Penguin ornament inspiration

I heart Pier 1 with their trendy, beautiful decor. The pillows! The tableware! The furniture! For the holidays, it seems Pier 1 has erupted with penguins of all kinds: on stemware, on decorations and even ornaments. Knowing how much the Man-cub loves penguins, when I saw these oversized penguin ornaments, I thought they would be great to have. But $17 per penguin is more than I want to spend.

So (deep breath) I made my own.

I raided the craft store this weekend for penguin supplies and got to work. The penguin came together quickly, and the Man-cub was surprised by it.

I used a 7- 8-inch foam disk for the body, and traced around it for a pattern.



I know the Pier 1 penguins are probably made out of heavy cardboard, but this is the most available and easy-to-work-with thing I could find.

Then I took some awesome self-adhesive glittery craft foam sheets to make the penguin body. (Yes, it's true that I hate glitter, but primarily the loose kind that gets everywhere.) I folded my pattern in half to trace and cut a half-circle black body, and from that I cut a smaller white almost-half-circle.





Another half-circle of a different sheet of foam made the hat, and then I glued on a ribbon that I had.



More deep breaths to figure out what penguin feet and flippers look like:



Then they get glued in between the foam disk and the glitter foam. The Pier 1 penguin feet dangle from hooks, but I didn't think the hooks would stay in the foam disk.



Two black felt circles for eyes and a yellow triangle for the beak, and there on the counter, staring back at me, was an oversized penguin ornament.

I should have used more craft foam sheets for the feet, eyes and beak instead of felt. I don't know what I was thinking. But it's not like, you know, I am used to making penguins or anything.

The only thing left to do was to make a loop for hanging the penguin ornament. I used some covered wire I had in my gift-wrapping stash, and some glue.



When I was finished, I showed the penguin to the Junebug, who thought it needed a little something extra.



Overall, I like how the penguin ornament came out, and I'd like to make another one!



If you make this penguin, give yourself a self-high-five and enjoy a drink. I recommend V8 Fusion Strawberry Banana. If you're entertaining, add an equal part of amaretto and serve chilled. It's awesome.