Fun Decorations For the Thanksgiving Holiday

Ready
for a fun craft project that both you and your kids can do for
Thanksgiving? In order to do this project, called “Cardboard Tube
Pilgrims & Indians”, you will be reusing/recycling in a sense.
You will need one of those cardboard tubes from paper towels that get
thrown out to the trash. You will also need scrap felt, pom poms,
feathers, etc. that usually get trashed after a lot of craft projects
are done. Other items, such as a black felt pen, white craft glue,
paint, etc. can be acquired from other people who are going to get
rid of them if you do not have any on hand. You aren’t being hard on
the environment when using these items as long as you are using them
in order to get rid of them. It doesn’t make sense to throw things
away when they haven’t already been used, because that is a lot worse
than using them and then throwing away the empty containers, etc.
This craft project is by Amanda Formaro.

You
will need:
1
paper towel roll cardboard tube
2 small feathers
2 pink
miniature pom poms
1 brown miniature pom poms
13-15 yellow
miniature pom poms
3 red small pom poms
acrylic
paint:
brown, flesh, light brown, white, black and pink
black fine tip
marker
felt: tan, brown, gray, white, black, orange, peach, and
green
scissors
hot glue gun
white craft
glue
paintbrush
patterns

What
you do:
First,
cut the paper towel roll into three sections, one for each character.

Pilgrim
Man:
Paint the
top 1/3 of the cardboard tube with flesh colored paint. Use brown
paint to add on hair
around the back and sides of face. Leave enough room to add facial
features later. Let dry before continuing.

Roll up tube in a
piece of brown felt. Trim felt to the height of the roll and be sure
you have enough to wrap all the way around it as well, overlapping
slightly.

Cut the felt strip about 2/3 of the way up for the
pilgrim’s clothes, leaving the remainder for his hat. Glue the larger
brown piece of felt around the tube for his clothes and the smaller
section around the top for his hat. Glue seams in the back.

Cut
out hat brim from brown felt and hat band from black felt using the
patterns. Cut out the buckles
from black and white felt according to the pattern. Glue the hand
brim around the bottom of the hat and the black band above the brim.
Glue the buckle (white first, then black) onto the front of the hat
on the band.

Cut out the pilgrim’s collar from the white felt
using the pattern. Glue around the neckline on top of the brown felt.

Cut out pumpkin and stem from orange and green felt, glue to
the front of the pilgrim’s body. Cut out 2 hands from peach felt and
glue to the front, overlapping the sides of the pumpkin.

Use
the handle end of a paint brush dipped in white paint to dot on eyes.
Do not add black until white is dry. Use a scruffy paint brush or a
roughed up cotton swab to add cheeks using pink paint. Be sure to dab
off excess pink paint before applying cheeks (dry application). Glue
a miniature pink pom pom on for the nose and use fine tip black
marker to add the mouth and eyebrows. Dot on blacks of the eyes.

Pilgrim Woman:
Paint
the top 1/3 of the cardboard tube with flesh colored paint. Use light
brown paint to add on hair around the back and sides of face. Leave
enough room to add facial features later. Let dry before continuing.

Roll up tube in a piece of gray felt. Trim felt to 2/3 the
height of the roll and be sure you have enough to wrap all the way
around it as well, overlapping slightly.

Glue the gray felt
around the tube for her clothes, seam should be in the back.

Cut
out the pilgrim woman’s collar from the white felt using the pattern.
Glue around the neckline on top of the gray felt.

Cut a piece
of white felt wide enough to cover the top of the tube and hang down
about 1″ in the back. The shape will resemble a semi-circle,
adjust and trim as needed to make her bonnet.

Cut out basket
from tan felt and 2 hands from peach felt using pattern. Glue basket
to the front of the pilgrim woman and glue hands on, overlapping the
sides of the basket. Glue 3 small red pom poms to the top of basket
for apples.

Use the handle end of a paint brush dipped in
white paint to dot on eyes. Do not add black until white is dry. Use
a scruffy paint brush or a roughed up cotton swab to add cheeks using
pink paint. Be sure to dab off excess pink paint before applying
cheeks (dry application). Glue a miniature pink pom pom on for the
nose and use fine tip black marker to add the mouth, eyebrows and
eyelashes. Dot on
blacks of the eyes.

Indian:
Paint
the top 1/3 of the cardboard tube with brown paint.

Roll up
tube in a piece of tan felt. Trim felt to 2/3 the height of the roll
and be sure you have enough to wrap all the way around it as well,
overlapping slightly. From the remainder of the felt, cut out a thin
strip of tan to use as the headband,
set aside for a later step.

Glue the tan felt around the tube
for his clothes, seam should be in the back.

Cut a piece of
black felt wide enough to cover the top of the tube and long enough
to reach the bottom of both sides of the tube. Use hot glue to attach
the hair to the top of the tube. Dot a bit of glue at the tops of the
sides as well, but not all the way down, just to hold it in place.
Cut the hair on both sides into three pieces and braid together. Hot
glue the braided ends and glue to the side of the tube.

Glue
two feathers to the side of the head, then wrap headband around the
head, seam in the back and glue in place.

Cut out the corn
husk and leaf from green felt and 2 hands from brown felt using the
pattern. Glue the large green husk to the front of the Indian. Glue
on two rows of miniature yellow pom poms for the corn kernels, then
glue the green leaf at the bottom of the kernels, overlapping them
slightly. Glue the hands on, overlapping the corn.

Use the
handle end of a paint brush dipped in white paint to dot on eyes. Do
not add black until white is dry. Use a scruffy paint brush or a
roughed up cotton swab to add cheeks using pink paint. Be sure to dab
off excess pink paint before applying cheeks (dry application). Glue
a miniature brown pom pom on for the nose and use fine tip black
marker to add the mouth and eyebrows. Dot on blacks of the eyes.

jennl | My Bio & Articles

Jennifer is a freelance writer, and has written for various health and environmental blogs, which includes running her own green living blog. Currently she is studying to become a C++ Programmer.