The Sweet Little Nutcracker

I have always loved the Nutcracker. D#1 adored it when she was little. My parents took her to see it several times when she was little. This year I wanted to make something a little different than the usual felt/yarn ornaments. I used pipecleaners, felt and wooden beads. The would be an awesome craft for kids, no sewing involved everything is glued together. I respect that some of you out there do not sew. It can be a very scary & intimidating thing to pick up a needle and thread. When I sew I am usually prepared to stick myself. I can be fumble fingers all the time sometimes. I have even had to dislodge needles/pins from my foot using pliers (yow-sa!!) multiple times but don't let that discourage you from trying if you really want too. 

The first three characters are : The Mouse King, Nutcracker and Clara (or Marie).

Cut all pattern pieces out. I will show you how to assemble the pieces using the Clara (or Marie) as the example. 

1. Trim the pipecleaners. Bend pipecleaner in half, these are your legs. The bent area is the neck/shoulders. Wait to glue felt on.

Bend other pipecleaner to form a place to insert the head on. Make kind of a neck. You will cover this with embroidery floss. Do not glue head on yet.

Here is a break down of the parts of the pipecleaner body.

You will embroidery floss wrap the arms and neck of the Swan Lake princess, the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara, and the Snowflake Queen. The Mouse King and Nutcracker will have glued on felt arms or hands.

Glue the felt legs onto the girls' pipecleaners. Here is how to wrap the floss for the ballerina shoes.

Glue the shoes on. See how mine don't quite line up. That's ok, just trim. You might need to trim legs too.

 First we are going to learn how to make the:

Mouse King

1. Drill tiny hole in top of head if you want to add an eyehook to hang M King as an ornament. 

2.Paint head, varnish and then glue ears and crown on. You can glue scrapbook jewels onto crown if you like.

3. Form the body as described above, do not glue any felt or embroidery floss on. 

4. Cut all felt pieces out.

5. Glue pants onto pipecleaner legs.

6. Glue gray hands onto pipecleaner arms.

7. Glue shirt on. Embellish shirt to make the M King look kingly. I used braided ric rac and sequins. 

8. Glue fur trim to cape. 

9. Place cape on pipecleaner neck.

10. Glue mouse head onto neck.

Enjoy!!

Up next is the Nutcracker.

Nutcracker

Clara (Marie)

Mouse King

I used some fake fur that I had on hand and just trimmed it to 1/2" pile and about 1/2" strip.

If you have any questions about the Mouse King or how to assemble the generic pipecleaner body, please don't hesitate to ask.

Keep those crafty hands busy,

Holly