Craft tutorial: faux taxidermy

I apologize to Santa for killing Rudolph.
Does it help if I say this is just a stuffed version…not the real thing?
This Rudolph the Reindeer mount is adorable.
Just make sure your kids know he’s only fabric.

Here’s a picture play by play.
Wordless.
Because I’m tired of talking.

(any sort of jar cover that fits into his neck will work.)

(I hot glued that into the back. It’s at an angle so that the head sits on the board properly)

(this wooden plaque I picked up at Walmart for $1. You need one that fits the size of the stuffed animal you are using)

(a bit of glitter was added to his antlers)

(hot glue in mass amounts is used on the back of that tin cover.)

(hot glue is used to pull the fur down and around the cover.)

(I used a bit of the fur from the arms to help make his neck look good)

Okay, so I did add a few words. But, I did pretty good, didn’t I.

Reindeer is proudly sitting above our kissing chair.
Yes, a kissing chair…

It works soo much better then a timeout chair.
If a kid is sitting there they are available for kisses.
Levi is extra diligent to NOT get sent to the kissing chair.
Gosh, I don’t know why the 9 year old boy doesn’t like it .

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Okay, story time.
Once upon a time this momma had a little boy and a teen girl. They were having a fighting kind of day. The kind to drive a mom nuts. Now, this mom doesn’t allow fighting in her house. Spats, yes. Disagreements, yes. But…not the full-on fighting. Oh no! Not happening!
So, the dilemma…what to do?
I could punish them individually. But, that might breed more resentment. And sounded less then practical.
And, technically…the older should get punished worse then the younger. Right?

Solution: send them to the naughty step until they hugged each other for 5 minutes straight.
Oh yes I did!
And, they did sit there for a long time. Until they realized I was perfectly content going about my day with them sitting there.

The best part…hugging for 5 minutes cannot be done without giggling and a mutual agreement that mom’s punishments are dumb!
Yay…agreement! Even if I threw myself under the bus
Moral of the story? A kissing chair would have been so much more effective!

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Oh…another quick view of our cute Rudolph.
And a tip…this cute project would work great as a non-Christmas craft with any type of stuffed animal.
Dinosaurs, Rhino’s…even a duck. They would all be cute!

To see what happens when my kids burp at the table head over to Manners Matter!