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Let me introduce the Christmas Carolers. Now you decide exactly how many Carolers you want to have, as you will be the one making them. I try to make mine in groups of three (3). You can stand these Carolers around your Christmas Tree, by your door, or stand them outside by your steps or on your porch to greet visitors as they stop by.
Items Needed:
(1) bag of artificial hair ***
(3) 4x4 pieces of wood ***
Drill Gun
Hot Glue Gun with Glue sticks
Strong, Sturdy Wire ***
Old Hats ***
Sweater or Jacket ***
Scarves***
Gloves ***
Shoes (optional)
Permanent Markers
(Black, Blue, Green and Brown. You may use
wood paint if you are a talented artist.)
Paint
This will be the color of your Carolers.)
Sheet music ***
NOTE:
*** If you plan to make more than 3 Carolers, you will need extra wood.
*** You can buy extra bags of hair with different haircolors and styles if want your Carolers to have a variety of looks, but it is not necessary, as they will have hats on their heads.
*** Get sheet music with a Christmas Carol printed on it. If you have a computer, You can print some songs off. If you like, flip that paper over, Give your Carolers a name, and print their names on their copy Of sheet music.)
*** This wire will be used for the arms of the Carolers, and must be Strong enough to support the arms of a child's or small adults Sweater or jacket.
Directions:
1. Paint your Carolers and let them dry completely. About one day. I used a Cream Color and a Light Beige Color on mine.
2. After the paint has dried, stand your Carolers up.
3. If your Carolers do not stand up and tend to fall over, you may need to nail a holder to the bottom of Caroler to help support it. A holder is a flat board approximately cut
6x6. However, 4x4's usually stand up on their own, as long as the wood is not warped.
4. Once Carolers is standing, wrap sweater or jacket around it. You want the sweater or jackets to just brush the floor.
5. Using a pencil, mark on your Caroler where the top of the sweater begins, and mark on each side where the sleeves are. Be sure to be accurate, because this is where you will be drilling the holes for your Carolers arms.
6. Once you have marked off the sweater or jacket, put it down and get your drill gun.
7. On each side of the Caroler, drill a hole. Make sure holes are even on both sides.
8. Once holes have been drilled, pick up your wire and bend in half. Cut wire at the center.
9. Take first piece of wire and insert into one of the drilled holes.
10. Repeat with second piece of wire.
11. Take sweater or jacket, and slip onto the "arms" of the Caroler.
12. You may need to bend and adjust the wire accordingly, so that they sleeves
Stay up and in place.
13. Once the sweater or jacket is in position, be sure that it is buttoned and zipped.
14. Now take the scarf, and arrange attractively around Carolers neck, anyway you want to.
15. Take a look at your Caroler and measure how much space you have between the top of the sweater and the "Head" of your Caroler. This is important. This will determine
Exactly how long your Carolers hair will need to be, and exactly where the "face" of your Caroler will need to go.
16. Once you have an idea of exactly where you want to place your Carolers face, go ahead and draw it on using either markers or paint. Now you can make just solid round black eyes or you can draw an actual eye and give the iris a color, it does not matter. Be sure to draw a nose.
Now, on my Carolers, I didn't draw a mouth, simply because by the time I had my Caroler dressed in its sweater and scarf, the scarf was wrapped around the area where the mouth was supposed to go. This is how it is supposed to look. However, you can draw a mouth if you want to. If you do, you might want to make it a circle, so it will look like the Carolers mouth is open and they are singing.
17. Once you have the face drawn and colored in, it is time to place on the hair.
18. Cut the hair to the desired lengths that you want that particular Caroler to have. If you want them to have long curly hair, give it to them. However, you need to leave the hair long enough to cover up any extra space that might be showing. Such as the space between the top of the wood, down to where the eyes of your Caroler have been drawn.
We call this the forehead. Leave some bangs.
19. Once hair has been cut to desired lengths, use your hot glue gun and glue hair to head.
20. Once hair has been set, you can add as much as your like later if needed, place hat onto
The Carolers head.
21. Take gloves and place on the ends of the wire. Stick sleeves up under the gloves.
22. Take sheet music and hot glue gun and glue sheet music onto gloves in Carolers hand.
Congratulations, your Caroler is now complete.
** I suggest visiting the Thrift Stores or Yard Sales for items to dress your Carolers in, providing you have no old clothes of your own to use.
You can put shoes underneath the sweater or jacket, leaving the toes sticking out, however that is strictly up to you.
Add some more pizzazz to your Carolers. If some of them are girls, take some pompom and glue one to each side of their heads, just below their hats, for earrings. You can even go right about the scarf, for those of you who drew mouths on the Carolers, and glue a ring of pompoms around the neck for a necklace.
Find a pair of old glasses and place on one of them.
You can add anything you like to spice them up.
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