers Make Me Think Of My Mom

What would ya call it, indoor outdoor carpet. I got a large piece of it for some kids project and it makes a great outdoorsy looking base.

It's cut into 2 1/2" x 3" rectangles for when I need it.

This is a project I started last year and never finished. I made a great head and stopped there. I knew I'd have to finish this one though because my mom feeds badgers in her yard in England and they are so darned cute!

It's the same process as with the chicks except you have color combinations you need to make. You have a bigger pom pom for the body and a smaller one for the head. I wrapped the white first, next the gray and lastly the black. I tied them all up together. Before trimming the pom pom you need to consider which way your colors go.

With these guys their legs go at the bottom and they'll need arms set under the head. This one I used little flat pearl buttons for the eyes. I painted a black center on each. His nose is a round glass button I set into his face backwards because I thought it looked like his nostrils. I used felt for his ears

This smaller one I used white round headed pins for his eyes. I cut the pins shorter and painted the centers black. His nose had been made last year when I was experimenting with polymer clay. I used a small, round, metal headed pin and molded a piece of black polymer into a triangle shape on the pin head. You can use a metal flat topped pin also. I used the small rounded end of another pin to form the nostrils. Guess what, a black round headed pin would have worked for the nose just as well!

Lastly is their tail ends which are pipe cleaners with a white yarn stripe in the middle.

What You Lookin At?

Another thing I love to do is make stuff out of pom poms. Giant ones, little ones, I think I taught the second graders how to make pom poms one year. I thought we'd start with a project that adults might enjoy. I made this chick with an attitude last year. Let's make more!

There are lots of appropriate yellow yarns out there. Regular, fuzzy or crinkly, doesn't matter. This stuff I have is really nice but kinda hard to cut.

First thing you'll want to do is cut yourself about 12" of yarn. If you're not sure that your yarn will hold up to being pulled tight you should use dental floss for this. Put this piece in between your fingers and push it out of the way. This piece holds everything together. Our first ball will be bigger so I'm using 3 fingers.

Start wrapping the yarn around those fingers until you have a good ball amount.

I notice I don't have a good picture here showing how I used that 12" piece. Let me try to explain. You can see the one end in the front of my hand and the other end is behind. Pull the end from behind, around the front, through your fingers and across the ball to meet the other. I hold these together and slip the whole thing off my hand. Make sure this piece is centered on the ball and tie firmly. If you have trouble with that let me know!

Now you have looped yarn, tied in the middle, forming a circle. Without cutting the piece holding it all together and using sharp scissors you want to cut all the loops straight out from the circle. It's hard to take a picture and use both hands crafting! The middle picture shows our rough ball. The last shows our body piece, oval shaped, with a point at the end.

Now we need a smaller round head. Just use 2 fingers for this.

One full pipe cleaner for the legs. At one end, starting with the back toe make one foot with 4 toes. Last side toe, come back to the middle. Wrap it around the middle once for stability and bring it straight up.

Bend it at the height you'd like your chick, go over about 1/2" and straight down to make the second foot. Bend at the height of your first foot and start a side toe. Next front, side and end in the back. Cut or bend off any extra.

Turn your body shape upside down. In the middle going across make an opening in the ball. Set your legs in there, pointy end is the back. Close the yarn over and turn it over. How does it look? If it's lookin good turn him back over and glue your legs in. Make sure to push the yarn over the 1/2" leg strip so you can't see it. Let him dry. It's winter, let him dry in front of the heater.

For his beak I made a 3/4" long triangle shape for the top that was connected to a 1/2" triangle shape for the bottom. That makes the pipe cleaner about 2 1/2" long. I pushed the triangle closed and opened it some. In the middle of the head, open the yarn and insert the beak with glue.

Black, round headed pins, cut short with pliers are perfect for the eyes. Again, open the yarn where you'd like the eyes. If you're anything like me you'll be poking around for a while. When you have them where you'd like them, a little glue in the hole will do the job. Now you can glue the head to the body.

I tell the second graders, when you glue paper be sparing with the glue, when you glue felt and pom poms don't be!

I'm sorry, that was a lot. It really is easy and fun though. I'll tell ya about what he's standing on later, I think I've talked enough.