This ornament is special to me because I didn't have make a special trip to the store for supplies to create it. I used whatever I had on hand. I was able to be creative and use supplies leftover from other projects. In this day and time, it's important to use what you have and recycle items instead of spending money on new things!

Materials Needed:

3-inch tall clay pot
acrylic paints - red, white, black, flesh (or peach)
pencil
black fine point permanent marker
medium & small paintbrushes
snow texture paint
white curly doll hair
small red pom pom
6-inch square of burlap or loosely woven fabric
scissors
small jingle bell
large jingle bell
22-inch length of jute string
10-inch length of 1/8-inch gold cording
hot glue gun and glue sticks

Directions:

Cover your work surface with newspaper. Using medium paintbrush and red acrylic paint, paint inside and outside of clay pot and allow to dry. When dry, turn pot upside down so that the bottom is the top of the head.

For face, use small brush and flesh paint to add a 1 1/2 inch x 1 1/2 inch oval on one side of clay pot about 1/2 inch below top of head. Let dry.

For hair and beard, apply snow texture paint above and below face, leaving about 1/4 inch oval unpainted below face for mouth. Allow to dry.

For facial features, use a pencil to draw two ovals for the eyes. Paint the ovals white and let dry. When dry, use black paint to create the iris of the eyes. Use a toothpick to dot a white center in each eye and a dot at each corner. Use a fine point marker to create eyelashes and to outline each entire eye. Mix red and white paint to create pink for the cheeks, and paint a half circle below each eye. For mouth, paint the 1/4-inch oval with red paint. Glue on the pom pom nose.

For the hair, cut 1-inch sections of curly hair and glue ends to top edge of head to hang down over snow-textured hair.

Thread one end of jute string through large bell and thread both ends of string through hole in top of pot (from the inside). Pull bell so that it can be seen just below bottom edge of pot. Knot string on top of pot to hold in place. Secure with glue if necessary. Tie ends of jute into a bow or knot and trim off any excess.

Cut burlap or fabric square into in half diagonally to form two triangles. Using needle and thread, stitch triangles together along the two short edges, allowing a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Turn hat right side out and push corner out (point of hat). Pull threads from unfinished edge to form fringe. Place hat on head and cut a small slit in hat to slip jute through just above hole in pot. Spot glue hat to hold in place.

Thread jingle bell onto gold cording and tie gold cording around end of hat. Press end of hat down and glue it down, if desired.

Hang on your tree!