I say it every year

I say it every year…”I wish I had started earlier!” or “Next year I’m going to start earlier on Christmas!”

Well, this year I actually did it! Hooray for me!

I am a sucker for Christmas craft books! Just look at that cover! The bright green just grabs you doesn’t it?

This little gem from 2005 is chock full of great ideas.

One of the projects involved recycling a Pringles can. I like those something-for-nothing kind of projects.

I’ve spray painted Pringles cans before and filled them with goodies. That was easy enough. This project was a bit more involved and not just because I made 20 of them!

Aren’t they cute? Now, let me say this…the book is from 2005. Apparently the Pringles company changed the size of the can sometime between 2005 and 2012. This little template didn’t quite fit the can. I improvised and put a label on the bottom–as if he is standing on something.

Naturally, you could make these any color you wanted. I made these for the folks at my husband’s work. Blue is the company color, so I went with that. I did toy with the idea of making them all different. Glad I came to my senses!

During the Olympic this past summer, as I watched track and field or swimming, I mindlessly cut out mustaches and eyebrows, etc.

I knew I would never get twenty nutcrackers done for Christmas if I waited until the last minute–like I usually do.

Putting the nutcrackers together was fairly easy. Well, mostly. The faces weren’t too bad. I put some of them together during craft days with my friend Joanna, so the time passed quickly.

When I first got started on covering the cans, I used a large sheet of scrapbook paper. I didn’t like the way it looked. I was able to find some cheap red wrapping paper and thought I had hit a home run. When I wrapped the can with the paper, it was too thin. The words showed through. So, I had to double the paper. When I was down to 2 cans left to go, I ran out of paper. Fortunately, Walmart still had some in stock.

When it came time to actually adhere the nutcracker pieces to the paper-covered can, I was nervous! I tried strapping everything to the can with rubber bands. It seemed like it was a good way to keep everything in the right place and glue a piece at a time. It wasn’t. Besides that it squished the face a little. (Sidenote-The rosy cheeks are made by using a cotton swab and some pink chalk.)

These are the arms. I just rolled the rectangle on a pen to get the curve.

Then I just glued the arms on the sides. I used Tacky Glue for the whole project, except for the can. I used double-stick tape there.

The little jacket and belt were a little tricky to line up just right. If I make these again, HAHAHAHAHAHA, I would probably cut the jacket as one whole piece.

Lookin’ pretty cute, huh? I had a hard time finding just the right sized beads for the hands. I thought about just leaving them off completely. Then I found these.

They were perfect! I didn’t even paint them. I just squirted some glue up the nutcracker’s cuff and shoved in the little wooden ball.

The hats turned out really cute.

Here is a little video of how I made them. Aren’t you impressed at how “hi-tech” I am-ha!

Actually quite the dork! I had the camera strapped to my neck with a headband!

FYI-I did not poke myself with that corsage pin.

Of course there had to be something tasty inside these cute little canisters, and it HAD to be nutty! I thought about making sugared pecans or something like that. Since I was making 20 of these things, that seemed a little expensive. I came across a great recipe for caramel corn that you make in the microwave! It turned out great! The hardest part was finding a grocery store that still uses paper bags!

You can make your nutcrackers as simple or as fancy as you like. Glitter and trim are fun! I wish I had had time to put a little red glitter on there.

I realize you won’t have the Olympics to watch this summer, but if you are like me and “say it every year” you might want hit the Red Box and get started soon!