Suie Roberts asked: 4 pairs of kids old wellies. Unless you are best friends with Snowhite and the seven dwarfs, I suggest that you look for wellies at your local car boot. You can pick up kids old wellingtons for around 20p to 75p. Don’t be afraid to haggle. Try to pick wellies that don’t have a raised image on the side, as this will show up on Rudolf later. I used wellies sized 10, 10, 7 and 3 (UK child sizes) Get what you can but try to get wellies of a similar size.
You will also need…
Thick card (the side of a grocery box is ideal) gold spray paint, string, newspaper, 2 glass stones, a red Christmas bauble, and Evo-Stick timebond adhesive or another glue which will stick rubber.
Firstly, give the wellies a good wash. Glue and paint wont stick properly with dirt in the way.
Arrange Rudolf’s legs.
Use the smallest pair of wellingtons for the forelegs. Stand the boots side by side and make two small holes in both boots on the inside leg part. The holes in the boots need to line up. Apply some glue to stick the boots together and thread some string through the holes to tie the boots together for extra support. Keep the threading and ting of string invisible by doing it on the inside of the boots. It is a bit of a fiddle, but is important.
Use a pair of sized 10 boots for the hind legs. Put the heels together and the toes apart, just wide enough to nestle the forelegs in between. Make holes ready for tying the boots together as you did before and glue the hind legs together at the heel and to the forelegs wherever they touch. Tie the boots securely with string invisibly on the inside.
Leave the welly structure to dry for 24 hours before continuing.
To make Rudolf’s back and tuffty tail, take a sized 10 boot and cut it down the back seam in a straight line. If you use a knife for this part, be very careful not to cut yourself. Cut a triangle wedge from the heel of the boot. This is to remove the stiff rubber that shapes the heel because it is too stiff to work with.
Stick Rudolf’s back onto his legs.
Open the split that you cut at the back of the boot and slot over the tops of the legs with the toe of the back boot pointing upwards. Bring the top edge of the back boot round to the front legs. Make small holes in these corner flaps and in the front wellies at the tops and stick the back boot into place and thread string into the holes that you made and tie securely. These knots will be on the outside of the structure but will be covered later.
The neck and lower head.
With the other sized 10 boot, cut the back seam of the boot again but this time only cut down to the top of the heal shaping. Turn the boot upside down and open the back split, slot the boot over the top of the front legs, with the shaping of the heel resting on Rudolf’s back. Glue into place and anchor with parcel tape to hold the position until the glue dries. You may find that it helps to leave Rudolf to dry for 24 hours on his size. Remove the tape once the glue is dry.
Rudolf’s head.
With a sized 7 welly cut down the front and back seams of the welly to the top of the heel and foot shaping. Cut ear shapes from the two flaps that you have just created.
Cut out two simple but chunky antlers from thick card. Do not put bends in the cardboard structure as you cut the antlers out. Make the antlers wider at the bottom, this help support the antlers later.
Push the antlers into the ‘head’ boot so that the base of the antler touches the sole of the boot. Scrunch up a sheet of newspaper and push it between the antlers to separate them and to wedge them in.
Make tow small cuts to form an ‘X’ in the toe of the boot and cut the flaps of the X away for make a circle ready to add the nose later.
Stick the top of Rudolf’s head to the rest of the structure and leave to dry.
Spray paint the reindeer gold. Read the back of the paint tin and follow the manufacture’s advice of how to use the spray paint. Give the reindeer a coupe of coats of paint and be sure to cover all the nooks and crannies.
When the paint is completely dry, pull the end off the Christmas bauble and stick it into place with the bauble stork pushed through the hole in Rudolf’s nose. Finally, stick two glass stones in place for Rudolf’s eyes.
Rudolf can be scaled up to make a garden decoration by using adult wellingtons. Put a brick or stones inside each of Rudolf’s feet to prevent him from falling over or blowing away in the wind.
Because the dimensions of adult’s boots are different to children’s boots, a large Rudolf’s back legs can be positioned in a similar fashion to the front legs.
Paint and use a small ball for the nose. Half and paint a Ping-Pong ball for his eyes and fashion antlers from Wire coat hangers and bind with tinsel.
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