Rudolph Treat Cup

While making Frosty the snowman treat cups as Mia's teacher gifts, I came up with this idea for reindeer treat cups to fill with home-made goodies and give to Logan's Early On teachers. This is a great way to use some of the tin cans that are taking up so much space in our recycling area, and they look pretty cute, too, especially with his little hand prints for antlers. Note: If using a hot glue gun, which I recommend, keep out of reach of children. Otherwise, you can substitute tacky glue so that older kids can do this project themselves.


Materials:

• tin can
• brown paint
• paint brush
• newspaper
• something to hold paint
• pen
• scissors
• yellow felt (or craft foam)
• red felt
• 2 googly eyes
• red pom pom
• black dimensional paint (or marker)
• gold sequins
• hot glue gun (or tacky glue)

Directions:     

1. If using a hot glue gun, first plug it in to warm up.
2. Cover work surface with newspaper. Pour some brown paint onto a Styrofoam tray (or whatever you are using to hold paint), and coat the outside of a clean, dry tin can with paint. Tip: Foam paint brushes work well for this. Set can aside so paint can dry.
3. On yellow felt, trace both of your child's hand with pen. Cut out the hand prints. Tip: If you don't have felt on hand, you can substitute craft foam.
4. Decide which part of the can will be Rudolph's face. I suggest avoiding seams. Once paint is dry, use hot glue (or tacky glue if you prefer) to adhere on hand print on the each side of your can to make Rudolph's antlers.
5. Finish Rudolph's face by hot gluing two googly eyes onto the can. Below the eyes, glue on the red pop pom nose. Draw a mouth with black dimensional ("puffy") paint (or use a black marker).
6. Cut a strip of red felt long enough to fit around the tin can. I cut ours about 3/4" wide. Glue near the bottom to make harness. Lastly, glue gold sequins around the felt to look like jingle bells. Tip: To make it look more finished, be sure the overlap of the felt is at the back of the reindeer.
7. Make sure that all glue is dry before moving or filling your Rudolph treat cup. Give as a gift or use as a decoration.

P.S. Don't forget to check out my book review and giveaway for Green Grandma's Vinegar Fridays. Giveaway ends Wednesday, December 14, 2011, so you still have time! This book has many amazing tips for cleaning just about everything including pet messes and crayon marks from the walls. There is something for everyone, so be sure to like Green Grandma's Facebook page and let her know I sent you.