Craft Stick Turkey Greeter

This project is easy to make and uses minimal supplies. Poke the turkey's stick into an upside-down paper cup or hang on the edge of a flower pot.

What you'll need:

• 10 jumbo craft sticks
• 2 medium wiggle eyes
• Miniature craft stick
• Small scrap of paper
• Sharpie marker
• Felt (white, black, goldenrod, and red)
• Acrylic paint (brown, orange, yellow, and red)
• Scissors
• Hot glue or white craft glue

How to make it:

1. Paint the jumbo craft sticks: four brown, two yellow, two red and one orange. Leave one unpainted.
2. Cut one-half an egg shape (body) from the goldenrod felt, approximately 2 1/2 x 3 inches.
3. Cut a small elongated triangle from the goldenrod felt for the beak.
4. From red felt, cut an elongated heart shape, about one-inch long.
5. From black felt, cut a simple top hat and a small rectangle for the buckle.
6. From the white felt, cut a small rectangle for the buckle a little bit larger than the black one.
7. Lay the plain jumbo craft stick on the table. This will be your base stick.
8. Starting from the right, glue craft sticks into a fan shape, stacking one on top of the other as you go. Our pattern goes brown, yellow, red, brown, yellow, red, orange, brown.
9. You should have one brown craft stick left over. This is your turkey's body. Glue it straight up and down onto the middle of the fan shape.
10. Glue goldenrod body in place. Next, glue the gobbler (red heart) just above the top of the body.
11. Glue the beak in place just above the gobbler.
12. Glue wiggle eyes above the beak.
13. Glue hat onto top of head, then glue white rectangle on hat and black rectangle onto the white one, creating the buckle.
14. Write "Happy Thanksgiving" on a small piece of paper or construction paper. Glue to miniature craft stick, then glue craft stick to body.
15. Allow to dry completely.

Tips:

• If this is a class project, break it into steps. Paint one day, cut another, glue the next.
• Some craft stores carry packages of colored craft sticks.
• Put a fairly heavy rock in the center of a paper plate. Glue an upside down paper cup to over the top of the rock. When dry, insert the craft stick into the top of the cup for a fun Turkey Greeter holder.
• Alternatively, you can use construction paper for the feathers so that your turkey lays flat. Use the "sign" for each guest's name and use as place holders for dinner!