Christmas is a time for a bit of magic, whimsy and a stocking full of creativity! We’re kicking off our Christmas 2014 crafting season with visions of sugarplums dancing in the head – of a FloraCraft® Foam Head! A foam head is magically transformed into a Candy Cane Girl, perfect to top a small tree! Create a fantastical Christmas Candy Cane Girl or Boy to bring some holiday magic to the room of your little one, or to welcome holiday guests. It’s sure to be a conversation piece! Don’t have a small tree? I have an idea to build your own!
FloralCraft provided me with these supplies for our project – FloraCraft® Foam Heads, both male & female FloraCraft Design It:® SimpleStyle® Jute Twine and FloraCraft Design It:® SimpleStyle Dyed Burlap in red, pink and blue. The foam head has a hole in the bottom, making it perfect for a tree topper! Other supplies I used were acrylic gesso, Americana acrylic paint in flesh tone, chalks, colored pencils & eye shadow, plastic candy canes, low-temp glue and glue gun, an inexpensive knit hat, ornaments, oh and yes, false eyelashes! I simply cannot tell you just how much fun my family had with this whole project and more on in a bit!
I’m using the female Styrofoam head today. First, I gave it a light sanding with very fine sandpaper. Yes, I had to come to terms with the fact that she would NOT have a perfect complexion! I gave her two coats of white, acrylic gesso and two coats of acrylic paint in flesh tone. Now, the fun begins and let your imagination run wild! I gathered up a combination of chalks, eye shadow and colored pencils to apply her “make-up,” keeping the colors soft. Since the lips are on the small side, I drew them in fuller with colored pencils and chalk. Penciled and chalked eyebrows and for the final touch, false eyelashes! She looks pretty, doesn’t she?
A magical Christmas creature is so NOT going to have regular hair like us – she’s going to have candy cane curls! Originally, I planned to use real candy canes. Lesson learned – don’t unwrap candy canes and pile them on a plate a week before you plan to use them! Can we say stuck, break and a mess? I changed directions and found packages of pretty, plastic candy canes at Michaels that are almost the same size as the real thing – and they’ll last forever! Our candy cane girl will be wearing a knit cap, so she only needs her “curls” below the bottom of her cap. I marked an line around her head approximately where the candy cane hair should be and attached the candy canes to the Styrofoam head with low-temp hot glue. Make sure to put the hot glue on the cane and not directly on the foam! Here’s how the candy hair looks at this point!
Every girl needs her accessories! For earrings, I threaded sparkly candy ornaments onto thin wire and glued the wire to each side of her head. A rhinestone at the corner of each eye adds some extra special Christmas sparkle!
An inexpensive, knit cap got prettied up with rosettes of the burlap ribbon, a touch of faux greenery and few faux berries.
A big swath of red ribbon is both a scarf and a cape, fastened with a shiny red Christmas ornament! Make a candy cane boy with flat peppermints, black licorice or coils of chenille stems for the hair and add a newsboy or knit cap!
Of course, I wanted to finish Miss Candy Cane Girl to inspire you! I have some 34” paper Mache cones that I bought for a project a long time ago and decided to turn on into the tree “body.” I wrapped the entire cone in faux evergreen garland and added a string of white Christmas lights. An extra piece of garland was wired to the back to be “arms,” ending with a pair of knit gloves to serve as hands. I lightly stuffed the gloves with fiberfill….they still need a little work! The tree was decked with fun, candy-themed ornaments and she got a skirt ruffle of burlap and faux snow. Candy Cane girl’s head goes on top and her scarf is draped down the front of the tree. I think the trees at the North Pole look just like this! ?
FloraCraft® Foam Heads are available at Jo-Ann Stores and Michaels – pick up at least one and make your own fantastical Christmas creation! My family has more fun stories from this project! My daughter coming home late one night to be spooked by a box of foam heads. eerily glowing in a sliver of light from a small lamp. Mr. Smarty Pants having fun delivering this message to callers on the phone, “No, Cindy can’t come to the phone, she’s creating a person right now.” Yes, I’m still returning calls explaining THAT one! ? The whole family has ideas for what to do with the rest of our heads next year and I can’t wait!
FloraCraft® provided product and compensation for this project – though we received more fun, laughs and creative joy than we can count! You all know how much I love crafting with foam – you can find tons of inspiration at Make It: Fun Crafts! to merrily craft your way right to December 25th – and into the new year!
Inquiring Christmas mind here HAS to know – what magical way would you decorate a FloraCraft® Foam Head?
Sharing at these parties!
Whimsy Wednesdays at The NY Melrose Family
She’s a “sweetie”, Cindy. What a fun and creative idea! Thank you!
holy cow i LOVE the creativity Cindy! now i only wish i had curls as sweet as hers. not to mention the eyelashes LOL ?