The Adventures of Mr. No: Christmas Craft #2: Clothespin Santa Ornaments

Last year we made the Elves and Santa clothespin crafts for gifts. We also attempted to make glass ornament balls that were "painted" inside with glitter and paint which did not work out well at all. Mr. No loves his crafts so we do handmade ornaments every year. The tree in his room is covered with Popsicle stick reindeer and snowmen, hand painted clay ornaments from when he was a baby and these clothespin ornaments. This was one that I came up with from looking at a few different Santa ornaments that weren't quite what we wanted.

For this craft, you need a hot glue gun or an amazing amount of patience. Again, Mr. No had just turned 5 days before we did these so I would say 4 years old with a good amount of help or 5+ for this craft. The purpose of our crafts is fun and working together so Mr. No does not do all of the work. Just most of it.

Materials needed for 8 Santas:

8 Clothespins: we used the ones without the hinge
Red craft felt: 1 craft square should be enough
Red, black, gold and peach/flesh color paint
White craft foam
8 tiny red pompoms for noses
8 sparkly white pompoms for hats
16 tiny googly eyes
8 medium size pompoms (any color)
White ribbon (for hanging)
White glue
hot glue gun

First step is, of course, to paint the clothespins. I cut out the mustaches while Mr. No was painting. Basically with kids paint or even the cheaper craft paint, when we finished the last one, the first one was dry enough for the next step. We started with peach or flesh for the faces and red along the body. We let them dry a minute and then painted our black boots and belts. Finishing touch was a dab of gold paint in the middle of the belt for the buckle. Here is Mr. No's wonderful paint job!

Next we started gluing the face together. We found that the easiest way to position everything right was to work our way up. We started with gluing on the mustaches and then glued a pompom nose right in the little dip. I found that it works best to put the littler pieces, noses and eyes, in shallow lids or trays. They don't tip and are easy for little fingers to grab.

Next step was to glue on the little eyes. Mr. No used tweezers for those. He was getting annoyed at the glue on his fingers making it hard to position the eyes.

This was pretty much the end of Mr. No's part of this project. Depending on the age of the child, the next step will be the adult's part of the craft. Here are our hatless Santas.

I did this step with craft glue but a hot glue gun is a much better and less aggravating choice. I glued the medium sized pompom to the top of the heads. While they were drying, I cut out the santa hats. I don't have any pictures of these steps, not sure why. This is the shape you want to cut out. Triangle with a curved bottom. I made them a bit over-sized but that was my preference. I think they look cute with the larger hat rather than one that fits around perfectly. The photo below the drawing shows 1 with a snug hat and the rest with over-sized hats so they can be compared.

The pompoms help hold the hat upright and make it easier to glue on. Mr. No and I just wrapped the hat around and glued in the back. Regular glue may take 2 or 3 applications to stick. Hot glue is the way to go, especially for the pompom on top. Once the hat was dry, I glued that tricky little pompom to the top. This was aggravating part. I really need that hot glue gun. The hats could also be made the same way as the elf hats instead but they are so much cuter with the felt.

We finished up by gluing our ribbon to the back of the clothespin. If you aren't using hot glue, cut a small rectangle of felt and glue it over the ends of the ribbon to help keep it in place. Here is our finished ornament on Mr. No's tree. He's so cute! And everyone loved the Santas!