(For the 24 weeks leading up to December 1st, we’ll be making a Christmas ornament, giving you enough to fill an advent calendar.)

For this week’s ornaments, we are playing with peg dolls again. I really love peg dolls, they are great blank slate for ornaments. This week I turned them into elves.

These guys are fun to make and you can add as much or little detail as you want to their outfits and faces. I was showing them to my husband and we both said the same thing, “I needed to make a Mr. Spock!” We are such geeks.

Peg Doll Elf Ornaments (plus a bonus Mr. Spock)

Supplies:

• peg doll
• acrylic paint in various colors (I used black, red, lime green, pink, gold and silver)
• pencil
• small paintbrush
• toothpicks
• varnish (optional)
• felt, small amounts (I used lime green, red and a tan that matches the peg doll)
• tacky glue
• hand sewing needle
• jump ring
• fussy white yarn (optional)
• thread to match tan felt
• 1/8″ ribbon in 6″ lengths for hanging

1. Paint the elves – For the boy, I painted the whole body lime green and then added a black belt and line to mark pant legs. For the girl, I painted the whole body red. On both I painted the bas black. For the faces, I drew them on with a pencil first and then used a toothpick to get the small dots and fine lines. Let dry.

(If you want to varnish your elves, paint on any other details like belt buckles and buttons. Since I wasn’t varnishing mine, I waited and did this later.)

2. Make hats – Cut a circle from felt, about 1″ around. (I used a twist top bottle cap as a template and it was the perfect size.) Cut off about 1/3 of the circle. Fold the remaining 2/3 into a cone and glue together. Let dry.

Use a needle to make a small hole through the top of the hat from front to back. Open the jump ring and insert it through the hole. Close the jump ring.

Glue the hat onto the elf head.

If you want fur on the edge of the hat, glue a piece of white yarn around the bottom. (For the first one I did this before glueing the hat on, it was actually much easier to do after the hat was on the doll.)

3. Make ears – Cut two small tear drops from the tan felt, about 1/2″ long, for each elf.

Fold in half and with the matching thread sew the bottom of the ear (the non-pointed part) together with a few small stitches.

Glue the ears to either side of the head. I held them close the the head for a little bit to make them stay tight.

4. Make feet – Cut an oval of black felt where one end fits the bottom of a peg doll and the whole thing is about 1/4″ longer then the base. Cut like the picture below.

Glue to the bottom of the doll and curl up the toes. (You can glue the tips to the body if you wish.)

5. Add any other details you want like fur trim, which I made from fuzzy white yarn.

6. Put a length of ribbon through the jump ring. Tie into a loop.

Bonus Mr Spock!

To make a Mr. Spock ornament, paint the dolls body royal blue on top and black on the bottom. Add pointed eyebrows to the face and black hair with straight bangs. Use silver paint to make a little upside down “v” on the shirt. I made the ears a little smaller than the elves, about 3/8″ long. To hang, insert a small eye screw into the top of the head.