Dryer Vent Turkey

While I was putting away the dryer vent pumpkins I made (tutorial here), I kept looking at how fat they were and thought one would make a terrific turkey centrepiece.

Here in Canada, even though we eat turkey for Thanskgiving, it's not really a focus for decorating.  More pumpkins, leaves, and corn. But I was convinced that that pumpkin looked like a turkey. So I bought some brown, orange, and yellow cardstock for the feathers and head.  I just free-handed a feather pattern and cut the shapes out in the brown paper. 

I then made the template smaller and cut more feathers out of orange.  Repeat for yellow. They aren't perfect (have you ever seen a turkey with perfect symmetry?) but if you had a Cricut or Silhouette you could do a much neater job. 

I glued the three different feathers to each other and then glued all six tri-coloured feathers together in a fan shape. I cut the head shape from orange paper (free-hand of course) and pinched the neck together a bit at the bottom to make it more 3-D. The beak is yellow cardstock just glued on. 

I drew some eyes (on the back of a paint chip) and glued that on too. I even added a red snood for authenticity. Sorry, I didn't take pictures of any of that.

I removed the cinnamon stick and moss from the pumpkin and hot glued the head and tail to the front and back. This was a little difficult as the pumpkin has wire ribs so there isn't much to glue to. 

Finally, I added some little feet at the end. 

And here's my chubby ol' turkey. 

The freehand shapes give him a homemade feel. Or emphasizes that I have the artistic skills of a third grader. I prefer the former.

I tried him out all over the house but he seemed happiest laying in the leaves and acorns.

Gobble, gobble!

~~~~~~

I'm linking up to these great parties this week!

Gumball Machine Candy Holder

Here is another project I stumbled across on Pinterest and had to try. 

All you need is a flower pot and saucer, a wooden ball (flat bottomed),

a glass bowl, and paint & ribbon.

I started by glueing the wooden ball in the center of the bottom of the saucer. 

I used E6000 glue. This was my first time using it and it's so great!

So many people rave about it and now I know what they're talking about. 

It's really strong and dries so much faster than Gorilla Glue. 

I painted the saucer and flower pot with two coats

of black acrylic paint from the dollar store. 

It looked a bit chalky so when it was dry I sprayed the pieces 

with a couple of coats of clear gloss sealer.

You have to be careful here not to spray it on too thick or it will run.

After everything had dried completely 

I glued the glass bowl to the bottom of the flower pot.

I then tied a burgundy ribbon around the base and that's it!

But then I ran into a problem.  No candy in the house. 

Not a bit.

So now what? 

Do I fill it with granola bars? Almonds? Dog Biscuits?

I settled on mini marshmallows.

I like the pop of colour against the solid black. 

This project was so easy and inexpensive. 

And the ribbon (or even the paint colour) can be changed

to give it a completely different look.

One last shot of the marshmallows. 

They make me smile.

~~~~~~~~~

I'm linking to these great parties this week!

Pinecone Map Ornament

Some super famous and super awesome blogger ladies had a Pinterest challenge last week.  Admit it - we pin photos to our Pinterest boards all the time, but how often do we get around to making anything we pin? See what Sherry, Katie, Ana, and Erin came up with.  Such talent.

I was a little slow to get anything ready for the challenge, but there was one Pinterest photo that Sherry posted that caught my eye. 

My version:

My "pinspiration":

source

Cute, right?

I'm always on the lookout for interesting Christmas ornaments.  And every time we're on vacation I have to pick one up.  So why not combine my two loves - ornaments and vacation? 

I decided to use maps of Hawaii as it is my absolute favourite place to be. I would go there every year  if I could.

I followed along with the tutorial on the source site and it was pretty easy.  Cutting out the leaves was the most time consuming. But actually putting it together took less than an hour.  Only one episode of True Blood.  (I'm only halfway through season 4 so don't tell me anything.) And I didn't have to go out and buy anything so it was essentially free.

You start with a styrofoam ball - you can buy them in multipacks from the dollar store. I think an egg shape would be cute too.  Using scissors, poke a hole in the top.  Cut a length of ribbon, fold it into a loop, and tie the ends in a knot.  Put a blob of glue into the hole and push the knot of ribbon in firmly.

I found a leaf shape online to use as a template and cut out leaves from my "Oahu Revealed" guide book. I cut out dozens of leaves, just randomly choosing areas on the maps that gave a good mix of land and water.  I also made sure to include some favourite spots we've visited. Don't worry, I'm not one to cut up important books, I have another copy.  As an aside: if you're going to Hawaii for the first time, the "Revealed" series of books are excellent.  Plenty of maps, detailed directions, and fun snippets of history. 

Glue the first leaf to the bottom of the ball to give complete coverage.  Mine didn't lay as flat as in the tutorial but it wasn't that bad and wasn't really going to be seen anyway.

Start gluing the top edge of each leaf onto the ball, starting at the bottom, and making sure that there aren't any gaps.  Give each leaf a slight upward curl with the scissors before attaching. Work your way up the ball making sure that the leaves go right to the ribbon. 

I glued a row of tiny foam beads around the ribbon to finish it off.

What do you think? 

I love it. 

And I love that every time I look at it I'm reminded of the most beautiful place on earth.

~~~~~~~~~

I'm joining these great link parties this week!