Craft It Yourself
Burrowing Bunny with Jute Carrots
To create the appearance of a bunny’s hindquarters, wrap a small foam ball with brown wool roving and glue on a cotton-ball tail and feet cut from colored paper or felt. Tuck the ball into a decorative pot (we painted a plain terra-cotta one with a pastel plaid pattern) filled with floral foam and a bit of ivy, arranging it so the feet hang over the edge.
For the carrots, start with either a polystyrene or floral foam cone or tapered vase filler. Use a plastic serrated knife or foam shaping tools to carve it into a carrot shape. Make a hole in the center of the carrot top for inserting faux greens. Apply a dot of hot glue at the tip of the carrot and lay the end of some orange jute rope in the glue. Start wrapping the rope tightly around the carrot shape, working upward until you reach the top, but do not cover the hole made for the greens. Trim excess jute rope and apply a dab of hot glue to hold the end in place. Select pieces from small bunches of greenery that have a feathery look and glue them into the hole on the carrot top. Cover any visible foam with orange craft paint. To see another cute carrot project using salvaged chair spindles, turn to page 4.
Egg Pocket Garland
Materials:
• Cotton gingham fabric in three colors
• Coordinating thread
• Sisal rope
• 3" letter stencils
• White acrylic craft paint
• Foam paint spouncer
• Fiberfill
• Raffia
• Pastel-colored paper (construction paper, card stock or scrapbook paper)
• Mini wood clothespins
• Scissors
• Sewing machine
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Instructions:
1. Determine the length of your garland and the words or phrase you wish to stencil on it. Allowing enough for all the letters you will need, plus blank pockets for each end and between words, cut two 5" x 7" rectangles for each pocket from gingham.
2. With wrong sides together, stitch around the bottom and two long sides of each set of rectangles, using a 1/2" seam allowance, to make pockets.
3. Slide a piece of cardboard inside each pocket to prevent paint from bleeding through and stencil with your desired letters using a spouncer and white craft paint. Let dry.
4. Lightly fill each pocket with fiberfill.
5. Run a line of hot glue along the inside back edge of each pocket and glue bits of raffia in place.
6. Create a simple egg shape to use as a template and cut eggs from pastel paper to insert into select pockets. Note: We opted for paper eggs because anything heavier will weigh down the pockets and cause the garland to droop.
7. Cut a length of sisal rope to suit your garland size and pocket spacing.
8. Clip the finished pockets to the rope with mini clothespins to finish the garland. H