Santa's Head Christmas Ornament

Use STYROFOAM™ Brand Foam and craft paint to style and decorate a cool blue Santa ornament for the tree. Try using different patterned papers for the hats and mix it up with different kinds of yarn or doll hair for the beards.

Materials:

• STYROFOAM Brand Foam:
  • 2" ball
• Spackling compound
• Acrylic craft paints: flesh, rose
• Paintbrushes: liner; small round; medium flat; old scruffy
• Wood pieces: 1/4" beads, two; 1/4" round head plug, one
• Black ball head quilting pins, two
• White doll hair, curly or straight, your choice
• Blue solid or holiday patterned paper, 8-1/2" x 11" sheet
• White felt, 7" x 1/2" strip
• 1/2" white pom pom
• Gold wire, 4"
• Satin ribbon: 1/8" white; 1" blue, 10" each
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Craft knife
• Scissors
• Straight pins
• Wire cutters
• Needlenose pliers
• Low-temp glue gun and glue sticks
• Fine-grit sandpaper
• Disposable palette
• Paper towels
• 1/4" double-sided tape
• Pattern

Instructions:

1. Glue wood beads onto foam ball approximately 1" apart; press beads into foam, forming Santa's cheeks. Let dry.
    
2. Using scruffy brush, cover face area with spackling compound, including cheeks. Working quickly, press wood plug into face, centered between cheeks, forming nose (see photo). Let dry; lightly sand until smooth.
    
3. Paint face and nose flesh. Let dry. Drybrush cheeks with rose paint to blush; let dry. Using a craft knife, score a tiny mouth in spackle below nose.
    
4. Press two black ball head quilting pins into foam close together above nose for eyes.
    
5. Cut 2" lengths of doll hair. Glue hair to cover sides, back and bottom of ball. Cut a short length of doll hair and glue horizontally above mouth for mustache. Allow glue to dry.
    
6. Use liner brush to paint mouth rose, being careful to avoid Santa's hair.
    
7. Using pattern, cut hat from blue paper. Overlap straight edges to form cone hat and secure with doubled-sided tape. Glue hat to Santa's head, using straight pins to secure temporarily until glue dries.
    
8. Glue white felt strip around base of hat for fur trim, overlapping ends at center back.
    
9. Carefully cut tip off hat. Fold white ribbon in half and glue ends inside hole to form loop hanger. Glue white pom pom to tip of hat between ribbon ends (see photo). Let dry.
    
10. Form Santa's spectacles by wrapping center portion of wire around paintbrush handle to form two lenses, allowing a small space between loops for nose bridge (see photo). Check fit and make any necessary adjustments. Bend ends to form earpieces. Squeeze a dot of glue on ends of earpieces and then place spectacles on face, inserting ends into foam.
     
11. Tie blue ribbon in a bow and pin to bottom of ball, peeking out from under beard.